TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
APPROVAL
DEDICATION Ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF TABLES viii
ACRONYMS ix
CHAPTER ONE 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE 1
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background to the study 1
1.2 Problem Statement 2
1.3 Objectives of the study 3
1.3.1 Broad objective 3
L3.2 Specific Objectives 3
1.4 Research Questions 3
1.5 Scope of the study 3
1.5.1 Geographical scope 3
1.5.2 Content Scope 4
1.7 Significance of the study 4
1.7 Conceptual framework 5
CHAPTER TWO 6
LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.0 introduction 6
2.1 General definition of absenteeism 6
2.2 Absenteeism in schools 6
2.3 Causes of Absenteeism 6
2.4 Perfonnance 7
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2.5 Who does absenteeism ii~pact~ . 8
2.6 How is absenteeism measured’7 9
2.7 What’s being done to combat chronic absenteeism’7 10
CHAPTER THREE 11
METHODOLOGY 11
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Research Design ii
3.2 Study Population
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling Technique ii
3.3.1 Sample Size 11
3.3.1 Sampling Techniques 11
3.4 Sources of Data 12
3.5 Data Collection Methods 12
3.5.1 Interview Guide 12
3.5.2 Questionnaires 13
3.6 Data Quality Control 13
3.7 Data Analysis and Presentation 13
3.8 Ethical Considerations 13
3.9 Limitations of the Study 13
CHAPTER FOUR 15
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 15
4.0 Introduction 15
4.1 Characteristics of the students 15
4.2 Academic performance 16
4.3 Students’ opinion on poverty 16
4.4 Students’ opinion on sexual abuse 17
4.5 Students opinion on school related factors 18
4.6 Differentials in academic performance 21
4.7 Determinates of academic performance 22
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CHAPTER FIVE .24
DISUSSION OF TFIE FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 24
5.0 Introduction 24
5.1 Discussion of the findings 24
5.1.1 Main objective 24
REFERENCES 28
APPENDICES 30
Appendix 1: Questionnaire 30
APPENDIX II: MORGAN AND KREJC IFS TABLE 1970 38
ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to assess the effect of absenteeism on academic performance of students in mixed public secondary schools in Manafwa District (Narnisindwa). The assessment was made by characteristics of the students, absenteeism causes that is poverty, sexual abuse and school related factors. Using primary data based on a sample of 180 candidate students from Magale sss and comprehensive sss, 50 teachers and 20 head teachers/D.O.Ss were also involved in the study, across sectional survey design was adopted where data was obtained from students, teachers and head teachers/D.O.Ss using questionnaires. The analysis was made using SPSS 16.0 at three levels of analysis based on the records of all the respondents. it involved use of frequency distribution, Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA and multiple linear regression. In the results, an average of 6.47 points in the academic performance shows a moderate performance among the students. in the multivariate analysis, students’ performance was significantly associated with the students’ absenteeism causes that is poverty, sexual abuse and school related factor and the characteristics of students under sex (p
