The issue of student punctuality in school has sparked widespread concern among stakeholders in Nigerian society. The rationale for this might be founded on the idea that for any school to succeed in fulfilling its core mission of instructing pupils, a measure of discipline is required. According to Salifu and Agbenyega [1], this is vital because it creates a conducive environment for teaching and learning.

Students' punctuality and regularity in school are examples of discipline. Only when students are present in school and at the appropriate time can they fully benefit from the academic programme. According to Jumare et al. [2], pupils who are timely to school are more likely to attend all school functions and most importantly, get full benefits of morning hour lessons such as English Language and Mathematics. 

Late arriving at school literally refers to a circumstance in which a pupil arrives at school after the appropriate hour has passed. According to Lauby [3], late coming in the school environment occurs when a pupil arrives at school after the official start time. Thus, in the context of this study, late arrival refers to a circumstance in which a student arrives to school later than the specified hour. It is the inability of a student to arrive at school on time.

Lateness is not a new problem in Nigerian public secondary schools. The formerly low rate of lateness has skyrocketed and efforts by various school officials to address the issue appear to have failed to produce the expected results. It is increasingly normal to observe pupils walking slowly to school after the resuming time (between 7.45 am and 8.00 am) and therefore missing the first/second lessons of the day. What appears to be more concerning is students' attitude toward tardiness, which they appear to have accepted as a "normal element" of our culture. Worse, when these latecomers arrive to their different classrooms after serving some kind of penalty or another, they not only divert the attention of teachers but also that of their peers. If left uncontrolled, this bad behaviour may jeopardise the attainment of the intended educational   goals.   Thus,   educationists   have  recognised latecoming as one of the primary reasons contributing to low academic performance among secondary school pupils [4]. 

Several punishment techniques have been used to limit the prevalence of late arrivals, such as whipping, punishing and mowing grass, working in the school garden and cautioning children who arrive late to school. Despite these punitive measures, pupils continue to arrive late to school. Jumare et al. [2] also stated that in order to reduce lateness to school, latecomers are flogged and subjected to additional punishments (such as toilet cleansing, sweeping and gardening) that cause them agony and prevent them from participating in morning lessons. However, some students feel extremely awful when they are penalised for their lateness to school, claiming that they are not to blame. However, various counselling strategies have emerged as viable alternatives for resolving recurring issues of lateness among adolescents. Cognitive restructuring, value clarification, self-instruction, shaping and self-management are some of the approaches used. The researcher is motivated to investigate the efficacy of academic value clarification technique in modifying lateness behaviour among students. 

Academic value clarification technique is an insight behavioural procedure that emphasizes, recognizes and changes negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs [5]. It was developed by Simon et al. In 1972, for the specific purpose of helping students to become aware of what their values and attitudes are in relation to a variety of objectives and to prize and appraise these values. It is defined as the process of assessing the effect of personal value on decision making which likely determines the outcome of one’s action. This means that a person’s personality can be determined by looking at what he or she does. Value Clarification technique helps individuals to relate their feelings and increase their awareness of their own values. Value clarification is a method of education in morality and ethical principles that occur by bringing people together to share their opinions and value perspective. Since value clarification is effective in the treatment of all forms of antisocial behaviour such as truancy [6], socially undesirable behaviour [7], faulty thinking and frustration, attribution behaviour, aggression, depression, anxiety, unhappiness, low self-concept and low self-esteem, it will also be effective in reducing lateness to school. This would be achieved by changing the beliefs and values of the students and decrease the undesirable lateness attitude to school.

Students’  late  attendance  to  school  is  a  challenge that every teacher, school administrator, guidance counsellors and others face and would wish to find a way to manage. It is one of the biggest issues that classroom teachers  and  guidance  counsellors  are  inundated with on daily basis as it tends to interrupt the classroom dynamics. It can be quite frustrating for a teacher who spent some minutes warming a class up and appropriately setting up classroom activity, only to have a latecomer arrive and attempt to muddle up the whole process put together  by  the  teacher. Similarly, students who go late to school usually get miss-informed during lessons, as they  come  to  class  while  lessons  have  already  begun, they also disturb other students that are already in class and many at times disrupt the on-going lessons. More so, if left unchecked, late coming can become chronic and spread throughout the class because there are a number of possible excuses students can give for coming to class late.

Statement of the Problem

A child (student) who grows up as a habitual late comer may eventually not be a good worker as an adult after school. So, late coming negatively affects the economic well-being of the nation. The students who are habitually late to school are also more apt to be sacked or fired from a job for lateness habit. Lateness to school could easily lead to habitual lateness to duty now and in future. The habitual late to school students quickly mix up with rough children in schools. The students who are frequently late to school have higher rates of suspension and other disciplinary measures. Lateness to school therefore leads to other behavioural problems in schools such as truancy and joining of bad gangs.

Lateness to school if allowed to persist and unchecked, could lead to the nation plunged into difficult situation. As it could be said, a nation filled with late-coming students and working population has no potential of becoming economically viable. There is a great need therefore to urgently and effectively eradicate the occurrence of lateness to school among students in order to save the younger population from developing the lateness habit. 

Studies such as Chujor and Kennedy [4] have been carried out to reduce the occurrence of late coming in Nigeria school system. The studies focused on the use of counselling techniques such as cognitive restructuring, value clarification, self-instruction, shaping and self-management as alternative methods of solving behavioural problems among students such as late coming to school. Although some of these techniques have been successfully used in reducing lateness to school in some places [4,5], many students are still faced with the challenge of overcoming the habit of lateness to school. Although self-management and academic value clarification techniques has recorded successes in treatment of behavioural deficits and behaviour excess, little efforts have been made to investigate which of the two techniques is more effective effectiveness on late-coming to school. It is against this background that the researcher sought to determine the effect of Academic Values Clarification techniques in reducing late coming among secondary school students in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Research Question

The following research question guided the study:

• What is the effect of academic value clarification technique on students’ lateness when compared with those who received conventional counselling using their pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness to school?

Hypothesis

The following null hypothesis was formulated to guide the study and was tested at the 0.05 level of significance:

The effect of academic value clarification technique on students’ lateness to school is not significant using the pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness of students treated with the technique and those treated with conventional counselling

Research Design

This study is a non-randomized pre-test, post-test, control group quasi-experimental research. The study involved two treatment conditions (Experimental and Control group), each comprising of students that were identified as chronic late comers to school.

Research Setting

The study was conducted in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. The area was chosen for the study based on observation by researcher having a high record of students arriving late to school irrespective of the punishment often meted out to them.

Participants

The sample of the study comprised 109 students. The population comprised all the students identified as always coming to the school late. The selection was based on the level of their times of coming late to school.

Instrument for Data Collection

The instrument for data collection in this study is termed “Observational Guide” (OG). This is an instrument that was developed by Nwankwo. The instrument is made up of items in a checklist which consists of the names of late-coming students in a class, the sex, the arrival time and the days of the week. The instrument assesses the frequency of students’ late-coming behaviour before, during and after treatment. The instrument has a four-point option measuring the degree of students lateness based on time of the students’ arrival to school.

Experimental Procedure

The researcher obtained the approval of the schools’ management for carrying on with the research through a consent letter that was given to the management. The experimental training sessions then took place at the two schools chosen for the study. The researcher, with the assistance of the guidance counsellors in the schools as research assistants conducted a training programme which was held for eight weeks for both the treatment and control group. The treatment sessions were carried out in the school’s counselling centres. The day and time for each group’s training was established and maintained throughout the treatment. 

Each training session lasted for 50 minutes using the counselling scheduled periods as specified by the schools. The participants in the experimental groups were trained on self-management technique while those in the control group were received the usual conventional group counselling. Each of the groups received training for the eight weeks. After the eight weeks of treatments, ticking of the register still went on for three weeks. The data collected afterwards was regarded as the post-treatment data. The post-treatment data were collated, joined with the pre-treatment data and given to the researcher for analysis.

Method of Data Analysis

The data collected was compiled, analysed and presented in a tabular form. The data was used to answer the research questions, indicating both the pre-treatment and post-treatment times lateness to school. The null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using the Analysis of Co-variance to determine the statistical significance of the difference between the variables of the study.

The data analysed are presented as follows.

Research Question 2 

What is the effect of academic value clarification technique on students’ lateness when compared with those who received conventional counselling using their pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness to school?

In Table 1, it was observed that the students treated with academic value clarification technique who have been coming late to schools observed for 620 times, some of them came between 7.35-8.05 97 times, between 8.05-8.35 239 times, between 8.35-9.05 284 times and 0 time between 9.05-9.35 after treatment as against their pre-treatment late coming for 0, 426 and 194 times between 8.05-8.35, 8.35-9.05 and 9.05-9.35, respectively. While the 720 students treated with conventional counselling technique who have been coming late to school, came between 7.35-8.05 9 times, between 8.05-8.35 205 times, between 8.35-9.05 526 times and 0 times between 9.05- 9.35 after treatment as against their pre-treatment late come times of 1, 491, 248 at 8.05-8.35, 8.35-9.05 and 9.05-9.35, respectively.

Table 1: Pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness of students treated with academic value clarification technique and those treated with conventional counselling

Source of Variation Academic value clarification technique Conventional Counselling

Testing the Null Hypothesis 

The effect of self-management technique on students’ lateness to school is not significant using the pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness of students treated with the technique and those treated with conventional counselling.

Null Hypothesis 

The effect of academic value clarification technique on students’ lateness to school is not significant using the pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness of students treated with the technique and those treated with conventional counselling.

Table 2 reveals that at 0.05 level of significance, 1df numerator and 1359df denominator, the calculated F is 144.14 with  probability  value  of  0.00  which  is  less  than critical p-value 0.05. Therefore, the second null hypothesis is rejected. So, the effect of academic value clarification technique in reducing secondary school students’ times of lateness to school is significant.

Table 2: ANCOVA on the pre-treatment and post-treatment times of lateness of students treated with academic value clarification technique and those treated with conventional counselling

Source of variation SS df MS Cal. F p-value p>0.05

The effect of Academic values clarification technique on students’ lateness to school

The findings from this study revealed that academic values clarification technique is effective in modifying lateness behaviour and reducing the magnitude of lateness among secondary school students. What this finding entails is that the consequence of the academic values clarification treatment on secondary school lateness behaviour is helpful, since it was able to modify the lateness behaviour and improve the time of their arrival to school. This finding of the study is in line with Goetz [8] analysis of values clarification exercises used in educational settings. The results as reported by Goetz showed that after the implementation of the values clarification exercise, the experimental group’s examination scores increased from baseline, whereas the control group’s decreased; the experimental group’s reported average time engaged in academic tasks decreased after the implementation of the values clarification exercise, whereas the control group’s increased; both the experimental group’s and control group’s ratings of consistency between their educational values and academic behaviours increased.

Findings   from   the   study   further   revealed   that the  effect  of  academic  values  clarification  technique  on secondary  school  students’  times  of  lateness  to  school is significant. What this finding connotes is that the outcome of the treatment using academic values clarification technique is essential; being that it reduced the  times  of  students’  lateness  to  school.  This  finding is in agreement with Ogunbiyi and Ajiboye [9] whose study  found  out  that  value  clarification  approaches were more effective in promoting subjects’ cognitive and affective achievement in environmental education than conventional method; and Oliha and Audu [5] whose study posits that value clarification was identified to be more effective in the treatment of dropping out tendency. The reason for this finding is possibly because the treatment process, using value clarification technique, involves a process that provides a learning experience which leads participants to reflect on life and actions as they examine behaviours, ideas, feeling and personal value. So, those students who recorded habitual lateness to school, after the academic value clarification treatment, would have possibly examined their behaviours and actions in relations to the values taught and must have been able to learn more about themselves, set and accomplished the goal of coming earlier to school. Also, in line with the issue originally raised by Lockwood in Goetz [8], it is possible that these students that exhibit habitual lateness to school may have possessed certain values but were unable to act on these values prior to treatment. This assertion is in line with Bonow and Follette [10] conceptualization that values can change in a moment depending on the situation. So, treatments using such technique as academic values clarification probably made them realize how far they gone against acceptable academic values and what they are losing by coming late to school.

According to the findings of this study, the academic values clarification approach is successful in improving lateness behaviour and decreasing the degree of lateness in secondary school students.

Recommendations 

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:

• For Guidance counsellors, the academic values explanation approach is a successful technique for reducing students' lateness behaviour. As a result, practising counsellors should employ these approaches while counselling secondary school children to reduce students’ lateness to school

• 2. School principals should urge students who have a history of being late to school to seek counselling so that the counsellor can help their lateness behaviour by clarifying their academic values. The technique could help them overcome their challenge of lateness too school

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2. Jumare, M.A. et al. “Analysis on Students’ Late-coming Factors in Selected Secondary Schools in Zaria: Implications for Educational Managers.” Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 6, no. 32, 2015, pp. 55-61.

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