The first national survey of school attendance in Irish schools, reported in today's edition, presents a deeply disturbing picture.
The problem is especially acute in disadvantaged areas where, at second-level, some 26 per cent of pupils are absent from the classroom for at least one full month every school year. Even at primary level, there is a high level of truancy in poorer areas.
The report from the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB), the new State agency with responsibility for school attendance matters, underlines how thousands of children, many in their early teens, are opting out of school. For some, as the Irish National Teachers' Organisation has pointed out, this will be the start of a drift towards early school drop-out, educational failure and a life of continuing disadvantage. Some will invariably fall into crime and drug abuse.
From the available evidence, we know that some 13,000 students leave the school system every year without completing the Leaving Certificate. About 3,000 pupils leave before the Junior Certificate, while a further 1,000 do not transfer from primary to secondary school. At the official launch of the NEWB, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said these were "frightening statistics" which represented a real challenge for policymakers and others.
In truth, the response to this challenge has been inadequate. The new board, which has taken over the role of school attendance officers and the Garda, has been underfunded and under-resourced since its inception. It beggars belief that there are nine counties in the State where there is not a single Education Welfare Officer employed to check on school attendance. As it is, the understaffed and overstretched board is said to be dealing with 1,500 acute cases and a total of 10,000 cases annually.
To their credit, the three teacher unions have been pressing for much more resources for the board - but there has been little in the way of an official response. The problem of school absenteeism needs to be addressed in school as well as outside the school gates. Many children are opting out of school because they are struggling in the classroom. A recent report highlighted how close to one-in-three of all children from poorer areas suffer from severe literacy problems. Many of these children have been deprived of the learning support which would make the school environment less of a daily challenge.
Additional resources alone will not resolve the absenteeism problems in disadvantaged schools. Some of the children who are now opting out of school come from an environment where little value is placed on schooling and education. In some housing estates in our major cities there are families where absenteeism from school has continued from one generation to the next. For all that, the State can do much better. If Mr Dempsey is serious about educational disadvantage, he can give the NEWB vastly improved resources and target funds to where they are most needed.