Children and parents feel school is “optional”, especially on Fridays, after two years of Covid disruption, a school governor has warned.
Education expert Professor Chris Taylor said penalties for not sending children to school must be re-imposed to get children back into classrooms.
Latest Welsh Government data shows nearly one in 10 children are still missing from classrooms in Wales - and even more among older secondary pupils, especially in key exam years. That's equivalent to tens of thousands of children regularly missing school.
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“What I am struck by is , the school I am a governor at, says it is harder to get children to come in on a Friday. School feels optional to some, not compulsory,” said Professor Taylor.
“Having had two years of mixed experiences school feels optional.
“The effect of this is going to last a long time for these learners not attending. You don’t repair these attitudes easily.”
The professor of social sciences at Cardiff University said there is a lack of precise data on exactly which children are missing and why, but he feared the most disadvantaged would be most affected
Welsh Government Absence figures published on March 9 show a slight rise in children going to school in Wales, but more than one in 10 of pupils in years nine and above in secondaries are still missing. Attendance is lowest in key qualification years 10 to 13 with one in four A level year 13 students absent on average.
Some children in Wales have never returned to school since they shut at the start of the pandemic two years ago.
Professor Taylor, a member of the Learned Society for Wales, warned there is “a whole new group of children not engaging in learning” compared to those who skipped school before Covid.
The Welsh Government lifted penalties on parents for not sending their children to school at the start of the pandemic but Professor Taylor believes they should now be restored.
“A quarter of young people in some schools are not turning up regularly. My worry is - how do you get them back?
“The problem is that evidence around fines for not sending a child to school is based on pre pandemic conditions. Evidence on fines is mixed. But the circumstances we have now are really different.
“10 to 15% of the school population, who don’t have complex needs, are not going to school.
“I think with fines as a nudge more would be more likely to turn up. There is a group where fines would be useful. I am surprised fines are not even being discussed.”
Professor Taylor believes the Welsh Government - and other governments - also need to shift funding from other public spending areas into schools. He echoed long standing warnings from school leaders and teaching unions that social and educational problems are coming down the line as a result of the pandemic.
“The question is do children need to be at school to learn? For the last two years they have been told they don’t need to be in school to learn.
“The ease with which schools have been shut - how did that make young learners think about the role of school for education? It creates a moment where people think school is not important and the danger is that families start to think - what’s the point?
“The danger was that during the pandemic you had to remain positive about remote learning and not think about what was being missed.
“There is a reason why schooling in a classroom has not changed for hundreds of years. You can’t lose social learning, School is not just about academic learning.
“Schools closing has been damaging. Many young people have not acquired socialisation and the idea of what it’s like to be at school or work.”
He said it was “worrying” that bad behaviour is going up when fewer children are in school, which could be a reflection of children and teenagers not being used to school and being together.
Welsh Government figures show pupils entitled to free school meals and girls have been less likely to attend school in the pandemic.
On March 4, the latest day for which data is available, 83% of pupils eligible for free school meals attended school compared with 91.4% of their better off peers. That is wider than the average gap of six per centage points between the two groups.
School attendance at a glance
Latest Welsh Government data published on March 9 shows that in the week February 28 to March 4:
- 91.1% of all pupils attended school on average - up from 89.8% two weeks before (owing to half term). This is the highest rate since the first week of the academic year. Data for the latest week is provisional.
- 1% of pupils were absent due to a known Covid related reason - down from 1.5% two weeks before. This is the lowest rate since the week starting November 22 2021 when this measurement was first recorded.
- An average of 0.9% of all primary pupils were absent for a known Covid related reason. An average 1% of all secondary pupils were absent due to a known Covid related reason
- For statutory aged children (those up to 16), attendance was highest for pupils in Years 3 and 4 (93.8%) and lowest for pupils in GCSE Year 11 (87.9%).
- The most common reason for sessions missed during the week of 28 February to 4 March 2022 was illness with 3.1% of sessions missed for this reason. This does include Covid-related illness.
- Pupils entitled to free school meals have been less likely to attend school, with the gap being an average of 6 percentage points between 28 February and 4 March 2022.89,200
- 89,200 pupils (18.9%) of pupils have missed more than a week of face to face learning due to a known Covid related reason since 6 September 2021 (5.5 days or more) and 71.7% of pupils (338,800 pupils) have missed more than a week for any reason since 6 September 2021.
The welsh Government responds
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "Under the current circumstances, our view remains that punitive measures such as fines are not appropriate.
"This is with the exception of a small number of cases relating to persistent absence which are unrelated to Covid-19, or where there are concerns about the welfare of the child.
"In these cases, we expect that extensive efforts have been made to re-engage with the family.
“Local authorities retain the legal powers to consider enforcement as a last resort, where all other attempts to engage have been exhausted.”
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