More than a third of pupils in the most disadvantaged primary schools are missing 20 or more school days a year. This is twice the rate recorded in non-Deis schools, according to new research.
The average number of days lost per student during the school year, as well as the proportion of pupils with chronic levels of absenteeism (20 or more days missed), have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. The trends show “little sign of improvement”, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study found.
Anna Moya, co-author of the report, said greater absence in schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged children and young people was concerning as it was likely to contribute to inequality in later life.
“It is particularly worrying that attendance in primary and post-primary Deis schools is not recovering as well as non-Deis schools in the post-Covid period,” she said.
“This points to the need for further support for these schools, potentially through the proposed ‘Deis plus’ model.”
The Department of Education’s Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) policy was introduced in 2005 to tackle educational disadvantage.
The research, published by the ESRI and produced in partnership with Tusla Education Support Service, examined patterns of non-attendance by type of school for 2022/23 and 2023/24.
School absence was more prevalent in primary and post-primary schools serving disadvantaged communities.
In 2023/24, 35 per cent of students in Urban Band 1 schools, which have the most disadvantaged profile, missed 20 or more days compared with 17 per cent in non-Deis schools.
Between 2022/23 and 2023/24, there was a modest improvement in attendance in primary schools, but a significant group of schools have seen an increase over the same timeframe.
A large minority of post-primary schools have seen a worsening situation. The authors stated that although disadvantaged schools have improved more in absolute terms, in relative terms they experienced a poorer trend due to starting from a worse position.
Using the HP Pobal Index of area-level deprivation, primary schools in affluent areas have the lowest level of chronic absence, at 16 per cent, with schools in disadvantaged areas having the highest rates, at 27 per cent.
Special schools also have very high rates of absence at primary level, with 31 per cent of students missing 20 or more days.
No significant differences were found between single-sex and coeducational primary schools in their levels of absence, while higher levels of absence were discovered in multi-denominational schools than in Catholic or minority faith schools.
In terms of post-primary schools, more than a quarter of students in Deis schools missed 20 or more days, compared to 19 per cent for non-Deis schools.
Absence levels were much lower in schools in more affluent areas, at 15 per cent, compared with schools in disadvantaged areas, at 26 per cent in 2023/24.
Boys’ schools were found to have lower rates of chronic absence than coeducational schools, but did not differ in the average number of days lost.