The scale of the “crisis” of children missing from England’s classrooms is laid bare in new figures which show the absentee rate remains far above pre-pandemic levels. The findings have triggered warnings the absentee scandal is now “entrenched” and not a “blip”.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza is concerned “one in 50 children” are missing “at least half of school”. There is alarm 148,000 children in the autumn term were “severely absent” – missing 50% of sessions – up from 142,000 the year before.
Nearly 18% of children in the autumn term were classed as “persistent” absentees – an improvement on the 19.4% the previous year. This means they missed 10% or more half-day sessions.
Overall, children in England had an absentee rate of 6.4%, down from 6.7%.
Beth Prescott of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warned that unless the crisis is tackled it will send a “wave of harm through our economy, driving more young people towards a life of wasted potential and benefit dependency”.
The CSJ fears that without “urgent action” nearly 180,000 pupils will leave school and not go into education, employment or training at a lifetime cost to the taxpayer of £14billion.
Ms Prescott said: “Five years on from school closures, classroom absences can no longer be viewed as a post-pandemic blip.”
Before the Covid crisis, the overall absentee rate was, according to the Department for Education, “consistently below 5%”.
Zachary Marsh, an education specialist with the Policy Exchange think tank, warned: “These absence rates represent thousands of hours of lost learning that will see children fall behind, harming their life chances for years to come. This must be tackled urgently to ensure England’s young people get the opportunities and outcomes they deserve.”
Illness accounted for 3.3% of absences.
A glimmer of hope is that overall absentee rates have dipped on the previous year, down from 5.3% to 5.1% in primary schools and down from 8.2% to 7.7% in secondary schools. But this is much higher than in 2018-19, when the absentee rate was 3.7% for primary schools and 5% in secondary schools.
The CSJ’s analysis of the latest figures found children on free school meals are “nearly four times more likely to be severely absent than their peers”.
Ms Prescott urged the Labour Government to “work with local charities and families to provide more absent pupils with the mentorship they need to return to school”.
But she warned that “with the crisis deepening we need to attack the root causes of school absence, including softening parental attitudes to attendance and an education system that fails to engage thousands of young people”.
The Department for Education said the figures represent the “biggest year-on-year improvement in attendance for a decade”.
It is encouraged that “more than 140,000 fewer pupils are persistently absent compared to last year”. The Government claims a single day out of school costs “an estimated £750 in lost earnings across the course of a career for a typical student” – and says the progress made will “protect over £2billion in pupils’ future earnings”.
Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said: “The record improvement in school attendance shows we are turning the tide on a crisis that saw a generation go missing from England’s schools. Getting children back in classrooms, where they belong, is non-negotiable if we are to break the unfair link between background and success so we can build a fairer country – a cornerstone of our plan for change.
“When we tackle attendance head-on, everyone benefits – pupils get the consistent education they deserve, teachers can focus on driving up standards, and we build the stronger workforce our economy needs.”
The figures also show that children in some of the poorest parts of the country are significantly more likely to be missing from school than those in richer areas.
Overall absentee rates were highest in the North East (6.9%) and lowest in London (6%).
