KEEP THEM IN CLASS: The Practical Guide

Practical Strategies for Teachers, School Counsellors, Parents and School Administrators

The child who keeps missing classes. The student who sits in school but never stays in class. The teenager who has stopped caring about education.

Discover practical ways to understand why students skip school, rebuild their motivation, and help them stay in class using proven counselling approaches and ready-to-use tools designed for real school environments.

What if the student you keep punishing is actually asking for help?

You have marked the register. You have warned the student. You have reported the repeated absences to the principal. Perhaps you have called the parents or tried stricter punishment.

Yet the student still skips classes.

What if the problem is not simply that the student is lazy or disobedient?

In 2024, Dr. Isiaka Taiwo Dada engaged 57 secondary school students with a history of persistent absenteeism in Lagos State. When he asked why they skipped school, their answers revealed deeper challenges, including bullying, academic struggles, embarrassment, peer pressure, financial difficulties, and a loss of purpose.

Keep Them in Class: The Practical Guide translates these experiences into practical strategies that teachers, counsellors, parents, and school leaders can use to understand struggling students and help them reconnect with school.

Rather than relying solely on punishment, this book shows you how to have better conversations, identify early warning signs, build student motivation, and create practical intervention plans.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

1. How to Identify Disconnected Students Early

Recognise the warning signs of disengagement, including students who are physically present but mentally absent, repeatedly disappear during lessons, or withdraw from classroom activities.

2. Have Conversations That Help Students Open Up

Learn how to conduct a structured 20-minute conversation that helps students explain their challenges, identify personal goals, and agree on small, realistic steps towards change.

3. Make School Meaningful Again

Discover how to connect classroom subjects to students' real-life interests, personal ambitions, and future goals through a practical four-week Meaning Project.

4. Address Negative Self-Talk and Low Motivation

Help students recognise unhelpful beliefs, challenge negative assumptions about themselves, and develop more constructive ways of thinking about school and their future.

5. Help Students Navigate Peer Pressure

Use the four-week Treasure Hunt for Good Friends plan to help students recognise unhealthy peer influence, practise refusal skills, build supportive relationships, and prepare for difficult situations.

6. Build a Stronger Partnership Between Parents and Schools

Learn practical ways to involve parents in addressing absenteeism, understand challenges at home, improve communication, and work together to support the student.

7. Implement a Practical 12-Week Intervention Plan

Follow a structured approach to help teachers, counsellors, and parents identify struggling students, plan interventions, monitor progress, and provide consistent support.

WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOOK?

This is a practical guide designed to help you take action, not just understand the problem.

Inside, you will find:

• Practical strategies for identifying students at risk of persistent absenteeism and class-skipping.
• Ready-to-use conversation scripts for teachers and counsellors.
• Student motivation and goal-setting activities.
• Worksheets for exploring challenges, personal goals, and behaviour change.
• A four-week Meaning Project.
• A four-week plan for building healthier peer relationships.
• Practical guidance on changing negative self-talk.
• A Home Partnership Plan for working with parents.
• Guidance for school administrators and education officials on staff training and early intervention.
• A 12-week action plan and checklists for teachers, counsellors, and parents.

The methods draw on Motivational Enhancement Therapy, Behaviour Therapy, and Meaning-Centred Therapy, adapted for practical use in Nigerian school settings.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?

Teachers: If you are tired of repeatedly disciplining students who keep missing lessons, this guide will help you look beyond the behaviour and identify practical ways to intervene.

School counsellors and guidance counsellors: If you need structured conversation guides, intervention activities, and worksheets to support students struggling with attendance and school engagement, this book provides practical resources to work with.

School principals and administrators: If your school is dealing with persistent absenteeism, truancy, or students roaming around during lessons, discover ways to build a more structured approach to early intervention.

Parents and guardians: If your child has lost interest in school, frequently misses classes, or struggles to stay motivated, learn how to communicate more effectively and work with the school to address the underlying challenges.

Education officers, NGOs, and school trainers: Use the frameworks and training guidance to support teachers, strengthen school-based interventions, and promote student engagement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Isiaka Taiwo Dada holds a PhD in Counselling Psychology from the University of Ibadan and lectures in the Department of Guidance and Counselling at Federal University Lokoja.

He previously spent over fifteen years working in Lagos State schools, first as a school counsellor and later as a District Counsellor for Education District VI, coordinating counselling services across 106 schools.

His work combines academic research with practical experience in school counselling, making this guide relevant to the everyday challenges faced by Nigerian educators.

EVERY EMPTY SEAT TELLS A STORY.

Behind repeated absences may be a student who feels misunderstood, embarrassed, unsafe, or disconnected from the future they hope to build.

You may not be able to solve every problem a student faces. But you can learn to recognise the warning signs, ask better questions, and take meaningful steps towards helping that student.

Get your copy of Keep Them in Class: The Practical Guide today and start building a more thoughtful, practical approach to student attendance and engagement.