An epidemic of truancy: A million school days are missed with a record number ... trends now
A record number of pupils are skipping school amid fears that thousands dropped out of state education after Covid lockdowns.
Startling figures show nearly one in three Scots children are deemed to be ‘persistent absentees’ after missing 10 per cent or more of the school year.
A million school days were missed because of ‘unexplained’ absences including truancy last year in secondaries, sparking calls for urgent action to get pupils back into the classroom.
Teaching unions said the SNP Government had not done enough to help children overcome the trauma of the lockdown years – and many pupils had simply ‘walked away’ from schooling.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Liam Kerr said the ‘deeply alarming’ figures ‘expose how many pupils have been abandoned on the SNP’s watch’.
He added: ‘They have allowed violence to spiral out of control and have presided over a widening attainment gap.
Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has ordered inspectors to address ‘persistent absence’ at every school
‘SNP ministers should be ensuring our classrooms are safe places to learn and pull out all the stops to guarantee young people are not missing out on an education.’
Scottish Government statistics for 2022-23 show 32.5 per cent of pupils were classed as ‘persistent absentees’ with an absence rate of 10 per cent or more. The figures, which are reported biannually, also reveal the overall attendance rate fell to 90.2 per cent – down from 92 per cent in 2020-21 and the lowest level since records began two decades ago.
In secondaries, the attendance rate was 82.2 per cent in 2022-23, while in primaries it was 90.6 per cent – also a record low.
The absence rate for unauthorised holidays increased from 0.3 per cent to 3.2 per cent, while for unexplained absences, including truancy, the rate was 2.3 per cent, up from 2.1 per cent.
The report said term-time holidays were the ‘biggest contributor to the increase in unauthorised absence from 2020-21’.
Pupils in the poorest parts of Scotland had a lower attendance rate (86.8 per cent ) than those in richer areas (93.5 per cent).
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said: ‘The return to education was badly managed post-Covid and government didn’t make sure pupils got the extra support they needed.
‘Children coming into secondaries are not at the level they should be at but formal exams have been restored, which means pupils are facing more pressure and some have been frightened off – some have voted with their feet and simply walked away from it.’
The data shows teacher numbers fell by 160 to 54,033 in 2023.
A spokesman for the EIS teaching union said: ‘The underfunding of education and cuts to staff have robbed many young people of the support they need.’
Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy said: ‘It is clear the SNP government is failing to support teachers – with pupils paying the price.’
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the rates of persistent absence are ‘not acceptable’ and added: ‘There must be a renewed drive to address this as a priority.’
The 4 reasons kids dodge school ... and what we need to do about it
Commentary by Cameron Wyllie
The rise in pupil absence rates represents nothing less than a disaster for thousands of young Scots – and for the education system.
Much of the blame can be attributed to the fallout from the lockdown years when schools were forced to close and pupils, in theory, learned remotely.
The latest figures for 2022-23 show a continuing decline in school attendance.
The headline figure is 90 per cent attendance – down from a fairly steady 93 per cent in the days before Covid.
Three per cent – does that really matter? If it was your child’s result in a
