Education / Figures show school absences have risen since pandemic
SCHOOL absence rates in Shetland have risen since before the Covid pandemic – echoing somewhat a national picture which has been described as “alarming”.
For example 285 pupils in Shetland had an attendance rate of less than 90 per cent in S1-S3 in 2022/23, compared to 165 in 2018/29.
There have been rises in all age groups, from P1 through to S6.
The Commission on School Reform, which released the statistics, says in Scotland nearly one in three children are missing an average of one day per fortnight.
It has called on the Scottish Government to take the issue more seriously, to investigate and collect the data at a national level, and to work with willing local authorities on a pilot scheme to reverse this “dangerous trend of absence”.
However, chairman of Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee Davie Sandison said the local “numbers are actually not as bad as portrayed across the whole country.”
He said only around one per cent of the absences recorded are unauthorised.
Although school absences are a complex issue and there are many factors behind them, there appears to be a rise across the board in Shetland since before the Covid pandemic and the remote learning pupils had to go through.
The number of pupils with attendance of less than 90 per cent in P1-P4 in 2017/18 was 106, rising to 252 in 2022/23.
For P5-P7 that figure rises from 88 to 191, and S4-S6 it increases from 157 to 201.
For pupils with an attendance rate of less than 80 per cent, there are far less numbers but the increase across all age groups is nearly 50 per cent.
Across Scotland the commission says nearly 80,000 children miss a day of school every week.
Keir Bloomer, chair of the Commission on School Reform and a former local authority director of education, said: “School absence is a matter of national importance and should be treated as such.
“Children who miss a large proportion of school time are less likely to attain and less likely to form good relationships, as well as being disruptive to the family environment at home and the learning environment in class.
“School education is the most important driver of individual and national success, and it is time we recognised these links.”
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