Persistent absenteeism among Irish primary school pupils

Abstract

AbstractA growing number of international studies document the importance of regular school attendance. There is a consensus among authors that absenteeism has negative implications for academic achievement as well as the social development of the child and may put them at a disadvantage in terms of their position in the education and labour market. Most of the existing studies have focused on school absenteeism among adolescents with studies on poor school attendance among young children relatively rare. This paper addresses this gap in research by exploring factors that are related to school absenteeism in Irish primary schools. Drawing on a nationally representative study of nine-year-olds, it demonstrates the complexity of the issue. The findings indicate that a combination of institutional and individual factors shape patterns of poor school attendance in Irish primary schools. While the data relate to the Irish situation, the paper raises a number of issues of interest to an international audience.Keywords: school absenteeismprimary schoolsnational surveyIreland Notes1. Reviewing international literature Attwood and Croll (Citation2006) note that truancy increases as students become older and is more prevalent in secondary schools.2. DEIS refers to a programme Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools – introduced by the Department of Education and Skills in disadvantaged areas.3. The paper does not report this analysis. The analysis involved frequencies and cross-tabulation techniques using SPSS.4. Immigrant status is based on whether or not the parent was born in Ireland.