“Improving the Attendance of Students through the School and Barangay Officials

Partnership”

An Action Research Paper of Mararag National High School

Presented to
The Department of Education
CARAGA Administrative Region
Division of Surigao del Sur
Marihatag District II

POLINAR, MARY GRACE A.

CANONIGO, CHARITY P.

Researchers
 ABSTRACT

Skipping Classes, cutting classes and absenteeism among public junior and senior high

school students are the most common issues that teachers and parents are battling

today. Many factors may cause these concerning behaviour of the students to

commence. In the case of Grade 11 – Newton students of Mararag National High

School, an action research was conducted to emphasize that one of the factors that

these students would rather be absent and or skip their classes in the afternoon than

focus to their education was due to the sport basketball. Since the school has no

basketball court, students opted to play in the barangay hall during lunch break. It the

game intensifies, they would decide not to go to afternoon classes. Hence, Mararag

National High School in partnership with the barangay officials, a stakeholder, worked

together to minimize the addressed problem through an intervention in which an

assigned personnel closely monitored the barangay gymnasium and its surroundings

and strictly prohibited students to loiter around and play basketball during classes

hours. It was found that the hypothesis of the study is significant and supported the

predicted direction.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researchers would like to give acknowledgement and gratitude to everyone

who gave support and contributed for the success of this study.

First and foremost to God Almighty who is the creator of heaven and earth,

owner of our lives, for giving them wisdom and strength in completing this task. For the

protection, good health and joy despite the hardships they faced throughout the journey.

To the barangay officials of Mararag, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur, for their full

cooperation and support that gave way to the success of this study. Without them this

paper would be impossible.

To their Assistant School Head, Sir Eduard C. Quezada, for being supportive,

words were not enough to show their gratitude for the guidance and encouragement.

To their co-teachers of Mararag National High School, for being their constant

encourager and for imparting valuable insights which helped in the success of this

study.

And lastly but mostly, to their families, for being their source of strength and

happy pill which sustained them in their entire journey of their profession and the

hardships faced in conducting this study; For moral support, love and understanding.

Without them all the success of this would be impossible.

 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

I. Research Context

Mararag National High school of Marihatag Surigao del Sur has long been struggling

of the most common yet a major and continuous problem in all public schools

throughout the country which is absenteeism and or skipping classes. Many external

factors may cause this behaviour of the students to commence. Administrators and

teachers of Mararag National High School have been challenged to develop intervention

with its main goal to significantly deplete and if possible eradicate the said

circumstance. An intervention was proposed and agreed by the body during one of the

teachers’ meeting with the content of addressing the most observed external factor

causing this behaviour and hence tapping an external stakeholder, the Barangay

officials, in sharing together the responsibility of overcoming this challenge.

Researchers of this study conducted an action research in which putting the intervention

into test if it would give positive outcome. The study was conducted for a whole month

and findings was based from a statistical test comparing data of students’ attendance

before and after the intervention was applied.

 II. Research Rationale

All students, yet for one reason or another, at one time or other time want to miss a

day of school. The general tendency to engage in such willingness is referred to

absenteeism. According to Meriam-Webster dictionary, absenteeism is “chronic

absence”, and student absenteeism as defined by Teasley (2004) as a period of time

when a student does not attend school, has become major and continuous problem

among high school students in many countries. Indeed, numerous studies conducted to

answer a question “why high school students miss classes”.

In reality, there are many factors which contribute to students absenteeism; such

as family health, low income, transportation problem, lack of passion, bounded by

familial duties, and community attitudes towards education and many more external

factors as well as internal. It is already proven and very much actual that when a

student with massive absents or purposive skipping of classes may lead to academic

failure; Because, students will miss the opportunities to learn the materials that enable

them to succeed later in school and fall behind their classmates in academic

achievement. In addition, some authors noted that students who attend school regularly

have higher academic achievement.

In the case of Mararag National High School, it was observed for a long time

already that students will come to school in the morning classes and show average to

high attendance of students in all level. However, after taking their lunch break and then

the start of afternoon classes, students tend to perform low attendance. That is, many

students who are present in the morning classes may not be any more present in the
afternoon classes. If not, they would come to school late, during second period or third

period of the class. That is the very main reason that this study was conducted.

Teachers have long been observing this concerning matter for a long time. They

even found out that mostly, if not all, that those students who always skip classes in the

afternoon or just absent show low grades and failure grades in their afternoon classes.

In one of the faculty meetings, teachers studied and consolidated reasons gathered by

each teacher through other students regarding the matter. The most common but

majorly emphasized reason was due to the external factor which is student/s after lunch

would opt to stay in the nearby barangay gymnasium to play basketball and others just

wanted to watch the game.

It was explained by one of the students who always commit this kind of behaviour

that after taking their lunch they would go to the nearby gymnasium to play basketball.

When the game intensifies they would opt not to attend first period class and sometimes

the whole afternoon class. By further internalizing, teachers linked the events and

agreed that it might be one of the real causes since they found out that mostly students

who skip classes are boys. There are some girls who skip classes but are less alarming

compare to the boys.

As a manager of classroom and facilitators of learning we do not want those

learners to continue the act. Hence, the administrators and faculty decided to make an

action to put a stop to this sickness.

Researchers were assigned to test the validity of their formulated intervention, if

it would improve the attendance especially those concerned students. They chose the
Grade XI-Newton students as their test subjects since it was observed that in this class

the concern of skipping classes and/or absenteeism in the afternoon classes is majorly

and massively existed.

The intervention used was a school and barangay official’s partnership. The

school tapped the barangay officials to hold hands together in eradicating the problem.

The school requested the barangay officials to prohibit students in playing basketball

and loitering around the premises of the barangay gymnasium especially during

classes’ hours.

Researchers foresee some potential problems may come in the run of

implementing the intervention. Like, the intervention might be strictly implemented only

for a few days and then everything may come back to the same situation again. This

potential problems lie in the hands of the assigned personnel who will strictly supervise

the barangay gymnasium and its premises and to the hands of the researchers. Hence,

to avoid, one of the researcher would go from time to time to the barangay gymnasium

to check and observe if the intervention is still on going and be another support in

actively implementing it.

Thus, the partnership of school and barangay officials played a vital role in the

success of this study.

 CHAPTER V: INNOVATION, INTERVENTION AND STRATEGY

During one of the teachers’ meeting and planning the addressed problem was

one of the highlighted agenda, as skipping classes during afternoon are now very

observable amongst the students regardless of their grade level. And so, an intervention

was proposed and agreed by the body in which the school would need to tap the

barangay officials of Mararag for partnership in dealing with this problem. However, the

school is still doubtful if this intervention would indeed give positive outcome. Hence, the

implementation on this intervention was adjourned.

Researchers found a silver lining through this school research paper to push

forward the planned implementation to test if their intervention would indeed give

valuable results. Thus, implementation of the intervention commenced.

First, the researchers handed a letter to the office of barangay officials addressed

to the barangay captain Honorable Herberto Corvera explaining the situation and their

purpose for collaboration. They also personally went to the office of barangay to

personally explain further and to finally ask the officials for their affirmation and

willingness to collaborate. The barangay officials then gave positive response and

together they planned.

A personnel arranged by the barangay official was assigned to guard the

premises of barangay gymnasium. The personnel would then strictly prohibit students to

play basketball and from loitering around the premises when lunch break is over.
One of the researchers, as she is the first period class of Grade XI-Newton students,

was then assigned to closely monitor and keep a daily attendance of the students

throughout the process.

 CHAPTER VI: ACTION RESEARCH QUESTION

Before coming to the conclusion of students playing basketball in the nearby

barangay gymnasium as one of the major causes of students skipping classes in

afternoon, teachers of Mararag National High School have long been concerned and

been hinting about the causes regarding the problem. It was found out that teachers

with first class subjects in the afternoon or even second or third shared the same

sentiments and perception.

The researchers wanted to inquire first to the students of every grade level

before pushing through with the plan. Their aim as well as the aim of this paper is to

inquire and test that those students skipping classes in the afternoon is significantly

caused by playing basketball in the nearby barangay gymnasium.

Researchers initially asked question to the students “Are you the only present?”

when they would answer yes, researchers would then continue to ask “Where are the

others?”, “Are they present in the morning classes?”, “Would they usually be absent

every afternoon?”, “Or they would only be absent during first period in the afternoon?”,

“Where would they be if in the morning they were just here but in the afternoon they

were nowhere to be seen?”, and “What might be their reason for being absent or

coming late or being present only during second or third period in the afternoon?”.

Through inquiring the students personally, their hypothesis was then set and supported.
 CHAPTER VII: ACTION RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design

The researchers designed their research to be a quantitative research considering

that they were using a numerical data. They used inferential statistics to draw

inferences and conclusion about the sampled data. That is, researchers wanted to

inquire if there is a significant difference made by their intervention. Hence, researchers

used paired t-test to perform a statistical analysis about the paired data.

B. Participant and/or other sources of Data and Information

Prior to the implementation of the intervention, researchers inquired to the students

from different grade level, why some of their classmates especially boys were

commonly absent during afternoon classes. Responses were consolidated and simple

inferences were drawn.

During the course of the actual implementation, data were collected from Grade XI-

Newton students which consisted of 39 students, 14 boys and 25 girls. The data used in

the research consisted of two sets of data. The first set of data was a one whole month

attendance of the students without intervention (November 2018). The second set of
data is a one whole month attendance of the students during implementation of the

intervention (January 2019). Both set has equal number of school days which is 20.

C. Data Gathering Method

Before the implementation, the researchers gathered substantial information about

possible reason that may cause such behaviour through interview method and students

being asked were randomly chosen. Researchers would use vacant time or every after

class period in the afternoon to ask some questions to the students of different grade

level.

During the data gathering, researchers used a method of extracting data from an

existed information (first set) and an actual or recorded information (second set) during

the implementation of the intervention through actual checking of attendance before the

first class in the afternoon ends.

 CHAPTER VIII: DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND REFLECTIONS

A. Discussion

In order to examine if there exist a significant difference made by the intervention to

the student’s attendance, data gathered were analysed with the statistical test the t-test.

Paired t-test was used for analysis since the research data was paired or data were

taken from the samples. Results showed with confidence level of 99% or α=0.01 that

the mean of the second set of data is statistically and significantly different from the

mean of the first set of data. That is, the student’s attendance during intervention

improved significantly with a mean of 13.49 and standard deviation 3.64 than their

attendance before intervention with a mean of 11.10 and standard deviation 4.23.

Going back to the computation in the analysis of data through paired t-test, with

α=0.01 gives us a critical value or the tabulated t-value of -2.362. Our aim is to compute

a t-value (computed) using the t-statistic which should be less than the tabulated t-value

to accept our alternative claim that there is a positive significant increase of attendance

caused by the intervention. And computation showed that t-value (calculated) is -

5.8149.

Hence, we reject our initial hypothesis or claim that there is no significant difference

made by the intervention to the student’s attendance of Grade XI- Newton. Therefore,

with much evidence we are 99% sure that there is a positive significant effect made by

the intervention to the Grade XI-Newton student’s attendance of Mararag National High

School.
 B. Reflection

Numerous studies were conducted to answer question “why high school students

miss classes”. Teasley (2004), Attwood and Coll (2006), Epstein and Sheldon (2002),

Korir, Charo, et.al,(2014), through these studies inferences were drawn and found that

student with high level of absenteeism can lead to more negative effect such as low

academic performance and many social problems. In this paper we found out that an

external factor which is the nearby barangay gymnasium where students can openly

play basketball even during classes hours contributed to the decline of student’s

attendance (Grade XI-Newton) in afternoon classes. One of the faculty members of

Mararag National High School then suggested that if proven one way to remedy the

situation is through building basketball court within the school premises. In this way,

students especially boys would need not to go to the barangay gymnasium during lunch

break. Through this, faculty can still monitor the whereabouts of the students and during

classes hours they will just be within the school and can be easily administered to

attend their classes.

C. Recommendation

During the course of gathering information through interviews with students, one of the

contributing factors was due to the nearby computer cafe. Many interviewed students from lower

grade level Grade 7- Grade 9 stated that their absent classmates can be easily found in the

nearby computer cafe playing computer games. Researchers would like to recommend a study

and construction of intervention for the said matter.

 D. Data Presentation

Table 1
Table 2
Frequency Table of Grade XI-Newton
Grade XI-Newton
Attendance
Student Before During Attendance
Intervention Intervention Descriptive
1 4 10 Statistics Before During
2 9 10 Intervention Intervention
3 7 15 Mean 11.10 13.49
4 6 7
Median 12 14
5 5 6
6 16 17 Mode 7,12 11,15,16
7 6 13 Variance 17.88 13.26
8 7 9 Standard
9 10 12 4.23 3.64
Deviation
10 1 4
11 8 13
12 15 16
13 7 10
14 7 11
15 12 15
16 17 18
17 14 15
18 12 16
19 8 14
20 9 15
21 13 15
22 12 13
23 16 19
24 15 11
25 17 19
26 19 19
27 16 17
28 14 18
29 10 17
30 13 13
31 13 16
32 16 16
33 11 14
34 12 14
35 14 11
36 15 16
37 8 11
38 7 10
39 12 11
TOTAL 433 526
 CHAPTER IX: ACTION PLAN

The school would like to present the situation to the stakeholders, such as during

GPTA, to be their helping hand in governing the students; also to the barangay officials

and local officials if possible and plausible to ask for assistance for the realization of the

school’s basketball court.

CHAPTER X: REFERENCES

Teasley, M.L., (2004). Absenteeism and Truancy: Risk, Protection and best practice

implications for school social workers. Children and Schools.

Attwood G., and Croll, P. (2006). Truancy in secondary school pupils: Prevelance,

trajectories and pupil perspectives. Research Papers in Education, 21, 467-484.

Epstein, J.L., and Sheldon, S.B. (2002). Present and accounted for: Improving student

attendance through family and community involvement. Journal of Educational

Research.

Korir, E. K., Charo, M.B., Ogochi, G., & Thinguri,R. (2014). Students school attendance

and academic performance in Nijoro District Kenya: A relational Analysis. Research

Journals. Journal of Education.

Walpole. Introduction to Statistics, 2nd Edition.

 CHAPTER XI: FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Transportation Fee = P 0.00

Production Fee (Research Materials) = P 0.00

Bond Paper

Personnel Fee (During Intervention) = P0.00

c/o Barangay Officials

___________________

P 0.00

*No expenses were used.