School attendance rates begin climbing after bumpy start to school term

Following a bumpy start to the school term, many schools say school attendance has climbed back upwards this week.

Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers' Union Ireland (TUI), said secondary schools were seeing a "notable improvement" in both teachers and students returning to the classroom.

There were “a few outliers” associated with outbreaks in certain counties but overall the attendance rate across the country was improving.

Difficulty in accessing PCR tests “seemed to be causing the biggest problem for teacher absences”, he said, as some teachers who were symptomatic believed they had to begin isolation from the date of a positive PCR result rather than from the start of symptoms.

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The HSE advises people should start to self-isolate as soon as they get symptoms of Covid-19 or get a positive antigen test result.

Seamus Mulconry, general secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, said absences have decreased from 25-30 per cent to about 15 per cent this week.

“Things are stabilising but still immensely challenging. School communities are making a huge effort to maintain some continuity,” he said.

Páiric Clerkin, chief executive of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, said early indications showed a “slight improvement” in attendance rates in primary schools this week.

The availability of student teachers to help with the substitution crisis was “definitely helping” with staff absences, he said. However, he said schools were “still asking for contact tracing to be reinstated”.

Pupil numbers

Bryan Collins, principal of Scoil Naomh Feichín in Termonfeckin, Co Louth, said while pupil numbers fell to an all-time low of about 70 per cent last week, they had recovered to around 90 per cent this week.

“Our pupil numbers would normally be at around 94-95 per cent, so we’re still a bit below that. The children who are missing are out for good reason: they tested positive or they are close contacts. No one is staying away out of fear,” he said

The number of teachers available had also recovered at the school: all of its core team of 15 teachers were back in the classroom.“Things have improved for now. That could all change tomorrow, which is the unnerving part,” he said.

He said there was a similar pattern across dozens of other schools in the region, based on comments from principals on social media.

Matt Melvin, principal of St Etchen’s National School in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, said school attendance has returned to its highest level since mid-December.

While the school had nine teachers out last week for Covid and other reasons, four returned recently and two more are due back at the end of the week.

"This week is a lot better. There's a can-do attitude and I think it was the right move to reopen schools. Everyone is delighted to be back," he said.

The principal of a Dublin secondary school, who declined to be named, said while student numbers were better this week, they were still well below average.

“We had 36 per cent absent last week. This week it’s just under 20 per cent. The hard thing is those students who are isolating don’t have access to remote learning,” the principal said.

“Our teacher numbers are down by about 20 per cent for Covid reasons. It’s been that way since November. We’re still very much teetering on the brink and just about keeping everything together. That could all change at any time.”