Relationship between students' class attendance and their academic performance: The case of junior high schools in the Kumasi metropolis

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between students’ class attendance and their academic performance. To this end, four research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive surveys were employed for the study. A special form was designed to collect data on class attendance and academic performance from 1800 students who formed the unit of analyses. Relevant data gathered were used to test 4 hypotheses. Frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation were used to analyze data in the quest for testing the research hypotheses. The hypotheses were subjected to Pearson’s product moment correlation co-efficient test and the t-distribution test at an alpha level of p<0.05 for determining the strength, direction and the significance of the relationships involved in the variables The study revealed different degrees of relationships between all the variables tested without any having zero relationship. Students’ class attendance and academic performance were statistically significant on location of a school, level of academic performance and class attendance respectively. However, statistically significant difference in performance of male and female students was not caused by class attendance. Among others, it was recommended that educational authorities should come out with effective measures of ensuring students regular attendance in schools because there is a critical link between effective educational strategies and students attendance rates.