Abstract

The study investigated lateness as a recurrent problem among secondary school students in Akoko South East Local Government Area of Ondo State. Four hypotheses were formulated and an instrument titled “Cause of Lateness to School Questionnaire” (COLTSQ) used to gather data for the study. The instrument had a reliability coefficient of 0.78. It had content validity and language appropriateness. The researcher used two research assistants to administer 325 copies of the questionnaire on SS2 and SS3 students in the 5 public secondary schools used. 300 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved showing 92.3 percent return rate. The data collected were collated and the t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that there is no significant difference between male and female students in their identification of electronic media as a reason for lateness to school, there is no significant difference between students from high and low socio-economic status in their identification of broken home as a reason for lateness to school, there is no significant difference between SS2 and SS3 students in their identification of location of school as a reason for lateness to school, there is no significant difference between students in urban and rural areas in their identification of cultural background as a reason for lateness to school. One of the recommendations is that parents should put in place enforceable rules or time limit for watching television programmes at night and ensure that their children go to bed early.

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