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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

Tardiness implies an individual coming, occurring, or remaining after

the correct, usual, or expected time. Thus, the term "class tardiness" has

been defined as students not attending a lecture on time, missing out on initial

time from the first period, and primarily not being present in the time set. One

of the major causes of lateness is going to bed late because it could result in

waking up late and insufficient rest for the lesson on the next day. One of the

most important things a student can do to achieve academic success is also

one of the most basic: going to school every day and being on time. It has

been proven by the Georgia Department of Education that a child’s

attendance and timeliness may be the biggest factor influencing their

academic success.

In the Philippines, being late and starting things late has always been

part of Filipino culture. Many Filipinos seem to either practice or accept it, so

much so that the term “Filipino Time” was coined (Tan, 2015).

The problem of tardiness is very much evident in San Jose Integrated

School. Many pupils of Grade 4 in San Jose Integrated School were always

late in their class, especially in the first period in the morning. Knowing the

factors for the tardiness of grade 4 pupils in San Jose Integrated School is

interesting. To solve the problem.

Lateness to school remains a major that the school is facing. Lateness

has a devastating effect on the teaching and learning process in the school
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which has a great negative impact on school standards, students’ academic

performance, absenteeism, distractions for other students, inhibition of goal

achievement, irresponsibility, and failure in life among other aftermaths. Some

researchers have conducted similar research only that lateness is still on the

increase for instance, the study of Alio (2015) was centered on the analysis of

students’ late-coming factors in selected secondary schools in Zaria. Onoyase

(2017) also looked at lateness as a recurrent problem among secondary

school students in Akoko South East Local Government Area, Ondo State.

Maile and Olowoyo (2017) researched on what causes late coming among

high school students in Soshanguve, Pretoria, South Africa.

Being always present in class and getting to school on time are two of

the crucial determining factors of a student's success, not just as a student but

as a person who will be managing his/her own life in the future. Given the

importance of being punctual, this study aims to explore and find out the

factors that affect the punctuality of UP students. In this chapter, we will be

discussing the background of our study. It includes facts about tardiness, the

different factors that cause and its effect on the students as students and as

the bearer of their own lives in the future. From reliable research materials like

online journals and research papers, we will provide some facts and theories

from authors, teachers, and notable people to have a concrete justification for

our study.

One of the biggest issues in many schools is students who arrive late

for class. It may have an impact on both the student and the lecturer, just as if

a student is late to class and the lecturer is in the middle of a discussion or

sharing something crucial with the other students who arrive on time, the
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professor may become distracted or interrupted. Both the lecturer and the

students run the risk of being disoriented and forgetting the crucial topics they

are going to bring up.

Many factors could make a student get late or develop the habit of

getting late to school. This could range from sleeping late, poor preparation

for school, school factors, illness, economic influence, and family background

among others, films at night (Marwan, 2014); watching films at night,

engagement in too many house chores, lack of motivation for school, lack of

stringent rules in school against lateness, etc.

Statement of the Problem

This research aimed to determine the Factors of Tardiness of the

Grade 4 pupils of San Jose Integrated School for school SY 2023-2024.

Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the factors for the tardiness of Grade 4 pupils of San Jose

Integrated School for School Year 2023-2024?

2. What is the level of impact of the identified factors on Tardiness?

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are beneficial to the following people who are

directly involved in this study:

To the Students:

Students can use the result of this study to know how to overcome

tardiness in school. The result of the study will help them improve their
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academic performance; this study also can help them to create plans for

how to handle their time to come early in school.

To the Teachers:

Teachers can use the result of this study to help their students how to

reduce tardiness. They can use the results to know why some, students,

came late to school, it helps to encourage their pupils to come early to school.

To the School Administration:

School Administration can use this study to guide and reduce

tardiness in their school. This study can be used to conduct seminars or

meetings for all teachers and students through this plan the result of tardiness

can improve.

To the Future Researcher:

The future researcher can use the results of this study as their guide

and reference for their similar study.

Scope and Delimitations

This study focused on the factors of the tardiness of Grade 4 pupils in

San Jose Elementary School. It makes use of a survey questionnaire that will

be given to 30 pupils of Grade 4 in San Jose Integrated School.

Definition of terms

To have a better understanding of the study, the following terms are

operationally defined:

Tardiness. It is defined as being late by not adhering to an established

schedule. In school, tardiness is defined by arriving after the first bell of the

day or the bell indicating the start of class.

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Factors. Factors are the variables that are contributing reasons for tardiness

to determine their effect on the response variable. A factor can take on only a

small number of values, which are known as factor levels.

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents a discussion of the Literature and the results of

other related research to which the present study is related or has some

bearing or similarity. This gives the author enough background to understand

the study.

Students nowadays have a problem managing their time when going to

school. Tardiness is considered the habit of being late. It is about not

attending or not going to school at a specific or given time. The causes of

being late or tardy are mostly transportation, medical issues, or simply family

problems. Tardiness or lateness is a disorderly behavior. The habit of being

late to school is an unwritten behavior that may be passed on to each student.

Tardiness means someone is being slow to respond or sluggish to act thus

not meeting up with assigned or standard timing (n/a 2013). Tardiness is also

one way of saying that a person is lazy or is not responsible for doing things

even going to school early. It is one of the reasons why students cannot finish

work, tasks, and projects on time because of being tardy.

Tardiness has been a serious matter, especially to the students. This

study about tardiness focused on finding out what causes the students to

come late which affects their attentiveness to academic performances and to

know how to avoid this kind of problem. One of the most important things a
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student can do to achieve academic success is also one of the most basic:

going to school every day and being on time (Kleber, 2013).

In addition, several studies have been conducted on students’

lateness, however, this study is different from the earlier ones. For instance,

the study by Odebode (2018) was on psychosocial factors that affected

teachers’ job performance. Although the study was on teachers’ different

variables were considered. Adegboyega, Okesina, and Jacob (2017) worked

on bullying behavior among secondary school students. Again, this study is

not the same as the present study as bullying behavior was addressed and

not students’ lateness to school. Marwan (2014) looked at factors associated

with students’ lateness behavior; although this study focuses on similar

variables considered in the present study however, Marwan’s study was a

systematic review of the literature that adopted a theoretical approach to the

problem at hand.

Furthermore, Jummane, Maina, and Ankoma-Sey (2015) and Onoyase

(2017) worked on the lateness in Zaria and Ondo States, Nigeria. Even

though this research was on students’ lateness to school, it was carried out in

other parts of the country. Therefore, a study of this nature is needed to

address the causes of lateness to school from the elementary teachers in

Oshogbo, Nigeria. It is on this background information that we deemed it fit to

investigate the factors responsible for students’ lateness to school as

expressed by Nigerian teachers in elementary schools.

Lateness to school is like a cancer that impedes development and

hinders the achievement of academic goals (Maile & Olowoyo, 2017). It has

been observed that students’ lateness is on the increase of indiscipline and

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this has eaten deep into Nigerian society (Odebode, 2019). Students no

longer take punctuality in school as they should. The official arrival time for

students at school in Nigeria is 7.30 a.m. Unfortunately, many students can

still be sighted walking around the streets by 9- 9.30; they walk around

communities unconcerned. The schools are doing all they can to curb this act

but it seems the effort has no noticeable effect, thus, making lateness to

school on the increase. This in turn culminates in to increase in the number of

half-baked graduates at all educational institutions in society. The causes of

lateness among students seem to be unclear with many submissions being

made by stakeholders. Many factors could make a student get late or develop

the habit of getting late to school. This could range from sleeping late, poor

preparation for school, school factors, illness, economic influence, and family

background among others, films at night (Marwan, 2014); watching films at

night, engagement in too many house chores, lack of motivation for school,

lack of stringent rules in school against lateness, etc.

In the book cited by Santillano, "Never Be Late Again: 7 cures for the

punctually challenged, the author Diana DeLonzor suggested that some

personality traits could most likely lead to a person being often late. Some of

the traits included were "struggling with self-control", "feeling nervous or

uncomfortable with social situations" and "getting distracted easily (para 4).

Santillano also discussed the study conducted by DeLonzor at San Francisco

State University in 1997 in which she surveyed 225 respondents about their

habits that make them late for their appointments. It was also a test on the

personalities of the respondents that affected their habits. According to the

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results of DeLonzor's study, those respondents who were often tardy are apt

to be anxious and get distracted easily.

Nakpodia and Dafiaghor attribute lateness or tardiness to a lot of

factors or causes. Going late to bed and waking up late next morning is the

most common. The authors added film-watching late at night as a cause for

tardiness. The student may forget that he/she needs to be in school the next

day. The distance between the student's home and school or solely the

school's location is also considered by Nakpodia and Dafiaghor as a possible

cause for tardiness. Not just because it takes more time to get to school, but

according to the authors, the student is susceptible to more distractions and

hindrances along the way. Parent's untimely tasks and commands are also

reasons that student come late to school. Habitual tardiness can also be

learned from other members of the family, especially from the older ones. The

lack of a firm and consistent policy on punctuality also encourages students to

come late to school since there are no consequences attached to lateness or

tardiness. These causes of tardiness will lead to serious effects.

Another study was the one conducted by Enamiroro Oghuvbu in

Nigeria. The objective of the study was to determine the causes of

absenteeism and lateness among secondary students in Nigeria and to seek

solutions to the growing problem. According to Oghuvbu (2017), female

students are more likely to be late than male students because of "their

involvement in domestic activities by their parents" (para 7). Also, as cited by

Oghuvbu, "distance to school, school discipline, family background, and

school location" are some of the common causes of the tardiness of

secondary students.
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Several factors have been identified in different literature as some of

the reasons why students come late to school. Chiu Mochi (2019) identified
factors such as age, family commitments, change of jobs on the part of
parents, and health problems as some of the factors that may affect tardiness
among Senior High School students. Okwelle (2018) noted among other
factors that, learners may develop negative attitudes towards school resulting
in tardiness or poor attendance because non-employment of school leaves
repetition of class and insecurity.

In a separate study, Ali (2013) highlighted the social status and

education level of parents as factors that may influence school attendance
and late-coming. The study further pointed out that the geographical location
of the students' homes and schools, students' attitudes toward the first subject
of the day inadequate supervision of students' activities by teachers and
parents, and poor teaching methods among others may also affect the
tardiness on the part of students.

The report of Okpukpara and Chukkwuone (2017) identified the role of

gender in child schooling. From the study, female-headed households have
higher attendance in school whereas educated fathers are more likely to have
a strong impact in increasing the probability of child school attendance than
mothers. Emore (2015) reported that tardiness is more common among
female students than male students. This may be due to involvement in
domestic activities.

Furthermore, the study by Abalaing, W.A.C, et al. (2019) the results

revealed that social media and online games are the most common factors

causing tardiness. The results demonstrate the need for the teachers and

school administrators to guide the Bestlink students in showing how to avoid

tardiness so it will not affect their academic performance and their

achievement of goals.
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Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discussed the research design, the locale of the study the

respondents, the sampling procedure, the research instrument, the data-

gathering procedure, and the statistical tool.

Research Design

This study is quantitative research and since this study investigated the

factors of pupils’ tardiness to school, therefore the specific research design

used is the descriptive method which analyzes and discusses and then makes

adequate and accurate interpretations of such data gathered.

Locale of the Study

This study was conducted in Quezon I District, San Jose Integrated

School located at San Jose Quezon Bukidnon.

Research Respondents

The respondents of this research were the 30 pupils of Grade 4 San

Jose Integrated School. The researcher chose only the pupils who were tardy

in their classes.

Sampling procedure

This study used the purposive sampling procedure to identify tardy

pupils in the class of 3 sections in San Jose Integrated School. The

researcher had the freedom to use a sample size that he thought had the best

suitable characteristics to give him in-depth and quality information about

what they were studying without any statistical method of calculation needed.
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Research Instrument

A researcher (KA Adegunju, 2019) designed a questionnaire titled

‘Factors Responsible for Lateness Questionnaire’ (FRLQ) was used to gather

data for the study. FRQL has 20 items that measured the factors responsible

for lateness; respondents were expected to respond to the items by filling in

the columns provided. These columns are tagged SA (Strongly Agree); A

(Agree); SD (Strongly Disagree); and D (Disagree).

Data Gathering Procedure

In the gathering of data, the researcher secured a letter of

recommendation from the concerned researcher’s teacher and secured a

letter of approval from the School Principal that the researchers will be

allowed to survey the 30 respondents using the stratified random sampling of

the Grade 4 pupils.

Statistical Treatment

The researcher used the weighted mean as a statistical treatment in

this research to determine the mean and rank of students tardy to school

using the ‘Factors Responsible for lateness questionnaire’.

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Factors in Tardiness of Grade 4 Pupils of San Jose

Integrated School S.Y 2023-2024

A Research Proposal
Presented To

The Faculty, College of Education

Quezon Institute of Technology Inc.

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Elementary Education

By

Aldrick Joshua Von A. Baguio

February 2024