Sir, – The focus by Dr Jacky Jones on the issue of school attendance is most welcome ("Why are politicians not talking about school attendance?", Health + Family, May 31st).
High levels of pupil absenteeism have been a feature of the Irish education system for decades. Regulations are governed by the provisions of the Education Welfare Act (2000). Unfortunately this legislation was introduced without any serious research into the nature, causes and extent of the problem. Devising a solution in the absence of such basic evidence was always unlikely to succeed. The faulty nature of the legislation was exacerbated by difficulties regarding the Education Welfare Service (EWS) which was set up to implement it.
Aside from strategic errors made by the new service at the outset, it has always been grossly under-resourced. Happily all is not lost as the EWS will have gained many insights into the nature of the problem since it was established. A review of the legislation and a more concentrated effort to tackle the issue can bring about improvements.
In this context, the provision in the programme for government to link the children’s allowance payments and school attendance has attracted comment, mostly negative and delivered, I would suggest, without any serious consideration.
At a very minimum such a step would facilitate identification of those children with poor attendance rates and allow for an early intervention.
Of course, a computerised primary school database would achieve the same objective but, although one was promised in 1999, it is not yet in place. Moreover, linking the databases would also identify those children who never attend school in the first place and are not home-educated either. Of course the controversy that arose, when the plan to link the databases was announced, related to the possibility that payment of children’s allowance might become dependent on regular school attendance. It seems to me that such a link is unlikely to be helpful except in the most extreme cases. Sadly, 25 years of dealing with this issue as a school principal has taught me that such cases, though not common, do exist.
Irregular patterns of school attendance are a symptom of educational disadvantage. It is recognised that erratic attendance is not in the child’s interest and is likely to have serious long-term implications, as your columnist points out. Often overlooked is the fact that other pupils may also lose out. A pupil in a class or school where erratic attendance is the norm loses out because the rhythm of the teaching is disturbed, even if that pupil has perfect attendance. So, in the interests of all children and young people, this is an issue the Government needs to address urgently. – Yours, etc,
Dr BRIAN FLEMING,
Palmerstown, Dublin 20.