Schools consider truancy strategy

The statutory agency charged with ensuring all children receive an education, has outlined a number of strategies to tackle truancy and misbehaviour at its first national event in Dublin.

Over 100 teachers, welfare officers and youth workers took part in a conference on school attendance and participation, organised by the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), in Dublin today.

The event is being held to discuss the problem of truancy and to explore what schools can do to address the issue.

Nuala Doherty, director of Educational Welfare Services with the NEWB, told delegates this morning that school attendance was a major concern for all teachers and that student absenteeism touches every community.

"The first step to ensuring that children actually come to school is to ensure that they have a sense of belonging to school - that they like school and that they see its relevance to their future," said Doherty.

"School attendance strategies must promote this sense of belonging and participation in whatever way suits the particular school and the needs of the student body," she added.

Delegates at the conference heard from a number of international experts including Prof Dolf van Veen, from the University of Nottingham, Prof Doug Willms, from the University of New Brunswick, Canada and John Lee, of the University of the West of England.

While the majority of students at both primary and post-primary levels have good standards of school attendance, research from the NEWB indicates that the proportion of students in postprimary schools absent 20 days or more is as high as 18.9 per cent; the corresponding figure at primary level is 10.7 per cent.

Among the strategies under consideration to tackle the problem of absenteeism from school are initiatives that ensure the curriculum is better suited to students and new programmes which concentrate on behaviour and classroom discipline.

"There is no quick fix for improving school attendance, in the same way that there is no one reason for school non-attendance itself. This places a challenge on us to grapple with the complexity of the factors associated with absenteeism. Critically, it places a challenge on us to figure out where and what interventions can be most successful in children's lives throughout Ireland," said Ms Doherty.

The minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin TD, who also spoke at today's conference, said the government has put in place a series of measures and organisations to support schools, families and young people, especially in relation to regular school attendance.

"We are all the time trying to get across the message to every parent and child that every single day spent in school is important," said Hanafin.

"Regular attendance will facilitate children in achieving their full potential and gain the life skills and opportunities they need to play an active part in society," she added.