Estante, Daryl Cloyd T.

December 18, 2019

BSE-2A English

A Position Paper about Student's Tardiness

Statement of the Problem

The allegation of students regarding their tardiness in University of Southern Mindanao - Kidapawan City
Campus.

The Issues:

1. Some of the USM-KCC student is considered late always in entering in class premises.

Some of University of Southern Mindanao - Kidapawan City Campus students was considered late
in their 7:00 am first subject due to the distance between the student’s home and school. This is
absolutely unfair to the students side for the faculty and staff of the said school must consider the
unevitable reasons why the USM-KCC students did not able to go to school at the exact given time.

Lateness is a form of disorderly behavior. Many students are tardy since they had turned tardiness
to be a habit. The habit of being late to school is an unwritten behavior that may be passed on with each
student. Tardiness suggests being slow to respond or sluggish to act thus not meeting up with assigned
or standard timing. Lauby (2009) defined tardiness as when “people not showing up on time.” Weade
(2004) contributed by citing tardiness as being late for an amount time past the stated or scheduled start
time for work or school. ETC (2009) reported that the attendance and punctuality policy clearly states
that “regular and punctual attendance is of paramount importance in ensuring that all students have full
access to the curriculum. Valuable learning time is lost when students are absent or late”.

Causes of Tardiness

Some of the factors that Nakpodia & Dafiaghor (2011) stated are:

(1) going late to bed and waking up late next morning

(2) inherent anxiety level

(3) watching movies late at night

(4) distance between the student’s home and school

(5) inevitable circumstances along the student’s way to school that includes parent’s badly timed errands
and commands are also some of the possible reasons why students come late to school.

In addition to, tardiness can also be cultured from other members of the family. Lack of consequences or
policy also boosts students to come late at school. In Oghuvbu’s (2008) study it reported that, female
students have higher chances to be late than male students because of “their involvement in domestic
activities by their parents” As reported by Santillano (2010), “personality traits, including low self-esteem
and anxiety” are features involved in generating tardiness. It is also stated that while some theorists
measured tardiness as an “inborn quality” since our being early or late is “partially biologically
determined”, which she also agreed, other experts also believed that some people are “chronically
tardy” for the reason that they consciously and unconsciously get good things from it.

Delonzor (2002) led a study of 225 people and identified seven different kinds of late people. She found
three characters that are common people who are often late. One of the most common she categorized
as the deadliners. These people have a habit to be subconsciously drawn to the adrenaline rush of
finishing at the last minute. They are the procrastinators that need targets to keep encouraged. Unluckily,
as they waited too long to begin, they often have trouble meeting the mandatory time frame.

Next, is called the producers. These are the people who attempt to do too much in too little time. They
overload themselves and become unproductive. These types of people set up a meeting in their office,
call a colleague, send a few texts, and photocopy something for the next class in the break between
classes. The third group is the absent minded professors, which are those people that simply get
preoccupied. They have a hard time getting from one place to another without stopping at a few places
in between.

However, a study by Pimentel & Quijada (2011) asked 60 participants if late-night use of Facebook affects
tardiness showed that: three out of 60 respondents are always late, eight said they are sometimes late,
12 said they are seldom late and 37 said that they never get late due to late-night use of Facebook.
Outcomes of Tardiness Nakpodia & Dafiaghor (2011) highlighted that lateness or tardiness is not just the
problem of the late student but it affects the surrounding people. A student coming late in class distracts
the rest of the students and disturbs the flow of the teacher’s discussion. It is even a burden to the
student/s whom the late students ask for what to catch up with. Knowing the possible effects of lateness
or tardiness, it is necessary for solutions to be executed.

Weade(2004) collected information from the schools of contributing students. The attendance and
punctuality records of the students based on the number of unexcused absences and tardiness were
collected and deliberated. The study indicated that among high school students, the grade point average
is connected with absences and tardiness. This means that students with better attendance and
punctuality have higher grade point average. Her study was also able to show that attendance and
punctuality of students are not consistent throughout the year. There were more absences and tardiness
at the latter part of the year. Lastly, Gender has also revealed to be a non-factor in the attendance and
punctuality of high school students.