LONDON (AFP) — Education officials in England on Thursday raised the alarm about school absenteeism, saying that the pandemic, home-working, mental health issues and insufficient funding had all contributed to plummeting attendances.
Nearly one in five pupils in England were “persistently absent,” meaning they missed at least 10% of school sessions, in the autumn and spring terms of 2023/24, according to the annual report by education watchdog Ofsted.
That is almost double the pre-pandemic rate.
Up to 300,000 children missed education entirely last year in England, according to a report published by the Education Policy Institute Wednesday.
The head of Ofsted said absenteeism was higher on Fridays, suggesting that home-working parents were keeping their children off school.
“Pre-pandemic, we used to notice as headteachers and teachers that if parents did work from home they would send their children in,” Martyn Oliver told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” on Thursday. “But now post-pandemic we also see parents are working from home and sometimes they keep their children off with them,” he added.
‘Flexi-schooling’
Oliver later told journalists that the pandemic lockdowns had left the system “fractured and fragmented”. He said he was “concerned” about the growing number of children “whose pattern of education is disjointed.”
And he highlighted the growing trend of “flexi-schooling,” where parents home-educate their children for part of the week.
Some 34,000 children are on part-time school timetables, said the Ofsted report, the practice particularly prevalent among pupils with special educational needs, disabilities and behavior needs.
“The spread of part-time timetables suggests they are becoming more readily used, which cannot be good,” said Oliver.
There is also a “very significant number of children who have, one way or another, been opted out of more orthodox patterns of education,” he added.
The institute’s estimate that 300,000 children missed education entirely last year was “extremely concerning,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of education union NAHT.
“There are many factors affecting this, including the pandemic, cost of living crisis, and a decade of austerity under previous government,” he said.
“Funding for children’s mental health services and provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities has failed to keep pace with demand,” he added.
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By Agence France-Presse