Unauthorised absenteeism remains problematic in State schools, notches up in church schools

State school students have the highest propensity of missing school without justification but figures out today show that the incidence is growing in Church institutions.

Unauthorised absenteeism stood at 42.5% in government primary and secondary schools for the academic year 2017/2018, the National Statistics Office said.

This represented negligible improvement on the previous year when unauthorised absenteeism stood at 42.9%.

Overall absenteeism, whether authorised or unauthorised, in State schools increased to 398,020 days in 2017/2018 from 374,876 a year earlier.

Church schools remained the best performers with unauthorised absenteeism standing at 25%. However, this represented an increase of 2.4 points over the previous academic year.

Overall absenteeism in church schools declined to 110,788 days from 113,030.

In private schools, overall absenteeism increased to 46,029 days from 43,859 but unauthorised absenteeism declined by almost five points to 31.7%.

The NSO said that absenteeism – authorised and unauthorised – for all students irrespective of which school they attend, increased by 4.3% in the academic year 2017/2018. 

Authorised absences increased by 4.1% made up 61.9% of total absences. The number of unauthorised absences increased by 4.7%.

The average number of absences during the period under review stood at 11.8 days per student, an increase of 0.3 of a day per student when compared to the previous academic year.

In absolute terms, boy students recorded higher levels of absenteeism when compared to their girl counterparts. The total absences among males was found to be higher compared to that of females for all class levels.

The lowest average number of absences per student was recorded among eight-year olds at 8.4 days, while students aged 16 years and over held the highest average number of absences per student at 24 days.

Students residing in the Northern district registered the highest increase (11.7%) in their absence levels. On average, students residing in the Southern Harbour district accumulated the highest average number of absences (14.6 days per student). On the other hand, the lowest average number of absences was recorded by students residing in the Western district with 9.4 days per student.