Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 8 Jun 2000

Vol. 520 No. 5

Written Answers. - School Absenteeism.

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

57 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will report on the level of information available to him regarding absentee rates in second-level school; the research, if any, which he has commissioned into the underlying causes of this; and if he will outline his proposals for tackling this increasing problem. [16167/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

Second level schools are not required to notify my Department when pupils absent themselves from school and for this reason the information available to me on absentee rates is largely anecdotal. However, I am aware that schools and other agencies dealing with young people are reporting their concerns in this area. At present, school attendance by young people up to the age of 15 years is compulsory under the School Attendance Act, 1926. The enforcing authorities for this Act in Cork, parts of Dublin, Waterford and Dún Laoghaire are the respective corporations or councils. Outside these areas, the Garda Síochána is the enforcing authority. At present, there is no national authority to monitor or co-ordinate school attendance data at a national level.

The Education (Welfare) Bill 1999, currently before the House, addresses this deficiency. This Bill provides for a comprehensive range of measures to deal with the problem of school non-attendance. Among the key objectives is the establishment of a single national authority with responsibility to co-ordinate action in relation to school attendance on a countrywide basis. The focus of the national authority will be the provision of assistance and support, through locally based educational welfare officers, to schools and families rather than on penalties for non-attendance at school. Schools will have the responsibility to maintain accurate and up to date records of the attendance of their pupils, which will be available for the education welfare officer to inspect during the year. At the end of each school year the managerial authority of a school will prepare a report for the education welfare officer on the levels of attendance at that school during the year. The national board will co-ordinate these figures at a national level.

The Bill also includes specific measures for the early identification and support of children at risk of dropping out of the school system. This should help identify young people who may be at risk of early school leaving thus allowing preventative measures to be put in place.

However, legislative solutions are not in themselves enough and it is vitally important that we also have in place strategies to encourage and support schools in retaining pupils to completion of senior cycle. The Government's Stay in School retention initiative is designed to provide resources to schools where the problem of drop out is most acute. At the core of this new strategy is the empowerment of schools to participate in framing plans for addressing this problem. Fifty-seven schools experiencing retention problems accepted invitations to participate in this initiative late last year. All of these schools are now implementing and developing their school plans. These plans are tailored by the schools to counter their own local problems and consist of a wide range of measures to encourage and support those of their pupils who are at risk of early school leaving. I recently announced the expansion of this initiative and 59 additional schools have now been invited to participate bringing the total number of schools involved to 116.

This issue is not a simple one and in order to have a real chance of success the solution must be wide-ranging and include strategies for identification, balancing of rights, statutory safeguards and school empowerment. I have outlined the major steps being taken to address the issue and I am confident that these steps will provide the basis for developing and refining strategies to counter school non-attendance in the future.