Primary schools have warned parents that a growing trend towards taking pupils out of school for holidays is disrupting children’s education and may trigger notifications to social services.
Higher peak-season hospitality costs and a post-pandemic urge to travel abroad are some of the factors which appear to be behind an increase in holidays during term-time, according to school leaders.
As a result, schools say they are sending higher than normal numbers of school absence reports to Tusla, which are mandatory if a pupil has missed 20 or more days during the academic year.
Principals are required to state in these reports whether pupils have been away due to illness, holiday, urgent reasons or others.
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New figures compiled by Tusla show the estimated number of such extended absences due to holidays jumped from 60,000-65,000 in 2019 to 350,000 in 2021.
“It is a growing trend,” said one principal, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We certainly have noticed an increase in the number of children going on holidays during term time.
“From a purely financial point of view, I totally understand why parents do this, taking advantage of cheaper holidays, etc, but from an educational point of view I cannot condone it.”
Another said a significant number of pupils were hitting the 20-day absence mark due to a combination of routine illness during the year and being taken out of school for holidays.
“This is the first year we are getting testy responses from parents when we’ve notifying them about this,” the principal added. “Maybe Covid has prompted a more lackadaisical attitude towards attendance.”
Another principal commented: “We try to be humane about it. We understand where parents are coming from, so we’ve introduced a week’s break in May to allow family to do a cheaper holiday if they need to.”
The volume of 20-day pupil absences climbed dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic as students who tested positive or had symptoms were required to stay away from schools.
However, many schools say attendance continues to be an issue in the current school year compared to pre-pandemic norms.
Tusla said it is still collating figures on pupil absences for the current school year.
Pairic Clerkin of the Irish Primary Principals Network, said principals were required to encourage attendance at schools in line with their legal obligations.
“Schools proactively promote good attendance and encourage parents to ensure they attend every day, where possible,” he said. “The 20-day notifications to Tusla are a legal requirement, principals have do it. Our advice to principals is to proactively communicate with parents about their obligations.”
Meanwhile, new data on schools absences shows the full extent of school days lost by pupils when schools were open during the Covid era.
The pandemic resulted in the highest ever recorded number of days lost during the 2021-22 school year.
While schools fully reopened that year, high numbers of absences were linked to public health advice and soaring Covid cases.
Primary pupils missed 11 per cent of school days in 2021-22, up from a pre-pandemic average of 6 per cent, while second-level students missed 13 per cent, up from a pre-pandemic average of 8 per cent.
The number of pupils absent for 20-plus days at primary level climbed from more than 19,000 in 2019-20 to some 173,000 students in 2021–22, according to new school attendance data compiled by Tusla.
These figures are likely to be an underestimate given that response rates from schools fell during these years.
Similarly, the number of students absent for 20-plus days at second-level schools rose from almost 21,000 in 2019-20 to 69,000 in 2021-22.
