Children lost more than school hours during covid — and the disadvantaged lost the most

On top of lockdowns and missed days due to illness, Tusla reports a surge in unexplained absences, and the data shows that disadvantaged children are the hardest hit

The pandemic brought with it shutdowns and absences due to illness, but there has also been a surge in unexplained absences. Disadvantaged children were hit particularly badly, with 57.6% of students in Deis Band 1 schools missing 20-plus days in 2021/22. Stock picture

As the current school year came to an end, data published by Tusla confirmed what many had suspected — the pandemic severely impacted school attendance.

The scale of it is still staggering. Between illness, emergencies, and other factors, overall, 24.7m school days were lost between September 2019 and the summer of 2022.

There are many legitimate reasons behind these high rates of absences, of course. On the face of it, it’s not all that surprising when you think about the level of illness that circulated both during the worst days of the pandemic and during the months following the lifting of the last of the public health restrictions.

During those years, many students suffered bereavement or had urgent family matters crop up. Public health advice counselled keeping children at home when they had symptoms. Many would have also missed days if someone in their home tested positive, or if their family was taking extra precautions to protect high-risk family members.

Tusla's school attendance data shows a surge in absences in recent years, with a disproportionate increase in disadvantaged schools. 

Many parents may have opted to keep their children out of school during major spikes of the virus. After a horrible few years, it’s also likely, and understandable, that many parents may have relaxed their own personal stances on school attendance, allowing an occasional “duvet day” or two.

But, even accounting for illness, students missed a whole lot of school across those three years. Aside from the covid learning and support scheme (Class) — a Department of Education scheme dedicated to addressing learning lost during the school closures of 2020 and 2021 — there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated plan or further strategy for addressing the educational attainment gap that has surely widened following these lost days.

With poor attendance seen as one of the first red flags to indicate the potential for early school leaving, Tusla must be notified by law if a child misses 20 days or more in a school year. This metric skyrocketed between September 2019 and the summer of 2022, across the board, but particularly for children in Deis Band 1 primary schools.

Disadvantage compounded

While better-off families may have the necessary resources to make sure their children catch up on missed days, it’s not as easy for families who are already struggling.

Amid the cost-of-living crisis, the effects on school attendance of covid may not be a parent's only priority, '[i]f you are worried about where your next meal is going to come from'. Stock picture: Danny Lawson/PA 

“There is no substitute for being with your class, learning from your teacher, learning from your peers,” one deputy principal of a Deis primary school in Cork told the Irish Examiner.

“Discovering things in the classroom, or from being out and about. Take a geography lesson; where you are out learning in the environment that you are talking about in the books. Discovering things like different trees, leaves, growing, planting; all those opportunities for learning were stunted during the pandemic.

“How does a child who is in a high-rise building — up three storeys with no grass area around them — how do they discover that at home? They have to come to school, they have to be able to access these things in school. 

"These are issues that are fundamental to us as educators but that have been stunted due to the pandemic. The blame falls to nobody but it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”

The figures in the report line up with the experience in his school, and others.

“Anyone who has a home school liaison or is working with a school completion team, they are knocking on doors every single day. 

"In certain situations, they are knocking after school, trying to find out what’s going on, giving up their own time to check if the children, first of all, are OK, and to try and find out how we can negate the problem; is there anything we can do? 

It’s worrying. As educators all we want is for the children to come in and sit in front of us, to give us the chance to nurture them and give them the best possible start in life.

However, it’s also been difficult to assess the full impact of the pandemic, the Deis deputy principal believes.

“We’ve come right out into another serious social issue,” he says. 

“The cost of living has gone through the roof, so parents and children alike don’t know whether they are coming or going because they are coming out of a pandemic and then being hit with all these price hikes.

“We in schools then are piling pressure on, trying to get them into school because we feel it’s the safest environment for them. 

"It’s an environment where they will be nurtured and cared for, and where they will get a good education.

But if you are worried about where your next meal is going to come from, or if you are worried about how you are going to pay for diesel to get in and out of work, suddenly these things become less and less important.

There was a profound interruption in the school life of children which we are still recovering from, according to Labour’s education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin.

“I am most concerned about those who don’t have other supports," he said. 

"There’s a sort of ‘well, let’s move on’ attitude from the Department of Education that does not recognise the reality of school life. Those poor attendance patterns can be embedded at a very early stage, and we haven’t gotten around to beginning to assess how to address that.

“The feeling of ‘well, it’s over now, everybody is back in school and we are fine’ is nowhere near the lived reality of what teachers are experiencing.”

He is currently working with principals from three schools in Dublin who are seeking a Deis+ programme for schools severly impacted by disadvantage. 

The expansion of the Deis scheme in 2022, Mr Ó Ríordáin said, doesn’t “help the existing profoundly disadvantaged schools who are experiencing things that the average middle-class family could not get their brain around”.

The covid learning and support scheme (CLASS) was actually a “very positive move”, according to Sinn Féin education spokeswoman Sorca Clarke.

“However, it was reliant on the children actually getting to school, which is one of the biggest challenges,” she said.

“Schools have an important role to play in all this, they are absolutely critical, but on their own they are not the solution. If you look at the waiting lists for things like Camhs and psychology service are in the community, and you think of the assessments and therapies delayed, there’s a wider issue at play.

“The department should be looking at extending the home school liaison service outside of Deis schools so that where there is an identified need, there would be a specific home school liaison officer available to go and rebuild that relationship.”

Sinn Féin education spokeswoman Sorca Clarke said the CLASS covid learning and support scheme was a positive move but 'it was reliant on the children actually getting to school, which is one of the biggest challenges'. File picture

For the deputy principal in Cork, a new focus on wellbeing as part of the primary school curriculum sparks hope. 

“I think, finally, people are starting to see the wellbeing of the children plays a huge impact on the attendance of children. I think with that becoming a new subject in primary schools, it’s really valuable and it’s going to be hugely important for us to address the attendance going forward.”

The upcoming budget also would be a fantastic opportunity to address any "catch-up" programmes, he added.