TITLE: REDUCING STUDENTS’ ABSENTEEISM THROUGH PROJECT E-AMS

(ELECTRONIC ATTENDANCE MONITORING SYSTEM)

RESEARCHERS: GENE ROSS JOSE I. SILVA

DENWARD R. PACIA
AILEEN D. ENRIQUEZ

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE
This study determined the effects of Project e-AMS in reducing absenteeism of
students in Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High School. The results of this study will be
used as basis in improving Project e-AMS implementation to address effectively the
problem of students’ absenteeism not just in CDLSHS but also in the Division of San
Pablo City.

DESIGN /METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
This study utilized mix-methods research design. Enquiring, Examining and
Experiencing were used to collect the needed data. Online questionnaire was utilized
to determine the effects of the project as perceived by students and parents.
Observations, interview, and analysis of teachers’ attendance reports were also
conducted to further determine the effects of the project.

FINDINGS
Results revealed that learners were encouraged to attend their classes regularly
because they are aware that their attendance will be monitored. Students
highlighted that the use of e-AMS also developed discipline in terms of attending
classes on time. The use of e-AMS made teachers’ work in monitoring students’
attendance easier and faster. The project has a positive effect in reducing
absenteeism of students in Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior HS.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The respondents of this study were 30 selected students and teachers of Crecencia
Drusila Lopez Senior High School during the academic year 2019-2020. The study was
conducted from July 2019-September 2019. Effective implementation of Project e-
AMS will result to higher students’ attendance, lower drop-out rate and higher
students’ performance of the school.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The effectiveness of this project will benefit the learners, parents, teachers and
school head of Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High School. Through benchmarking,
it will also benefit other schools in the Division of San Pablo City.

KEYWORDS
Keywords: Absenteeism, electronic monitoring, QR code
Type of Research: Mixed-Methods Research

INTRODUCTION
“Professionalism and punctuality are extremely important, especially in the career
path I've chosen. Being on sets, film schedules can be very stringent and tight. They
are sometimes at odd hours in various locations. Being there when you're called just
ensures that the day starts smoothly.” - Radhika Apte

Professionalism and punctuality are two powerful words that are sharpened in the
area of learning. These words are not taught by definitions but by everyday
applications. In Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High School, one important factor in
the area of learning is the learners’ attendance in school. When school attendance
is given priority, it helps the learners to have better grades, develop healthy life habits,
avoid dangerous habits and have a high percentage of graduating from senior high
school.

But when learners are absent for an average of 3 days per month, these can have a
negative impact on his learning particularly in the skill-based competencies. Imagine
if a particular subject has 8 hours per week, the learner will lose twenty-four hours of
learning and practical application.

To attend to this problem, an electronic system was developed to monitor the

attendance of students in Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High School.

The advancement of technology in the field of education serves as a gateway to

make things better. QR (Quick Response) Code and attendance systems have
become widespread in different industries and quickly becoming more and more
useful in the education sector for accurate attendance tracking due to limitations of
the traditional roll calling.

The development of the Project e-AMS provide a convenient way to automatically

track learners’ check-in and check-out times. The system does not require complex
technical knowledge so students as well as teachers can easily use the system with
minimal knowledge.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

There is a significant body of research that demonstrates the positive effects of

attendance monitoring systems for students. In recent years, AMS (Attendance
Monitoring System) has become one of the extensively studied research with the
growth of educational institutions.

1. According to Obrador (2014), it is the aim of every school to lessen, if not eradicate
absenteeism among its students. One way of addressing this problem is to identify
the causes why students become truant from school.

2. These may be finance concerns, disability, psychotic imbalance, poor school

climate, family health, transportation problems, drug and alcohol use, and
differing community attitude towards education (Savers, D. et al, 2005)
3. As mentioned by Elis (2016), Dube and Orpinas investigated the negative and
positive behavioral reinforcement profiles of behavior related to excessive
absenteeism which revealed that negative reinforcement involves avoidance,
and positive reinforcement involves gaining parental attention or getting tangible
benefits from not attending.
4. According to Moody (2018), “The greatest benefits of attending schools are the
achievement and opportunity.” The student who is always in school can help
improve his performance no matter how hard the lessons and skills are.

5. Based from the study of Kirmani (2018), “In order to avoid human bias and direct
human intervention different government institutions have implemented Biometric
attendance system in educational institutions to record employee attendance on
daily basis”.

6. An excellent study by Qauduzzaman, et. al, the Attendance Monitoring System

(AMS) is widely used in most of the educational institutions of developed countries.
The system can replace the paper-based attendance monitoring system which
lacks reliability, accuracy, consistency, and efficiency. With the use of this system,
it will be easier for teachers and parents to track the attendance of the students
without consuming much time in the traditional way of checking the attendance.

Research Questions

Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1. Is there a difference of using this system in terms of reducing the absenteeism

and tardiness of the students in Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High School?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages this system in the point of view
of the students?
3. How can this system help the students, teachers and parents in monitoring the
attendance?

Scope and Limitations

The respondents of this study were 269 students of Crecencia Drusila Lopez Senior High
School during the academic year 2019-2020. The number of respondents are
obtained from Slovin’s formula using ninety-five percent confidence level. The study
was conducted from June 2019-August 2019. Effective implementation of Project e-
AMS will result to higher students’ attendance, tardiness, lower drop-out rate and
higher students’ performance of the school.

Research Methodology

This study utilized mix-methods research design. Enquiring, Examining and

Experiencing were used to collect the needed data. Online questionnaire was utilized
to determine the effects of the project as perceived by students and parents.
Observations, interview, and analysis of teachers’ attendance reports were also
conducted to further determine the effects of the project.

Timetable
The research was conducted during the 1st Grading of the school year 2019-2020.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 1. GENDER

Figure 1 shows the gender of the respondents. The percentages of male and female
respondents are 47% and 52% respectively.

Figure 2. SPECIALIZATION

Frequency Distribution by Specialization

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Academic (ABM, Home Economics ICT(CSS, Prog, TD, Industrial Arts
GAS, STEM, HUMSS (Cookery, BNC, FBS, Illus)
BPP, FOS, Wellness

Figure 2. shows that the respondents of this study were 88 students from Academic
Strand, 46 students from Home Economics, 71 from Information and Communication
Technology and 42 students from Industrial Arts.
Figure 3. ATTENDANCE

Figure 1 shows that there is an evident decrease of absenteeism and tardiness of the
learners from the month of July to September. From 26.86% of absences in the month
of July, there is a decrease of 10.02% and another reduce of 4.51% from August to
September.
It also reveals that there is a decrease in the tardiness of students from 24.74%
of the total tardiness to 15.00% in August another decrease down to 11.50%. The
figure showed that there is a positive effect to the students in terms of absences and
tardiness.

By observing the day to day routine of using the system, there are some unwanted
circumstances occurred. Some of which are the delay because students are
queued since there is only one scanner available. Some students forgot or even their
lost their ID so there is no way for the system to track their attendance.

The following data were gathered thru online questionnaire using google forms.

Table 1. Perceptions of Students on the Effectiveness of Project Electronic Attendance

Monitoring System
Students’
Students’ Perceptions response
Rating Remarks
1 The use of Project E-AMS is effective in reducing my
3.22 A
absenteeism
2 The use of Project E-AMS lessened my records of late. 3.00 A
3 The use of Project E-AMS increased my grade. 3.00 A
4 My tardiness decreased because of Project E-AMS. 2.96 A
5 Project E-AMS informed my parents when I'm not in school
3.26 A
or late.
6 The use of Project E-AMS is effective and user-friendly 3.26 SA
 7 Project E-AMS challenged me to target the perfect
3.59 SA
attendance.
8 Project E-AMS is effective in reducing absenteeism in our
3.30 SA
class.
9 Project E-AMS promotes attendance and facilitate
3.36 SA
learning.
10 Project E-AMS made me come to school always and on
3.30 SA
time.
Legend: 1.00-1.75 Strongly Disagree (SD) 1.76-2.50 Disagree (D)
2.51-3.25 Agree (A) 3.26-4.00 Strongly Agree (SA)

Table 1 shows the effects of Project E-AMS to the students in Crecencia Drusila Lopez
Senior High School. It shows from the table that students strongly agree (3.59) that they
are challenged to target the perfect attendance in class. It gleaned that students
strongly agree (3.30) that Project E-AMS promotes attendance and facilitate learning. It
demonstrated that students (3.30) strongly agreed on making them come to school
always and on time and it reduced absenteeism in their class. The table also proved that
students agree (3.26) that Project E-AMS is effective and user-friendly and it also shows
that students agree (3.26) that their parents are informed when they are not in school or
late. Evidence shows that students agree (3.22) that the system is effective on reducing
the individual’s absences. While students agree (3.00) that the records of late are lessen
another (3.00) agreed that it increased the student’s grade.
Students agree (2.96) that their tardiness are lessened because of Project E-AMS.

Table 2. STUDENTS’, TEACHERS’ AND PARENTS’ ANSWERS ON INTERVIEWS

STUDENTS
 “Napaka buting halaga po nito dahil nagkakaroon din ng disiplina ang nga
estudyante.”
 “For me the effect of this system in our school in terms of absenteeism is that
the school can record the students who are absent and example for me
because of that system I don't like to absent. “
TEACHERS
 “Absenteeism will decrease in number. It will remind students that they have to
be in school. Undoubtedly, it makes the attendance checking convenient. In
addition, it trains every individual student(including me) to be more punctual.
It helps them to be effective and productive for their future journey, to reach
their flag of success! “
 “Maaring wala na masyadong ma late na estudyante dahil alam nilang
mas namomonitor sila.. “
 “Napaka unfair naman kase di sila macoconsider na absent or present and di
ko na masasabi kase madami kaseng pwede i explain pero ito lang muna
opinion ko”
PARENTS
 “School admin will access immediately the students who have multiple
absenteeism and can have the appropriate diciplinary action.”
 “Madali nang nakukuha ng mga guro kung sino sinong mga bata ang malimig
lumiban at mahuli sa klase.”
 “Mas mababantayan Ang mga Bata at madali malalaman Ng magulang
para di Tayo nahihirapan magpaliwanag sa kanila “
  “I think this system may lessen the absenteeism oand monitor students whose
often got absent yet it depends on their discipline on how will they attend on
school with respect on the schools attendance “
 “Mas namomonitor ang attendance ng mga estudyante at mas malalaman
naming magulang kung talagang pumapasok ang aming mga anak.”
 “Mas mabilis ang pag babantay sa mga istudyante at malilimitahan ang
kanilang pag absent at pag cutting kung gagawain man nila”
 “maganda dahil nalalaman ko kung ang aking anak ay talagang pumapasok
o hindi”
 “pinapupunta ako sa school ng adviser kapag napapalimit ang pag-absent
ng aking anak”
 “nagtetext ang teacher kapag nag-absent ang anak ko”
 “kahit busy kako, hindi ko mag-aalalang nagcucuting classes ang anak ko”.

Table 2 shows that there are positive responses not only by the students and teachers but
to the parents as well.

CONCLUSIONS
• There is a difference of using the system in terms of reducing the absenteeism
and tardiness of the students in CDLSHS

• Students attendance increase after implementing the system.

• The system helped the students, teachers and parents in monitoring the
attendance.

RECOMMENDATIONS

 The full implementation of the Project E-AMS (Electronic Attendance

Monitoring System) to reduce the absenteeism in the school.
 Send messages to parents if the students is absent or late
 Send SMS to parents regarding the performance of the students like, failing
grades and disciplinary cases.
 The school may find partners to finance the report to parents thru SMS (short
messaging system).
Appendices:

1. Online Survey Questionnaire

Research Title: REDUCING STUDENTS’ ABSENTEEISM THROUGH PROJECT E-AMS

(ELECTRONIC ATTENDANCE MONITORING SYSTEM)

Name:_________________________________ Time:__________
Grade and Section:_______________________

Please indicate to what extent, do you agree in the following statements. Check the
box that corresponds to your assessment on the following statement.

Students’ Perceptions Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
4 3 2 1
1. I have to come to school on time
2. The system will motivate me to
wake up early because I don’t
want to have a record of late.
3. I know that I can have good
grades if I am always present at
school.
4. I am eager to see that my records
of attendance is perfect.
5. I’m aware that if I’m always
absent, my adviser will call the
attention of my parents or
guardian.
6. I can easily use the system
because it is user-friendly.
7. I’m excited to see what the
system will tell me if I log-in or log-
out.
8. I’m aware that my attendance is
monitored by my adviser.
9. I don’t want to be late and
absent I know it will affect my
grade.
10. I know that the system will not
only the students but also the
parents and teachers
References:
Absenteeism – Determinants and Effects to the Students’ Individual Learning of Payapa
National High School, Obrador C. Joel (2014), The PUP Open University

Effects of Absenteeism to the Learning Performance of Fourth Year Students of one

National High School in Batangas City, Philippines, Jemson C. Elis (2016)

An Effective Attendance Monitoring System with Fraud Prevention Technique for

Educational Institutions, Khandker M. Qaiduzzaman and Sadman Sobhan(2018),
International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 7, July, 2018

Why Attendance is Important in Helping Every Student Succeed, Arnicia Moody

(2018)

Impact of Biometric Attendance System on Secondary and Higher Secondary

Educational Institutions Across J&K, Mudasir Kirmani, Oriental Journal of Computer
Science and Technology 10 (2), 291-297 (2017)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researchers would like to express their sincere thankfulness to the following
persons who inspired us in the accomplishment of this piece of work:

ALBERT T. SAUL, his public district supervisor, for his technical assistance, words
of encouragement, valuable comments and critical suggestions that make possible
the realization of this endeavor;

MRS. MARIA ROSARIO LISSA TICZON and DR. HEIDILYN TOLENTINO, and, members of
the defense panel during the DIVISION FORA, for their valuable comments, critical
suggestions, support and advises, and understanding that greatly improved this
piece of work;

MR. ROMEL S. LADISLAO, for sharing his time, support and encouragement for his
assistance and professional expertise in pursuing the research.

To our master teachers, MRS. GLENDA A. BELEN and MRS. BELLA F. CULABAN, for
motivating us to continue the study.

To our fellow teachers, who supported and encouraged us all the way, for
answering every queries that we need.

To our dear students, who became our respondents, for their sincerity and
responsiveness in providing the data needed to finish this research.

And above all, to ALMIGHTY GOD, for the guidance, wisdom and abundant
blessings showered on us.