Phone calls, text messages or e-mails will be delivered to parents within minutes if their child is absent from school, in a radical new system introduced in a Co Meath school yesterday.
Under the TruancyCall system parents are automatically notified if their child fails to appear at morning registration. The system allows parents to notify the school if their child is ill. But the school can also alert parents if their child has failed to report. The system was launched at Dunshaughlin Community College, Co Meath, yesterday. The school is one of just 12 worldwide selected for development by Microsoft as a "school of the future" through this kind of innovative use of technology.
The introduction of TruancyCall comes amid increasing concern about absenteeism from Irish schools. Figures released by the school attendance board revealed that 84,000 children under the age of 16 miss more than 20 days each year. In the most disadvantaged areas, primary school students missed 15 school days on average in the 2004-05 school year, compared to an average of 10 days by pupils in the least disadvantaged areas.
Schools must report a student to the school attendance body - the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB) - once he or she misses 20 days from school or has been suspended for six days or more. The Government has recently agreed to increase the number of education welfare officers from 94 to 109, but several counties are not covered. These are Leitrim, Cavan and Roscommon.
The NEWB says it needs about 300 officers to provide a fully comprehensive service. In 2005, it dealt with over 8,000 cases, but this is only a fraction of the number referred to the board.
The Innovative Schools Programme, launched in Edinburgh earlier this year by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, is designed to facilitate learning through technology. Research emerging from the programme will be used to develop best practices in other schools worldwide. While the programme for each school differs, it is expected that all students at the Dunshaughlin college will work from laptops, develop e-portfolios and work on an internal school network, possibly with a virtual teaching assistant.
Microsoft has invested €25 million in the project, which was launched over three years ago and has reached 2.8 million educators and 53 million students worldwide.
