CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

1.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the background to the problem, the statement of the problem, the purpose and objectives of the study, the research questions, and the significance of the study. It also defines the key terms used throughout the study and outlines the delimitations and limitations that shaped how the research was conducted. The chapter draws on recent empirical literature, largely from Ghana and the wider West and East African sub-region published between 2020 and 2024, to situate the problem of truancy among pupils of Agona D/A J.H.S. within the current state of knowledge on the subject.

1.2 Background to the Problem

Truancy is generally defined as the unauthorized, unexcused, or intentional absence of a pupil from school without the knowledge or consent of parents, guardians, or school authorities (Onyeaka, Kugbey, Ayanore, & Oppong Asante, 2020). Across low- and middle-income countries, keeping children regularly in the classroom once they have been enrolled has proved at least as difficult as getting them enrolled in the first place, and truancy remains one of the most persistent disciplinary and administrative challenges confronting basic and secondary schools (Keppens & Spruyt, 2020).

The scale of the problem in West Africa is considerable. Using data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey, Onyeaka et al. (2020) found that the prevalence of truancy in the previous 30 days among school-going adolescents stood at 22.9 percent in Benin, 36.5 percent in Ghana, and 45.9 percent in Liberia, with boys consistently reporting higher rates of truancy than girls in all three countries. Figures of this magnitude confirm that truancy in Ghana is not a marginal or isolated occurrence but a widespread feature of the school system that cuts across regions, school types, and levels of education.

In their review of truancy-prevention interventions, Keppens and Spruyt (2020) observed that although an extensive body of literature has identified numerous risk factors associated with truancy, considerably less is known about how truancy develops, intensifies, and eventually becomes habitual among adolescents. They argued that truancy is best understood as arising from an interaction of factors operating simultaneously at the level of the individual pupil, the family, the school, and the wider community, rather than from any single cause. This ecological view has increasingly shaped how more recent Africa-based studies have approached the problem, moving away from single-factor explanations toward more integrated models of causation.

Studies conducted within Ghana's Junior High School system reinforce this multi-level picture. Ampofo, Opoku, and Opoku-Manu (2022), investigating truancy and academic performance among Junior High School pupils in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality, found that teachers' attitudes, corporal punishment and bullying, lack of parental supervision, broken households, peer influence, and poverty were the primary predictors of truancy, and that a pupil's family socio-economic status was significantly associated with the likelihood of truanting. Their findings also revealed a positive relationship between an unsupportive school environment and the frequency of truant behaviour among pupils.

The role of school disciplinary practices in driving truancy has also attracted recent scholarly attention in Ghana. Quansah, Kudadze, and Agoke (2023), examining teachers' perceptions of the ban on corporal punishment in a Ghanaian senior high school, identified truancy as one of the direct consequences of harsh disciplinary practices; some pupils who feared corporal punishment reportedly told their parents they had gone to school while deliberately staying away from lessons. This finding is consistent with concerns that punitive school climates, rather than deterring absence, may instead push vulnerable pupils further away from the classroom.

Similarly, Kasim (2023), studying Junior High Schools in the Kintampo North Municipality in the Bono East Region of Ghana, reported that harsh school punishment, low self-esteem among pupils, and inadequate learning materials, combined with home-related factors such as caretaking responsibilities, parents' negative attitudes toward education, and poverty, were the principal drivers of pupil absenteeism. The study recommended the extension of school feeding programmes as one practical measure for reducing absenteeism linked to hunger and poverty.

Consistent with these findings, Marfo (2021), in a study of Junior High Schools in the Oforikrom Sub-Metropolis, found that the attitude of teachers toward absent pupils, illness, family problems, economic hardship, and poor head teacher-pupil relationships were the factors most frequently cited by respondents as contributing to student absenteeism and truancy, and that these behaviours were strongly associated with declining academic performance among affected pupils.

The problem is by no means unique to Ghana. Drawing on a longitudinal survey of more than 6,800 adolescents in Ethiopia, Woldehanna, Endale, Hamory, and Baird (2021) established that a pupil's decision-making power within the household, exposure to violence at home and at school, and involvement in paid or unpaid work were all significantly related to school absenteeism, dropout, and failure to complete school on time. Their study underscores how household and community circumstances beyond the school gate continue to shape attendance behaviour across the sub-region.

Distance from home to school and the availability of teachers have also been identified as important contributors to non-attendance in Ghana. Nunoo, Taale, Sebu, and Adama (2023) found that both teacher absenteeism and long travel distances to school were detrimental to Ghanaian pupils' cognitive skill development. They noted that most Ghanaian children travel to school on foot, and that long commuting distances expose them to hazards such as harassment, road accidents, and adverse weather, in addition to the time and cost burdens that discourage regular attendance, particularly during the rainy season.

Parental circumstances continue to feature prominently in the literature on school non-attendance across the sub-region. Ntigurirwa, Ntawiha, and Gakwenzire (2024), studying dropout in lower public secondary schools in the Gasabo District of Rwanda, found that parents' socio-economic status and the extent of their involvement in their children's schooling were strongly associated with the likelihood that a pupil would disengage from school. This finding echoes the socio-economic and family-related factors reported in the Ghanaian studies discussed above, suggesting that the pattern is regional rather than confined to a single country.

Taken together, these recent studies suggest that truancy is shaped by an interlocking set of school-related factors (teacher attitudes and absenteeism, disciplinary practices, distance, and school environment), family and community-related factors (parental socio-economic status, supervision, and involvement), and individual pupil factors (self-esteem, peer influence, and exposure to hardship or violence). It is against this background that communities in Ghana, including those in the Agona Municipality, have continued to invest in the establishment of institutions such as Agona D/A J.H.S. in pursuit of the national goal of universal basic education. However, as the sections that follow demonstrate, enrolment alone has not guaranteed regular attendance, and truancy continues to interrupt this developmental effort locally, just as it does across the country and the wider West African sub-region.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

In Ghana's educational system, school enrolment and regular attendance are meant to work as two sides of the same coin: enrolment provides access, while attendance converts that access into learning. In pursuit of the government's drive toward universal basic education, communities in the Agona Municipality of Ghana, like communities elsewhere in the country, have responded by establishing and supporting institutions such as Agona D/A J.H.S.

However, in the process of extending basic education to the majority of school-age children, truancy has emerged as one of the anomalies interrupting this progress. National-level evidence lends weight to this concern: Onyeaka et al. (2020) estimated a 30-day truancy prevalence of 36.5 percent among school-going adolescents in Ghana, a rate that implies more than one in three pupils misses school without authorization within any given month. The current study intends to explore the factors influencing truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipality. Records obtained from the District Education Office reveal notable variation between the number of pupils registered and those who attend classes regularly.

If this trend is left unaddressed, the government's objective, together with that of local communities, of extending basic education to the majority of school-age children risks being undermined. Given that schools register reasonable numbers of pupils but, for reasons that have not yet been fully established locally, experience high and persistent rates of non-attendance, there is a need to conduct a study that will enlighten the government, the Ghana Education Service, and the public on the actual causes of truancy-related dropout at Agona D/A J.H.S.

Recent studies, reviewed above, have explored the causes of truancy in other parts of Ghana and in neighbouring countries. Are the causes identified elsewhere similar to those operating specifically in the Agona Municipal District? Why does truancy appear more common among male pupils than female pupils? Why does attendance decline in particular seasons of the year? Are parents cooperating with teachers to identify the causes of truancy and to develop strategies for addressing it? These questions, among others, motivated the present exploration of truancy among pupils of Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana: its causes, effects, and possible solutions.

1.4 Purpose and Objective of the Study

The purpose of the study was to explore the factors that influence truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to determine the causes, effects, and possible solutions to truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S.

1.4.1 Specific Objectives of the Study Were

i) To explore the level of truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana.

ii) To determine the causes of truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana.

iii) To explore the effects of truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana.

1.5 Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

i) What is the level of truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana?

ii) What are the factors causing truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana?

iii) What are the effects of truancy at Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana?

1.6 Significance of the Study

i) The study will create awareness among school administrators and other stakeholders of the causes of truancy in basic schools.

ii) The study will assist policy makers in developing policies and programmes capable of promoting regular school attendance among pupils.

iii) The study will reveal to the public sustainable strategies capable of reducing truancy among pupils in community schools.

iv) In addition, the findings will contribute to the growing body of regional literature on truancy in Ghana's basic education sector, complementing recent municipality-level studies such as those by Ampofo et al. (2022) and Kasim (2023), both of which called for further school-level research on truancy beyond the senior high school level.

1.7 Definitions of Key Terms

Truancy: the unauthorized, unexcused, or intentional absence of a pupil from school without the knowledge or permission of parents, guardians, or school authorities (Onyeaka et al., 2020).

School Absenteeism: a broader term referring to a pupil's absence from school, whether authorized (for example, due to illness) or unauthorized. Truancy is considered a specific, deliberate sub-category of absenteeism (Kasim, 2023).

Dropout: the premature and permanent withdrawal of a pupil from school before completing a given level or cycle of education (Woldehanna, Endale, Hamory, & Baird, 2021).

Corporal Punishment: the deliberate infliction of physical pain or discomfort on a pupil by a teacher or school authority as a disciplinary measure (Quansah, Kudadze, & Agoke, 2023).

Junior High School (J.H.S.): the second cycle of basic education in Ghana, typically covering three years of study following primary school and preceding senior high school.

1.8 Delimitations of the Study

The study was delimited to an exploration of truancy among pupils of Agona D/A J.H.S. in the Agona Municipal of Ghana, focusing specifically on the causes, effects, and possible solutions to the problem within this single institution and its immediate community. The study did not extend to senior high schools or to other municipalities, although findings from such settings, reviewed above, were used to situate and interpret the results.

1.9 Limitation of a Study

Limitations of a study are those characteristics of design, context, or circumstance, beyond the researcher's control, that may place constraints on the study's conclusions and on the extent to which those conclusions can be applied to other situations. The researcher encountered a number of such limitations during the course of the study. These included family circumstances that disrupted data collection for four consecutive months, alongside a number of competing duties at the researcher's own work station. In addition, some head teachers were reluctant to release truancy and dropout data, citing confidentiality concerns, while bureaucratic delays in accessing regional-level data meant that considerable time was spent attempting to obtain records from the regional education office without success. These limitations are acknowledged as constraints on the scope of the data available for analysis, rather than as flaws in the study's design.

REFERENCES

Ampofo, E. T., Opoku, K., & Opoku-Manu, M. (2022). Truancy as predictor of poor academic performance among junior high school students in Ashanti Mampong Municipality of Ghana. European Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 3(2), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejedu.2022.3.2.164

Kasim, I. (2023). The causes of student absenteeism: The case of some junior high schools in Kintampo North Municipality in the Bono East Region of Ghana. Ghana Education Service, Kintampo, and Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, University of Cape Coast.

Keppens, G., & Spruyt, B. (2020). The impact of interventions to prevent truancy: A review of the research literature. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 65, 100840.

Marfo, A. (2021). The effects of student absenteeism and truancy on student academic performance in selected JHS schools in the Oforikrom Sub-Metropolis (Unpublished undergraduate thesis).

Ntigurirwa, A., Ntawiha, P., & Gakwenzire, P. (2024). Parental factors associated with students' dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District, Rwanda. African Journal of Empirical Research, 5(4), 17–24.

Nunoo, J., Taale, F., Sebu, J., & Adama, A. S. Y. (2023). Influence of teacher absenteeism and school distance on cognitive skills in Ghana. International Journal of Educational Development, 97, 102715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2022.102715

Onyeaka, H., Kugbey, N., Ayanore, M., & Oppong Asante, K. (2020). Prevalence and correlates of truancy among school-going adolescents in three West African countries. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 30(7), 936–949. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2020.1774459

Quansah, J. Y. D., Kudadze, S., & Agoke, W. (2023). The ban on corporal punishment in a senior high school in Ghana: The perspicacity of teachers at Northern School of Business. Children & Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12610

Woldehanna, T., Endale, K., Hamory, J., & Baird, S. (2021). Absenteeism, dropout, and on-time school completion of vulnerable primary school students in Ethiopia: Exploring the role of adolescent decision-making power in the household, exposure to violence, and paid and unpaid work. The European Journal of Development Research, 33, 1349–1389. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00454-5

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