Causes and Effects of Absenteeism among First Year College Students of the Mindanao State University – Sulu

out remedies that can be applied to address the problem on absenteeism. The remedies include (a) there must be a student dormitory inside the campus to house the students since majority of the students enrolled in the university are from distant island municipalities (b) conduct orientation to students and parents prior to the opening of regular classes (c) the univers ity must have a strict policy dealing with students’ absenteeism (d) teacher or instructor should conduct regular assessment in the form of quiz at the end of the session (e) motivate and encourage the students to give more attention and emphasize the importance of education in their future (f) classroom atmosphere should be conducive to learning.


Introduction
Being a teacher is a great honor, and a rewarding experience one would say at the end of the class, seeing your students complete and actively participating in the activities. But, one of the most frustrating experiences for teachers, instructors or lecturers is when students are absent. Teachers, instructors prepare lessons with the goal in mind that 100 percent of the class will attend and take part in the activities designed for that day and for the succeeding days that the students will spend for the entire semester, the success of every student in their academic life is determined by the number of days they'd spend in school which the students are offered with a wide range of experiences that will help them to achieve maximum learning.
In spite of what has been said, it is very difficult to perfectly complete the attendance. No matter how interesting and well-prepared the lessons and the teaching materials are organized and the flow of Open Access Indonesia Journal of Social Sciences http://journalsocialsciences.com/index.php/OAIJSS classroom activities are in place, there are stil l students who are not present and eventually miss out activities.

Absenteeism, according to Merriam Webster
Dictionary, is "the practice or habit of being absent from work or school" it is habitual in its sense. It is where a student or learner who is not in a place of learning for the entire duration of the academic sessions. One of the determining factors that students get good grades in the courses they are enrolled in is when they attend regularly and punctually be in their classes. It is also believed that students who attend classes regularly will most likely to succeed academically which is manifested in the grades they will get. It is well recognized that attendance is a significant contributor to their grades. To some, attendance constitutes 5 to 10 percent of the total grades of the students. (Kassarnig V., 2017). Stressed that the theoretical literature on student achievement emphasizes that class attendance is associated with performance. One strand of theoretical literature is the pedagogical models where class attendance can be seen as student involvement, among other features which also highlights the resources of the school and the content being taught (4). Other theoretical approaches include economic models where rational agents decide on optimal usage of time spent studying vs. leisure/ other courses (5). Most existing studies have found that class attendance is a significant and positive predictor of courses grades (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)22). More specifically, the Meta study by Crede et al. (20) concludes that the attendance is the most accurate known predictor of academic performance superior scores on standardized admissions tests such as the SAT, high school GPA, study habits, and study skills.
In addition to general attendance throughout the semester, initial attendance has been shown to be an important predictor of academic success (7) previous results also indicate that average attendance drops over the course of the semester, irrespective of performance.
On the other hand, absenteeism is a major factor that contributes to the low academic performance and low grade point average. (Demir, 2015) posited "Student attendance is one variable that has a significant impact on student achievement". It is also With the present issue under study that spark great concern and frazzling people in the higher institutions, where most students who are performing poorly in the class is due mainly on the students constantly evading classes for different reasons.
Hence, the researcher aims to determine the causes and effects and to figure out remedies that can be applied to address absenteeism among first year college students of the Mindanao State University-Sulu.

Methodology
The sampling involves an iterative process of selecting research subjects rather than starting with a predetermined sampling frame. Akin to grounded theory, the selection process involves identifying themes, concepts, and indicators through observation and reflection. (Schutt, 2006:384). Along these lines, researchers often utilized a purposeful sampling technique to select informants based on their particular knowledge of and/or experience with, the focus of empirical inquiry (Schutt, 2006: 155) hence, the respondents of the study consisted of 100 first year college students who are officially enrolled in the university and 9 faculty members.

Results And Discussion
The data gathered was analyzed and computed by the use of SPSS version 21.0 for the items identified.
Weighted mean and standard deviation were used to describe the causes and effects of absenteeism. Data was collated through questionnaires from 100 students and 9 faculty members who were the respondents of the study. For age group and gender were analyzed and computed using frequency and percentage. Total 100 100

Conclusion and Recommendation
Absenteeism is considered to be a recurring and an imperishable issue or problem in education, such issue or problem has long been the concern not only of the parents, teachers, school administrators but also the society in general, with the pressing issue, it