ABSTRACT
There is no single cause of truancy. If there was, finding a solution would be easy.
Every truant is unique. So is every school and every family unit. The decision to start truanting is an extremely significant one. Usually, pupils decide to start ‘mitching’ school because they are: (a) avoiding a potentially difficult situation (e.g. bullying); (b) sending out a signal that they need help or are, in some other way, at risk; (c) overwhelmed by their home or social circumstances; (d) psychologically distressed; (e) at a point of no return, perhaps at the end of their tether; (f) seriously disenchanted with school, a teacher or fellow pupils; (g) struggling with their schoolwork; (h) unwell; (i) under peer pressure to miss school. Some of these reasons are social, some psychological, and some educational. To a greater or lesser extent, every truant has some social, psychological and educational reasons for missing school. However, the initial ‘trigger-point’ for truancy is normally a single incident which may be social, psychological or educational. Later, in Chapter 6, evidence is presented which shows that the majority of initial ‘trigger-points’ for truancy are educational.
