A Scottish think tank is calling for a government investigation into the number of pupils regularly absent from school, after uncovering figures that show nearly a fifth of Scottish secondary students missed a day per week of school in 2022-23.
New figures show that 18 per cent of secondary students had an attendance rate of less than 80 per cent last year - equivalent to missing at least one day of school a week.
The Commission on School Reform, part of the Reform Scotland think tank, which compiled the statistics using freedom of information legislation, also gathered information on pupils with attendance rates of 90 per cent or less - equivalent to missing a day of school a fortnight.
A total of 40 per cent of secondary students attended school for less than 90 per cent of the time last year, up from around 30 per cent before the pandemic, in 2018-19.
The figures in the report Absent Minds: Attendance and Absence in Scotland’s Schools show that attendance at school gets worse as pupils get older.
However, in primary schools, attendance has also deteriorated significantly since the pandemic.
For example, while in 2018-19, 3.4 per cent of P1-4 pupils were absent at least one day a week on average, or attended less than 80 per cent of the time, by last year that had more than doubled to 7.1 per cent.
And while 15 per cent of P1-4 pupils had an attendance rate of less than 90 per cent in 2018-19 (or at least one day off every fortnight), by last year that had risen to 25 per cent.
Overall, the commission found that 210,672 pupils from Scottish local authority schools had an attendance rate of less than 90 per cent in 2022-23, equivalent to 32 per cent of all pupils.
Meanwhile, 79,633 had attendance of less than 80 per cent, equivalent to 12 per cent of pupils.
In 2018-19, the last year unaffected by Covid, the figures were 141,502 and 46,381 (21 per cent and 7 per cent respectively).
‘Cause for alarm’
In a report on the findings, the Commission on School Reform said the statistics should be “cause for alarm and prompting investigation and action”.
It called on the Scottish government “to conduct a proper investigation into the problem, to identify what are the potential triggers and to explore how these can be addressed”.
The commission criticised the government for a lack of “comprehensive and authoritative data” on absence, saying: “We need to better understand the problem in order to develop solutions.”
It pointed out that school attendance and absence statistics are published just once every two years in Scotland, with the most up-to-date figures available applying to 2020-21.
Attendance problem
It said the government should publish statistics on attendance and absence annually and in more detail, including the number of pupils with less than 90 per cent, less than 80 per cent and less than 50 per cent attendance.
The overall attendance rate data published currently gave “no sense of the scale of the problem”, it said.
Keir Bloomer, chair of the Commission on School Reform and a former local authority education director, said children who miss a lot of school are less likely to attain and lead successful lives.
He added: “It is impossible for a child to reach their full potential with this level of absence, and we must collectively grasp this problem before more damage is done.”
Responding to the research, a Scottish government spokesman said recent data suggested overall absence rates were now similar to average levels seen in previous years - but that there were variations at local level and between year groups.
He said the education secretary Jenny Gilruth had asked Education Scotland to investigate “the current challenges” and that she would “explore these findings with Cosla when she receives them later this month”.
He added: ”We know that attendance has been impacted for many young people by Covid-19, particularly for those people with caring responsibilities and those cohorts who experienced transition during the pandemic.
“We are clear that everyone involved with the education system must redouble efforts to ensure children are fully engaged in their learning. Attendance is vital - and ministers are willing to explore all options to make progress.”
