THOUSANDS of pupils in Edinburgh’s schools failed to attend most of their classes from 2020 to 2024, with persistent absences skyrocketing since Covid.
More than 3,300 pupils missed the majority of their classes for the school year from 2020 to 2024.
The issue is particularly pronounced in Edinburgh’s secondary schools, where the number of pupils reported to have attendance figures of less than 50% across the four years is more than 2,600.
In 2020, before the school year was truncated by Covid, the number of pupils that missed more than half of school days was at just over 300, but the numbers rose to more than 800 in 2023 before decreasing marginally in 2024.
The City Chambers in Edinburgh, where the City of Edinburgh Council is based (C) Kim Traynor / Wikimedia Commons
This is according to figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives via a freedom of information (FOI) request.
According to the Conservatives, more than 73,000 pupils across Scotland have missed more than half of school time since 2020, with more than 6,000 not attending at all.
This totals attendance across four years, with each pupil that passed the criteria counted for each year.
Therefore, the same pupil could be counted multiple times if they registered attendance of less than half in multiple years.
The Scottish Conservatives described this situation as “deeply alarming” and a “symptom of the SNP’s failure on education”.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Miles Briggs said: “School attendance in Scotland is in crisis, and these figures show the truly shocking scale of the problem.
“It’s utterly unacceptable that so many pupils have missed at least half of their schooling – and truly terrifying that more than 6,000 have not attended school at all.
“This is yet another indicator of the SNP’s desperate failure in education.
“We know that the best place for most children to learn is in the classroom, so the fact that thousands are missing school is deeply alarming and risks long-term harm to their education and wellbeing.
“The Scottish Conservatives are calling for urgent national action from SNP ministers to tackle persistent absence, support parents and pupils, and ensure that every child is in school and receiving the education they deserve.”
They also stated that the numbers may be even higher, as many of the figures for 2024 and 2025 were incomplete.
Councillor James Dalgleish, Education, Children and Families Convener, said: “While attendance levels are still generally good in Edinburgh, we’re committed to continuously reviewing and improving our approaches and supports to enable children and young people to maximise their attendance at school.
“We have a dedicated Educational Wellbeing Service that supports schools and families to identify and reduce barriers to attendance and offer a range of interventions to improve engagement and wellbeing.
“Schools also use Pupil Equity Funding to employ dedicated Pupil Support Officers to support children and young people to attend school and when necessary, put in place targeted support via partnerships with other services.”
When official attendance figures were detailed by the Scottish Government late last year, Edinburgh fared well, with an attendance rate of 92.1% in 2025.
These statistics paint a grimmer picture for Edinburgh, however, with 826 out of the estimated 23,500 state secondary school pupils in Edinburgh in 2024 missing most of their classes.
The issue was most pronounced in S1-S3 pupils and those not receiving free school meals.
The figures do not account for private school attendance in Edinburgh, however.
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