RaYa BrEaK.......

Hi friends i'm kokila here.....so, as you'll see our blog we have one with our research question and research objective.So i and my group members hope that everyone have a clear picture about truancy.In this project i got alot of information about truancy and i realize that i also have been truant.Now i would like to share what i did in the raya break as everyone knows that we went for one week holiday.In this holiday i just spend my time with my family members and have delicious food that cook by mum.Besides that i help my dad to paint my house as you all know deepavali is just in the conner so just want to make the house look nice.Happy is happy but i also plenty of assignment to finish up in this holiday too so at nite i ussually sit and do my assignments .I think thats all for me to share with you'll wish you'll also enjoy your holiday. Before i end up i like to thank my group members and dr.zaini to guide me and have a wonderfull class.

MY RAYA HOLIDAY..

Hi there everyone! I would like to share a little about things I did and places I went during the Hari Raya break. The break officially started on 19th of September 2009 until 27th of September 2009, which sums up to a week of happy holiday. As for me, I started my holiday a day before (18/09/2009) because I had no classes that day. I spent the day at KL Sentral just walking around with my fellow course mate, Arththi from Pahang. I am currently a part timer Barista in Starbucks Coffee Company. I had to work during the weekend and was happy to do so because of the triple pay. I was practically busy with my pending assignments and quizzes coming ahead. On the first few days of Raya, my friends and I visited a couple of our close Muslim friends. I enjoyed the festive season food such as ‘rendang ayam’, ‘ketupat’, ‘lemang’ and ‘kuah kacang’. Besides the festive celebration, the second best part of the Raya break was Arthurs Day Concert (25/09/2009), which is better known as the anniversary of Guinness Stout. My childhood friend, Nicole, gave me a surprise by presenting me a ticket to the concert at Sunway Lagoon. I felt so happy and excited to watch the Black Eyed Peas performing live in Malaysia and it was also my very first concert anticipation. On that day, we were there earlier at about 5pm (3 hours before show) because it was free standing and we really wanted to get a good place to stand. Believe it or not, we were right in front the stage and we had a good view of our local as well as the international music artist. I was there until after midnight and then we headed to a ‘mamak’ for dinner+supper. I had to work again on the very next day and manage to try some Raya cookies made by my fellow Muslim colleagues. Then, Sunday came and I had to leave home for UKM to further my journey on Literature in English. Overall, I had a great Raya holiday although I was very busy with my assignments. That is all for now. I want to thank my fellow members and followers for their active participation in this blog on Truancy among Students. I personally feel we did a good job and manage to send out important messages to others. At last but not least, I want to thank Dr Zaini for her endless support and guidance during carrying out this assignment. Thank you again.

Posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine

Anti-truancy task force reactivated
2009/08/15
By Hamidah Atan

PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry has reactivated the anti-truancy task force in the states to deal with errant students.
Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the body, comprising education officers, representatives of local councils and parent-teacher associations and community heads, had been formed in at least 52 districts.So far, it has dealt with 942 students.Muhyiddin said although the number of students who play truant was small, he wants members of the task force to be more aggressive in curtailing the habit.
"If this task force can function effectively, I am sure that our efforts to reduce crimes and indiscipline involving students can be achieved."Idle time should be filled with beneficial activities that can reduce the risk of our youngsters whiling away their time in anti-social and criminal activities."The time has come for our students to be actively involved in not just school sports but also those held by the local communities. Schools, parent-teacher associations, local councils, community leaders and sports bodies should work together to provide sports facilities and organise functions to encourage the participation of youth." Muhyiddin said this when he launched a crime prevention campaign organised by the crime prevention foundation, with the cooperation of the education ministry, at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here.Also present were Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom and crime prevention foundation deputy chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.Muhyiddin said prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had recently announced six core national results areas (NKRAs) that served as a yardstick for the government's performance."This includes the effort to create a safe living environment for the people by way of crime reduction. The government realises that reducing crime and creating a safe environment is our main responsibility that will be evaluated by the people at the end of the day."It will be meaningless to be a developed nation if the rakyat are, all the time, worried about their safety, family and property. The people have a legitimate expectation to live in peace and harmony."From 2004 to 2008, he said 0.03 per cent of the country's more than two million students were involved in crime.
Up to last year, 6,447 crime prevention clubs had been set up in primary and secondary schools, with 380,369 members.
About 64 clubs operate their own websites to expand crime prevention campaigns organised by their respective schools.Muhyiddin said 2,534 police cadet corps platoons with 88,690 members had been formed in schools.
zainab bt ibrahim.

i have read one news that stated about one judge is helping to prevent truancy among student....

Judge Helps Schools By Disciplining Truants

A Saline County Judge is starting a truancy program and disciplining kids who are skipping school. Judge Bobby McCallister expects more than 100 kids to show up in court Thursday, Oct. 8.

Judge McCallister says if the court steps in, students will be too scared to skip school. He hopes in the long-run, this will help more students graduate from high school.

The Bryant School District, like many around the state and country, has students who skip school.
Spokesperson Jessica Norris says it's a problem.

"Even if its only three or four students that this is affecting their education, the value of those students' education is worth every effort we can make," says Norris.

About five percent of Bryant School District's kids are absent everyday or 370 students out of 7,700 students.

"The legislature says kids are supposed to be in school until they are 18, and I took an oath to uphold that," says Judge McCallister.

McCallister is starting a truancy program in which Saline County's four school districts will send students who continually skip school to court.

McCallister says he can order a vast range of punishment, from community service to fines for parents to even locking them up in juvenile jail.

"If they have missed enough and they're on the verge of losing credit, we will have a monthly review in court with those students," says McCallister.

McCallister says getting kids early before they miss too many credits will mean higher graduation rates.

"Part of the problem we deal with in juvenile court is that kids don't expect enough of themselves," says McCallister.

Most students will have a truancy officer, like a probation officer who will supervise them and make sure they're going to school. The worst offenders will have to meet with the judge regularly.

"They don't want to go see the judge. They don't want their parents to have to take time off from work," says McCallister.

"It shows them we mean business," says Norris.

Judge McCallister says in a way, he is cutting into the parent's role of disciplining, but a lot of parents are not aware their kids are skipping school, so it's actually helping them.

urlhttp://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92113&catid=2

posted by: kokila

hi friends, so now we have move on to our last RQ that is how to prevent truancy among students. so, as u all read what had zainab and eliza posted they tell that education about truancy is important in the early stage and i totally agree with that point because people are shaped when they are children.futhermore,the school authority also must be aware of this problem and must be always alert to the students that are absent and inform to thier parents so that the parents can control their children from being truant.Truant students place themselves at risk for financial failure, delinquent behaviors and substance abuse. Truancy prevention efforts must involve the family, the school and the community. Preventing truancy is about more than just forcing the child to attend class. You must identify and address the root cause. Now i will explain some steps how to prevent truancy among students:

Step 1
Insist on accurate record keeping. If your child has truancy issues, the school's attendance policies may not be consistent or effective enough to track your child.

Step 2
Ask the school to notify you when your child is absent. The school must notify you whether the absence is excused or unexcused to ensure the child is not forging his own excuses.

Step 3
Investigate the safety of the child's school. An environment with gang or bullying issues encourages truancy.

Step 4
Explore alternative schools in your district. Other truant students can negatively influence your child and you may need to switch schools for severe problems. Talk to your school's guidance counselor about this possibility.

Step 5
Escort your child to school, whether by walking or driving the child. You can shield your child from violence or truant peers by taking her directly to her first class.

Step 6
Work with your child on subjects with which he struggles. Children skip school to avoid facing embarrassment in the classroom when their academic performance is poor.

Step 7
Make school a priority. Students must not miss school to help with the family business or to attend vacations that fall during the school year. Allowing students to miss school for reasons other than illness or family emergencies sends the message that school is not important.

This are some of the step of that could be used.

posted by:kokila

urlhttp://www.ehow.com/how_2086207_prevent-truancy.html

hi there everyone! i would like to share an article that I read on few days back on thestaronline. enjoy the article. by the way, hope all of you like the so called ANTI-TRUANCY ROBOT.hehe

Published: Friday August 14, 2009 MYT 1:38:00 PM

Crime prevention clubs in school to curb truancy crime

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has set up over 6,000 Crime Prevention Clubs, increased the number of Police Cadet Corp in schools and set up district level Anti Truancy Teams to curb truancy and student involvement in crime.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Ministers Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that efforts could only be successful if parents joined in by taking interest in where their children were at all times and what they were doing.

Education on the effects of truancy and criminal activities on childrens’ future was the best way to stop their involvement in unwanted activities.

URL : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.aspfile=/2009/8/14/nation/20090814134045&sec=nation#

Posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine

prevention measures

hey there..now we are moving up to the next topic which is "prevention measures for truancy".
there are many ways to overcome the truancy problem among students if all the parties work hand in hand.parents or guardians involvements play an important role to overcome the truancy problems among students. Parents must improve the environment of their house so that their children wont get stressed out and start involving themselve in immoral activities such as truancy. parents must show a good example and be a role model for their children. parents also must always keep an eye on their children;s daily activities and always make sure that their children's are doing well in school. There are many cases that children start involving in negative activities because their parents like to push them in studies or anything in their life. therfore, parents must always try to advise their children in a nice way instead of scolding or pushing them all the time.moreover, parents should not let their children take time off school for minor ailments because it might become their habits in future if they are keep on taking off whenever they want.

School must expose their students about importance of good attendance and punctuality
taking an interest in their education ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities.besides that, school must have an good counselling centre where they are encouraged to discuss any problems they may have at school and if necessary inform their teacher or headteacher about anything serious.
as we all know that there are students who skip schools because they afraid of being bully by his or her seniors in school. so that, school authority must take an action towards those who bully these students. however for those serious problems of truancy, school authority must handle them by carrying out hard punishment or may be they can ask for police's help.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/YourChildsWelfareAtSchool/DG_4016117
http://www.schoolengagement.org/TruancypreventionRegistry/Admin/Resources/Resources/TruancyFactSheet.pdf

Good evening. I must say that Zainab had a lot to say in her post on ways of preventing truancy. Thank you my friend for the post. I would like to share on some measures that can be taken to prevent this social problem, which I found from a website. This post is mainly on the responsibilities of parents.

1. Parents should educate their children about the importance of education. This means parents should teach their children to make school a priority. Therefore, students must not miss school to help with the family business or to attend vacations that fall during the school days. Allowing students to miss school for reasons other than illness or family emergencies sends the message that school is not important.
2. Parents should mug up (study) with their children, that is to work with their child on subjects with which he or she struggles in. This is because certain student skips school to avoid facing embarrassment in the classroom when their academic performance is poor.
3. Parents are ought to explore alternative schools in their district. This is in case of social problem in the current school their child is in. Parents should be aware that other truant students can negatively influence their child and they might need to switch schools for severe problems. Parents are adviced to talk to the school counselor about this possibility.
4. Parents should request the school to notify them when their child is absent. The school must notify parents whether the absence is excused or unexcused to ensure the child is not forging his or her own excuses.

These are the few things that I have summarize from a website. I hope all of you find this post interesting and easy to be carried out. Thank you.

URL : http://www.ehow.com/how_2086207_prevent-truancy.html#

posted by, Eliza Maria Benjamine

hi friends,I'm back ......thanks for the post friends, i just read those post....

In the post that Eliza's post about the article its clearly shows that truant students is consuming to alcoholic drinks. students who are truant not only consume to alcoholic but they also take drugs and smoke. this habits are totally injuries to their health. furthermore truancy effects alot on the student because students who are truant keen to involve in gangsterism, vandalism and shoplifting. this kind of activities will spoil their future life. moreover truancy not only effects the students itself but it also effects people around them. when students play truant teachers take action to solve their students problem. this act will slow down the class teaching time and also will effect other student studies. other than that truancy also effect our community where when students play truant they might involved in gangsterism that will make people around them feel unsafe and frustrated with their behaviour.so its clearly shows that truancy makes every one's life unsafe especially the truant students life....so that's all for now catch you all soon....

posted by: kokila

Good evening to all of you out there. I would like to share a news article on TRUANCY. It is mainly about truancy among young individuals which is primary school pupils. I personally find this article quite disturbing, knowing what our younger brothers and sisters are doing behind our backs. i hope you find this article interesting.

Thursday October 1, 2009
Truancy a problem among pupils
By MAZWIN NIK ANIS

PUTRAJAYA: Truancy tops the list of disciplinary problems among primary school students followed by rude behaviour and the consumption of alcoholic drinks.
The Education Ministry is looking at ways to tackle these problems as the number of errant students have increased.
“Some primary school pupils in Sabah and Sarawak have been found drinking tuak and other locally-made alcoholic drinks and this must be checked immediately,” Deputy Educa-tion Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong told reporters yesterday.
According to the ministry’s records, 0.79% of the primary school pupils were involved in disciplinary problems between January and June this year, compared with 0.78% during the same period last year.
Although the increase was “almost negligible,” it needed to be checked as it involved young individuals who “already know how to skip school, be rude to their teachers and peers and drink alcohol.”
“We believe the pupils are influenced by television programmes or movies. That is where they learn foul language and violent acts,” he said.
Apart from truancy, students were also found to have committed lewd acts and some were even involved in criminal activities such as fighting and causing hurt and injuries to others.
Dr Wee said there were plans to appoint senior discipline teachers and to reduce the student-counsellor ratio to 1:300 from the current 1:500 so that the counsellors would not be over burdened.

posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine

Hi fellow members and followers. Hope all of you enjoyed the holiday. Well..I surely did! In my humble opinion, students who play truant are risking their chances of having a bright future. These individuals are clearly mentally immature to be involved in such social problem and having their future destroyed in a snap. How can they not imagine their own future by being involved in of the popular social problem? It is just sad to think that they would not be able to achieve a higher level of education. Truancy among students also affects the schools. An increasing rate of truancy cases will ruin the reputation of schools involved. This will then lead to parents not having faith or shall I say confident on a school. Parents would not want to send their children to a school which has a high rate of social problems. Besides that, truancy will certainly affect an entire class. Teachers tend to slow down and pay more attention on truants. This is so that students who plays truant can catch up with the syllabus. Other than that, the teacher might have to repeat the syllabus over again and this will disturb the other students who had already done that particular syllabus. Worse come to worst, the teacher might have to spare more of their time by carrying out extra classes.

posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine

my opinion on what had kokila has post is that there are 2 major effects of truancy give on a students..first is that playing traunt can spoil their studies another is that it can lead to more other social problems among teenagers such as vandalism, smoking, involvement in drugs and so on. it's obvious that when a student keep on skipping classes he wont be able to know whats goin on in class..what his teacher teaches in class and stuff so eventually he wont be able to score a good marks in exam. when a student play truant n hang around with his friends there are much higher possiblity that he might approach those who already creating social problems nowadays.therefore, the numbers of teenagers creating social problem will go higher and higher and all these problems will trouble the society and the our country only.

hi friends kokila here......now its my turn to post my research question.....so far we had finish three RQ and nw the fourth RQ is what are the effect on students who play truant?....as we all know they are many effect to the student who play truant if they keep on truanting for a long term or short term...students who become truant and eventually drop out school too often set themselves up for a life struggle so its effects them self and others.....

examples:

~Effects of truancy for the student include:

• Decreased learning ability
  
• Involvement in daytime crime, such as breaking and entering, vandalism, and shoplifting
  
• Increased risk of dropping out of school
  
• Two and a half times more likely to be on welfare
  
• Involvement in gangs
  
• Struggling to catch up with school assignments
  
• Failing classes
  
• Risk of not obtaining a higher education.

• Effects of truancy to others:

• Truancy affects an entire class when a teacher slows down to help the truant student
  
• An increase in crime means more victims
  
• Increased cost to the whole community for additional law enforcement
  
• Welfare costs to society

url: http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/Truancy%20Website/page6.html

hmm..yeah students might sit at home and study but i dont think majority do so. half of the students bunk off just because want to hang out with their friends like they go watch movies, bowling or there are students who do vandalism around destroy public properties and stuff. just because students not been caught for playing truant therefore social problems are increasing rapidly in our country. students involving in destructive habits such as taking drugs.besides that, there are few numbers of students who do part time job during school hours therefore they take studies for granted and concentrate more on their work..im not saying that its wrong to do part time job because may be they just want to help out their parents in financial matter but i tihnk they should just work on weekend instead of weekdays during school hours they should know how to manage their time and equally give importance to their studies as well as their job.. furthermore, one more thing that students normally do when they play truant is that they go for a vacations with their family. the thing we should concern about this is that why the parents encourage and bring their kids for vacation during school time?

hi it's me kokila here......so,now we have move on to our next research question that is what do student do when they play truant?....as what eliza had posted many most of the student nowadays play truant to study at home because students feel they understand better when they study at home.If you all still remember my post about the news that students play truant to be with their boyfriend so this also anoyher thing what syudent do when they play truant. student will spend time with their boyfriend/girlfriend by playing truant.Other than if all of us know is student used to hang out with friends and they are some student play truant just to watch their favourite tv program....that's all from me for now but will be back with new updates....bye

What Do Students Do When They Play Truant?

Firstly, we would like to thank Dr. Zaini for going through our blog yesterday and giving us suggestions as well as advices to improve our blog. Thank you my fellow members for your contribution on the post regarding factors that leads to truancy. As we can see, there are many reasons on why students play truant in their daily lives. Now, we are going to move on with our next topic of discussion which is..what do students do when they play truant. In my very own opinion, students hang out with their friends when they play truant. Parents are usually strict. Therefore, children are allowed to go out on school days. Hence, this resorts students to play truant just to be with their friends. Besides that, students stay back home to watch television and this may or may not be without their parents knowledge. I remember the time when I skipped school on a school day in 2002 just to watch the World Cup on live telecast. Believe it or not, some students study at home when they play truant. These students find it difficult to study at school due to certain reasons such as noisy environment, bad facilities and improper class placement. Thus, students feels they can concentrate on their studies better when they are at home. That is all for now. Thank you.



posted by Eliza Maria Benjamine

Hi friends! Thank you for the feedback on reasons students play truant. I must say that is an interesting article posted by Kokila. It is actually not to my surprise because it happens here, in Malaysia too. Few years back, I had a friend who skips school and classes just to be with her guy. She did so because her family does not approve her of being in an relationship while she is still pursuing her studies in school. As for the points posted by Zainab, she explained the causes in detail. I have forgotten to mention that parents are also the cause for students playing truant. There are some parents that encourage their child to play truant...to go for family vacation during schooling days and even when parents themselves are not able to wake up early in the morning to drop their kids to school. As for my parents, they do encourage me to skip school at times for a family vacation. Besides that, there are some students who are forced to earn a living while pursuing their studies because of parents..to help their family who experiences financial problems. Many parents do not explain to their kids on the importance of education in life. This is the main reason why students do not care for the times they play truant and continue to do it.

Eliza Maria Benjamine

hi kokila here just wanna add little bit about what had been posted by my Friends about what is the cause of truancy........... truancy is not only caused by the students but its also caused by the family, school, and community... i know everyone already know about that after u all read our posts in the blog........but just wanna inform that generally, truancy is a three-fold problem...here are some list of causes that i found about truancy is caused by student, family, school and community.......


student

1. Poor self-concept; low self-esteem
2. Low academics; particularly behind in reading and math
3. Socially isolated; poor inter-personal skills; lack of positive peer relationships at school
4. Feeling of not belonging at school, of being different
5. Feeling of lack of control over life (i.e. 'No matter how hard I try I will not succeed.')
6. Little or no extra-curricular involvement
7. Mental and/or emotional instability; childhood depression
8. Unidentified learning disabilities
9. Vision and/or auditory problems that have gone undiagnosed
10. Language barriers
11. Poor health
12. Negative peer relationships; older, non-school oriented friends
13. Substance abuse
14. Fear of school, teachers, and/or administrators
15. Experienced recent traumatic event (divorce, death of a loved one)
16. Fear of physical protection going to or at school
17. Teenage pregnancy and/or parenting.

Family
1. Parents lack appreciation for value of education
2. Parents are high-school dropouts
3. Financial difficulties (lack of adequate nutrition, clothing, transportation; inability to pay fees)
4. Ineffective parenting; lack of parental control and supervision
5. Familial instability (one-parent household; parental discord; poor parent-child relationship;
frequent moving)
6. Inappropriate role models
7. Child abuse and/or neglect (physical, psychological, sexual)
8. Substance abuse; alcoholic parent
9. Parental convenience (older sibling kept home to babysit for young children)

School
1. Uninteresting and irrelevant curriculum
2. Improper class placement (above or below abilities)
3. Failure to identify and provide services for problem students
4. Poor pupil-teacher relationships
5. Insufficient counseling and guidance staff
6. High student/teacher ratio
7. Low teacher expectations
8. Lack of parent - school communication and involvement
9. Too weak, or too rigid administration of policies

Community
1. Lack of support for school
2. Lack of, or unresponsive community service agencies
3. Community upheaval and social change
4. Loss of neighborhood schools and sense of 'ownership' of schools
5. Negative peer influences
6. High incidence of substance abuse, criminal activity
7. Gang activity
8. Inadequate provision for transportation

i know its a long list but we can know what caused truancy based on those list.....

http://mcdonough.k12.il.us/optionaleducation/TAOEP/truancy.htm

posted by kokila

i think there is a point in eliza's post that we all should give attention..that students play traunt coz their parents encourage them. parents bring their children for vacation during school time. even statistic shows that the highest numbers of youngsters missing school for family vacation. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Increasing-number-of-pupils-playing.5023123.jp. and yeah i agree there are parents who does not give importance to their children's education especially those who are from rural areas.they prefer their children take over their family business rather than wasting their time studying in schools.therefore, they dont really care whether their children doing well in their studies or not. anyways i found another reasons for students bunking off from school which is the students who suffering from dyslexia( having difficulties in studies ) which is not been discovered or recognised by his or her parents or any other parties and as to avoid to be treaten unsympathetically by his friends , teachers or parents they will stop going school at all.
zainab bt ibrahim