Absences in Cork secondary schools have increased every year since 2019

More than a fifth of all Cork secondary school students missed at least 20 days of school in 2023-24, which is double pre-covid rates, Tusla data has shown.

While primary school absence rates have decreased from the highs seen during the pandemic, absences in the county’s secondary schools have increased every year since 2019.

The Tusla report tracked the percentage of students who missed more than 20 days and recorded the total number of absences as “school days lost”.

In Cork secondary schools, days lost increased from 8% in 2019-20 to 11.8% in 2023-24, which is higher than any other year in the five-year period. The figures show 21% of Cork students missed more than 20 days in 2023-24 — up from the 8% recorded in 2019-20.

Breakdown of the data shows 33% of Cork secondary school absences were due to illness, 2% to holidays, 4% “urgent”, 18% “other”, 43% “unexplained”, and 0.7% due to a suspension.

In primary schools, 7.7% of days were listed as lost in the most recent school year for which data is available, a decrease from 7.9% in the previous year, but a sharper decrease from almost 11% the year before, 2021-22.

In the year prior to covid, just 5.4% of school days were marked as lost.

The report also notes that, in the 2019-20 school year, just 4% of students missed more than 20 days, rising to a high of 37% in 2021-22, then falling to 20% in 2023-24, the most recent full school year.

Of total primary school days lost in Cork, 41% were listed as being due to illness, 13% to holiday, and a tiny 0.1% due to a suspension.

A Tusla spokesperson said that there is still a significant gap to bridge between current levels and pre-pandemic levels.

It comes as the Government, in partnership with the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), has announced the launch of a nationwide multimedia campaign to promote regular school attendance across Ireland.

Minister of state at the Department of Education, Cork North West TD Michael Moynihan, said: “Encouraging school attendance is within the power of everyone in a student’s life.

“When a child or young person can go to school, they should go to school.

“Every school day is a new day and a new opportunity for everyone to actively encourage school attendance.”