More staff needed to tackle school absenteeism

THE National Educational Welfare Board is demanding extra staff to help deal with more than 80,000 students who miss at least a month of school every year.

The call comes despite a lack of resources for extra staff in the Government’s spending plans.

Latest figures from the NEWB show that almost one-in-five second-level students - around 37,000 young people - missed more than 20 days in the last school year, the same as in 2003/2004. In the country’s most disadvantaged areas, more than one-third of second-level students are in this situation.