Truancy officers to resume duties by year-end

UP to 86 officers should be in place by the end of the year to monitor children playing truant from school.

However, in their absence, nothing is being done about the hundreds of children who are still failing to turn up in classes around the country every morning.

General secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) John Carr said it was vulnerable children who were being punished by the delays. A sample study of four Dublin primary schools in disadvantaged areas shows as many as half their pupils are missing more than 15 days every year.