Poverty not linked with truancy levels

CHILDREN from poor families are no more likely to miss school regularly than other children.

The research finding is at odds with the claims of most education experts that pupils from disadvantaged areas, or whose parents depend on social welfare, have the highest rates of absenteeism and dropping out of school.

Dr Kevin Denny from UCD’s Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC) said school-experience issues such as class size and attitude to teachers are more likely to have an influence rather than poverty or wealth.

Analysis of international research provides little evidence that socio-economic background matters in the case of children who are regular absentees.

“This is perhaps more surprising since, in general, one would expect that more socio-economically advantaged parents would inculcate better behaviour,” he said.

Smaller class sizes help, as does a positive experience of teachers by children. Private schools in some cases lend themselves to better behaviour,” Dr Denny concluded.

His research was based on findings in six OECD countries included in the organisation’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report. He compared the levels of 15-year-olds in Ireland, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Russian and the United States who said they had missed school or skipped classes.

“Whatever benefits more socially advantaged parents are able to pass on to their children, better school attendance is apparently not one of them,” he wrote.

The findings are at variance with recent preliminary figures from the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB).

Professor Áine Hyland, chairperson of the Government’s Educational Disadvantage Committee, said that, while the ISSC figures seemed to conflict with popular conceptions, the closeness of non-attendance rates between well-off and poor areas in the NEWB report might support the findings.