CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Lateness and punctuality are common phenomena in life activities. They are opposite sides of each other, like opposite sides of a coin. Punctuality entails doing things in time (early). Lateness entails doing things behind time schedule. Lateness is generally what one experiences in everyday activities at home and public life. Evidence abound that people go late to activities, including work. Teachers come late to school; workers in other fields of work attend to their duties late. This has negative effect on both the work and the workers (employees) respectively. The work may be done hurriedly and at the end the output may be less and of poor quality. In the work situation, lateness by the employees without permission from the supervisor in advance will attract him sanction and he may look for an opportunity to work the balance of his scheduled shift as a make-up (Internet Resource, 2008). According to Green (2007) many people possess this sad habit, and there are some who are constantly and consistently late. He finally concluded that millions of people suffer from it.

Daily observations show that many students in different parts of Nigeria come late to school habitually, be it private,

public or mission secondary schools. Between the hours of 9.00am and 10.00am, secondary schools students are seen coming to school which had started by 7.30am or 7.45am. This problem is considered serious enough in the sense that teachers who ought to be in the class teaching between these hours of 9.00am and 10.00am are busy monitoring the latecomers. It is also observed that lateness to school by these secondary schools students is increasing at a tremendous rate all through the country. Ifelunni (1991) equally noted that the rate at which students go late to school is on the increase.

Consequent upon the observed increase in lateness in secondary schools by students, there is a feeling that there are various factors contributing to this problem among students. Thus, one can argue that the extent of lateness a student exhibits depends on these factors, which may be acting singly, or in combination for some students and not others. Adeyemo (1975) outlined these factors to include bad company, keeping late nights and uninteresting method of teaching by the teacher. Oyebanre (2000) suggested that maladaptive behaviour, which includes lateness to school, is caused by poor conditions in homes and environment; and that it is more prevalent among lower-socio-economic population.

Lateness to school has some negative implications for the students. It may lead to the students telling lies`, cheating, keeping malice, quarreling, missing class lessons and failing examinations (Anagbogu, 2002). It may also lead to truancy and dropping out of school (Ogbuvbu, 2008). Moreover, experience shows that students who come late to school are severely punished. For example, they are beaten, flogged and kept under the sun kneeling down for long hours; all in a bid to see if they will either stop coming late to school, or at least reduce the rate at which they come late to school.

Despite such punishment measures as noted earlier, which the school authority uses to check lateness among secondary school students, these students still come late to school. This is worrisome, and one stands to reason that punishment does not help in solving problem behaviour among students. Instead it has lead to increase in undesirable behaviour like aggression. Such punishment strategies as tongue-lashing, prolonged torture, ridiculing and flogging among others, no doubt inflict pains on the late comers. Moreover, they tend to cause more psychological, emotional, social, moral and personal problems than bring about the desired results. Verbal punishment for instance could make a late-coming student lose confidence in himself

or herself since it is ego-deflating. This inhibits the student’s attainment of his or her goals.

Since the various forms of punishments commonly used in secondary schools to address lateness behaviour among students have failed but even have in some cases increased their problems leading to increased lateness, the researcher is motivated to tackle the problem using two counselling techniques of cognitive restructuring and shaping.

Cognitive restructuring is a technique in cognitive therapy developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s. Cognitive restructuring aims at removing one’s “faulty thinking” and irrational counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones. (Internet Resources, 2007). It is a process by which the individual is made to avoid crooked and irrational thinking and think straight (Essuman, Nwaogu and Nwachuku, 1990). The therapy restructures the already structured irrational thoughts, beliefs and philosophies, which an individual has already acquired by redressing and changing them at the mental level of the person concerned to ensure his happiness and efficiency at school or workplace (Uba, 1989).

Shaping strategy is training the individual to acquire a desired behaviour by reinforcing every response the individual makes which brings him or her closer to the desired

behaviour while eliminating the undesired response by ignoring them through non-reinforcement. It implies using reinforcement to bring about change in behaviour. According to Okoli (2002), the technique is used to teach new behaviour. Invariably, it is necessary to investigate the effect of cognitive restructuring technique and shaping technique in handling lateness among secondary school students.

It is important to note that these techniques have proved effective in handling some problem behaviours. For instance, Chukwunonyem (2001) used cognitive restructuring technique to change pupils’ behaviour in mathematics, and Isaac (as cited in Akinade & Adedipe, 1994) used shaping successfully to reinstate verbal behaviour in hospitalized psychotics. Therefore, it is hoped that the techniques will also be effective in handling lateness among students.

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