Almost 60,000 pupils absent each day

An increasing number of children are missing more days of school, with figures also showing a spike in the number of students expelled at post-primary level.

School attendance data for the 2015/16 school year, to be published later today, estimates around 59,900 students miss school every day. That equates to a loss of 11 school days for a primary school student and 13 days lost for a second-level student.

The overall percentage of days lost was 5.9% at primary level and 7.9% at secondary level — the third annual increase in a row.