asked the Minister for Education if she will undertake to review the work of the school attendance committees with a view to clarifying their role in a modern educational context; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
194.
Written Answers. - School Attendance Committees.
193.
asked the Minister for Education the measures, if any, she is taking to monitor the effectiveness of the school attendance committees set up under the School Attendance Act, 1926, in the Dublin City and the School Attendance Committee Order, 1954; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 193 and 194 together.
The work of the school attendance committees established under the School Attendance Act, 1926 is monitored by my Department on an ongoing basis and I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the diligence and enthusiasm of the committee members and school attendance staff who carry out the task of enforcing the Act. Over the years since 1926 school attendance enforcement has taken on a role more related to an educational welfare service, where the failure to attend school is inextricably bound up with social problems in the family background rather than the wishes of the parents to keep the child at home to work as was the case in 1926. The school attendance committees and school attendance officers have adapted admirably over the years to meet this changing role, and the difficulties in relation to enforcement of the Act relate in the main to areas where there are no committees in existence and to the need to have a general review of the terms of the Act itself. I would propose to institute such a review as soon as circumstances permit.