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.

The figures, issued by Tusla, also show 12.3% of primary pupils were absent for more 20 or more days — up 1.2% compared with 2014/15. The figure at secondary level was 14.9% of students, down 1.3% compared with the previous school year.

The data was compiled for the Child and Family Agency by David Millar of the Educational Research Centre, and shows that the rate of 20-plus day primary school absences in urban areas is almost double the rate in rural areas.

The figures also found that non-attendance is higher in schools in the School Support programme under Deis, although even within this group, absences were more pronounced in urban areas than in rural schools.

While the percentage of children suspended from school at both primary and post-primary level remained consistent with previous years at 0.3% and 3.9%, respectively, there were 195 expulsions at second level in 2015/16, up 62 compared with the previous school year.

Expulsions were “disproportionately higher” in special schools.

There were 19 expulsions from primary schools, a fall of two compared with 2014/15.

Tusla said it could not extrapolate from the data whether the growing number of children becoming homeless had had any impact on attendance.