In the wake of the pandemic, secondary students “are regularly taking a four-day week” and “they may be attending school even less frequently than that”, according to a council education manager.
Scott Mulholland, a member of education directors’ body ADES and assistant director of education for South Ayrshire Council, told the MSPs on the parliamentary education, children and young people committee yesterday that “the attitude to school attendance has changed” since pupils had their education disrupted because of Covid 19 - and it is an issue “across the country”.
He said: “From my own experience, what we have are a number of young people who are not attending school as regularly as we would hope.
“In fact, in our secondary schools in my own area, and speaking to colleagues through the ADES network, we’re seeing this across the country, where young people are regularly taking a four-day week. Or they may be attending school even less frequently than that, so the attitude to school attendance has changed.”
Tes Scotland can also reveal that the school attendance rate last week, on Wednesday 21 June, was 87.8 per cent across all schools. For primary the figure was 91.9 per cent, for secondary it was 82.1 per cent and for special schools it was 89.4 per cent.
The worst attendance rate (the proportion of sessions attended) last week was recorded for S4 pupils, whose attendance dropped below the 80 per cent mark, sitting at 78.3 per cent.
Pupils in the final year of primary school - P7 - had the best attendance rate at 93 per cent.
The attendance rate for pupils from the most deprived postcodes was 82.6 per cent; for pupils from the least deprived postcodes it was 92 per cent.
On 21 June last year, the overall attendance rate was 86.4 per cent, the primary attendance rate was 90.5 per cent and the secondary attendance rate was 80.5 per cent - meaning that this year’s figures for 21 June are an improvement on 2022.
However, Mel Ainscow, a professor of education at the University of Glasgow, said that although attendance had been “influenced by post-Covid pressures”, pupils not showing up for school had been “a problem in Scotland for many years” and that the attendance rate “should certainly be far higher than 90 per cent”.
Before the pandemic, figures on attendance were published every two years.
These biennial statistics, which cover a longer period and predate the weekly snapshots of attendance first introduced in response to Covid, show that in 2018-19 - the last school year uninterrupted by Covid - attendance across all sectors was 93 per cent but for secondary that figure was 90.7 per cent (for primary the attendance rate in 2018-19 was 94.5 per cent and for special schools it was 90.1 per cent).
Figures on attendance were also published in 2020-21 but these were impacted by the pandemic, including the lockdown in 2021, and the higher rates of absence because of Covid and self-isolation rules.
Professor Ainscow said: “We know that evidence can be a catalyst for efforts to address this challenge and my sense is that this has not been a strength in Scotland. More regular engagement with statistical data is crucial. In addition, qualitative evidence is needed to get behind the headline patterns. Put simply, we need to know: why are pupils not attending school regularly?”
Improving school attendance has been a big focus in England, where children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, is calling for a national campaign on the importance of school.
Mr Mulholland also told the MSPs on the education committee there was “PR work to be done around the impact of non-attendance on young people’s outcomes”.
He said schools had to recognise that sitting in a classroom all day was not going to be suitable for all children. He said outdoor learning and play pedagogy in the early years and in early primary could better meet the needs of these children.
Earlier this month, the director of education and children’s services in Fife, Carrie Lindsay, told the education committee that since the pandemic hit, there had been “a real problem with attendance”.
She said families had not “re-engaged with that value of schooling”, adding that she visited schools and nurseries every week and, in some nursery classes, there would be less than half the expected number of children.
A Scottish government spokesman said recent data suggested that - while attendance and absence fluctuated over the school year - “absences are now similar to average levels seen in previous years”.
However, he said that there were “variations at local level and between year groups” which the education secretary Jenny Gilruth was “keen to explore further with Cosla”.
The spokesman added: “National guidance supports the promotion of increased attendance and reduced absence. We know that attendance has been impacted for many young people by the pandemic and particularly for those people with caring responsibilities; it is important that schools work with families to support and engage pupils to maximise attendance at school.”
