'EVERY DAY counts in your child's education" – that's the unequivocal, no-messing motto of the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), the national agency for school attendance. But this week it emerged that the North's education minister decided that a few days' absence wasn't really so bad, writes FIONOLA MEREDITH
Caitríona Ruane admitted that her 12-year-old daughter, who attends school in the Republic, missed three days when she was taken on a government trip to Cyprus. Of course, Ruane’s political opponents were not slow to express outrage. Mervyn Storey, the DUP member who chairs the education committee at the Northern Ireland Assembly, argued that, “This is another example of how the minister sets a standard for others, but is not prepared to live by the rules herself”. The minister hit back, insisting that the decision was a private one, taken in the best interests of her daughter.
So is it really so reprehensible to take your child out of school for a sneaky trip during term-time? After all, many of us do it, whether we’re tempted by bargain offers or constrained by tight work schedules that make travelling during the long summer break difficult. Suddenly, the prospect of a contraband week or more in the sun seems irresistible, and the possible disapproval of your child’s teacher a price worth paying.
A Mori poll, carried out for the NEWB in 2005, showed that 16 per cent of parents took their children out of school for a term-time holiday. While anecdotal evidence suggests a gradual fall-off in those numbers in recent years, might the current bleak economic climate mean that families are going to be more tempted by cut-price deals outside the official school holidays? Peter Mullan of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) says “it is too early to say if the current economic downturn will impact on school attendance with a re-emergence of holidays being taken during school time”. But a recently published British survey suggests that increasingly cash-strapped parents are doing just that, snapping up the early bargains and weighing up the threat of fines (a move introduced in England in 2004) with the savings to be made. According to the survey, 26 per cent of parents have already taken children away during term this year, and 31 per cent of parents admitted they would be organising family trips during school time before the end of the year to avoid the expense of the peak holiday season.
Many parents justify their decision by describing themselves as victims of whopping seasonal price hikes by the travel industry. Simon Nugent of the Irish Travel Agents Association prefers to say that travel companies “discount prices outside of school holidays, rather than put them up” during the main summer break.
RENEGADE PARENTS MIGHTreassure themselves that their children can easily catch up on work missed, that travel broadens their offspring's mind, and other comforting thoughts. But most educationalists are adamant that even a short absence can be damaging, citing the undeniable link between attendance and achievement. Michael Doyle, an NEWB representative, says that children must be in school "unless there is a very good reason" for them not to be. It's safe to say that a strong desire for sun, sea and sangria on the part of a frazzled mother does not count as a very good reason.
“The message needs to go out to children that attendance is important,” agrees Áine Lynch, chief executive of the National Parents’ Council. “If the child is taken out of school for a holiday, it sends mixed messages, and makes it much harder to respond when the child does not want to go to school for some other reason.”
The impact of unauthorised absences, especially when they occur en masse in June – the classic time for a sudden exodus from the Republic’s primaries, since siblings at second-level schools have broken up for summer – is felt by the whole class and teacher. Mullan says that “the curriculum is designed in such a way so as to provide for short absences from school for issues such as illnesses. Teachers regularly help children to catch up in these cases. However, it can be very problematic towards the end of the school year if large numbers of children are taken out of school for holidays.”
As for asking the teacher to supply extra work for your child to do while they are away – whether to take the bad, selfish look off the thing or because you genuinely want your son or daughter to keep up with the rest of the class – the answer is simple. Don’t. Teachers hate requests like this.
“It drives me mad,” says one primary-school teacher, who asks not to be named. “It gives me extra work both beforehand, getting the work together in advance, and afterwards, when I have to mark it all.” She says that, in her experience, some parents are not at all contrite about taking term-time holidays, but are increasingly demanding. “Last year, one child was taken out right in the middle of exam time. When he came back the following week, the parents requested that he not sit his exams straight away, because he was tired after his holidays. Unbelievable.”
LET'S SAY YOUdecide to flout advice and take your child out of school for a week or two during term. What retribution, apart from a self-imposed guilty conscience, are you likely to face? Very little, is the probable answer. Both north and south of the Border, resources are directed at the chronic non-attendees. While principals in the Republic must report absences longer than 20 days, and the NEWB instigates court proceedings for serious non-attendance (in April, for the first time, a parent was jailed for not sending a child to school), most head teachers acknowledge that their hands are tied when it comes to short, snatched breaks. It's a similar situation in the North, where schools are advised to approach educational welfare services if a child's attendance falls below 85 per cent.
But PJ O’Grady, head teacher of St Patrick’s College, Bearnageeha, in north Belfast, takes a philosophical approach to the issue. “Good order and discipline are important, but I wouldn’t be too dogmatic about it. Travel does broaden the mind. Parents should stop, reflect and make a good educational decision.”
So it seems that touring Renaissance frescoes in southern Umbria might be looked on more favourably than a week on the beach in Torremolinos. And if families do decide to take that break, O’Grady says it’s reasonable to expect a quid pro quo.
“I’d expect the pupil to work that wee bit harder if they’re allowed to go.”
CONFESSIONS OF A RENEGADE PARENT
I know that taking my daughter out of school during term-time is far from ideal. She will miss out on important work, and it does send her the inappropriate message that school is somehow optional.
It's true that I'm not talking about epic, month-long road trips across the US, or six weeks exploring the rainforests of Brazil.
These are a handful of short breaks, a week at most, spread out over a period of years.
There are a number of classic justifications that I cling to: that travel for children is stimulating and enlightening – struggling with an unfamiliar language, tasting truffles, finding out why fireflies glow – as well as a good deal of fun; that my daughter is perfectly capable of catching up with the work she has missed; that, due to the expense, we couldn't afford to go at all if we tried to book during the main school holidays.
By the time I've gone through all that in my mind, I've usually worked myself into a state of righteous, single-minded decisiveness, powerful enough to obliterate the twinges of my guilty conscience, and to carry me through the embarrassment of informing the school.