Absentee rates in physical education in high schools: The importance of gender and study programmes

Little is known about absenteeism in high school physical education (PE) in relation to study programme and gender. This study investigated the impact of gender and study programme on absentee rates in PE by analyzing data, using non-parametric statistical analyses, from the absentee registers for all 6928 students in Nordland Country. The results showed that the absentee rates in PE differed among four categorized studies; vocational subjects in general, and vocational subjects dominated by the girls had the highest absentee rates. Girls had a higher absentee rate in PE than boys. Girls attending vocational subjects dominated by boys had higher absentee rate in PE than boys, while there was no gender difference within the other three categories. The findings may help teachers in high school identify the study programmes in which absence is a major problem, especially among students in girls dominated vocational subjects, and girls in vocational subjects dominated by boys.   Key words: Absenteeism, high school, study programme, gender.