It’s genuinely worrying that the ESRI is finding one in five children now miss over 20 days of school a year, with no real sign of improvement since Covid. That’s weeks of lost learning, and it’s hitting disadvantaged schools hardest. This isn’t just about attendance figures it’s about widening inequality and kids falling behind before they even have a chance to catch up. The bigger question is how we make parents understand that regular school attendance isn’t optional or trivial, but fundamental to their child’s future.
johnfuckingtravolta on
Bringing kids to school is genuinely not a priority for a lot of parents. Its fucking mental. Combine that with that lack of socialisation outside of school for kids these days and we’re in for a strange time in a few years with the reprecussions
Hour_Mastodon_9404 on
Wonder to what extent this is down to cost of living? People can’t afford to go on family holidays when prices are hiked for mid terms so take them during off peak times etc etc
Natural-Audience-438 on
I don’t think the schools being closed for so long during COVID helped this. Sometimes parents think it’s fine now to miss loads of school.
fedupofbrick on
GF says it’s rife and the biggest culprit are parents taking the children out for a week here and there for a holiday.
IBB_98 on
While I’m not suggesting that this is the main reason for this problem, it is I believe a contributing factor.
My sister teaches in an educate together school in Dublin (which I’ll just preface by saying she absolutely loves!) but naturally there are a wide array of different nationalities in her class, and actually very few Irish students.
The parents seem to think it is acceptable to bring their children on holidays for several weeks of the year, during term time, to whatever country they originate from. (I imagine it’s a lot cheaper flights etc. than during the Summer holidays)
And my sister would agree with them that it might as well be acceptable, because she reports this in each instance (as she is obliged to do) and nothing ever comes of it, so no wonder the parents feel like they can get away with it!
LucyVialli on
In many schools it’s common for kids to miss two or even three weeks in total every year, so they can go on family holidays outside of school breaks. Seems to be the norm now, parents are OK with it.
Jealous-Shop-8866 on
Puzzled at the focus on parental interest here. My kid refused to go to school for weeks on end, claimed illness and bullying and boredom. It put enormous strain on the family, but short of throwing a 12 year old over my shoulder what am I supposed to do? Kids of the pandemic have a different understanding and lived experience. Its not straightforward. Parents want the best for their kids, and (if im honest) the easiest life. For us at least that meant kid goes to school, not sit around the house moping all day.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
IntentionFalse8822 on
My wife is a teacher and she says “school refusal” is a big issue and it is almost always difficult to get the parents to even work together with the school to help their child. Some kids just don’t want to go to school and their parents throw their hands up and say there is nothing they can do and look to the school or state services to solve it. We have infantalised a generation to believe there is always someone else to blame for their problems and therefore someone else should always solve it. And this generation are now popping out kids that they have no ability to take care of when things go wrong.
Iwasnotatfault on
I’d say a lot of this is to do with people taking their kids on holidays during off peak hours but I do wonder if a lot is due to how the family dynamic has changed over years? Both parents will now most likely be working full time as will single parents. I was extremely lucky that I was able to work from home when my kid was young and now only do 3 days in office and two at home.
I’d say in the case of semi-independent teenagers the parents are relying on their kids trust and the kids might be taking the piss or having problems. There are two women in work I know who have an extremely difficult time getting their kids to go to school. They risk losing their jobs when they stay home to push their kids to go in. My kid is a teenager now and extremely trustworthy. I am very lucky that they are.
There is also the fact that schools have huge issues with getting staff now so end up under staffed. This allows for things like bullying among students to become more frequent and I wonder if some kids skipping school are doing so because they’re afraid to go to school. I know a lot of you might dismiss this but this sub is forever talking about “teenage scrotes” causing issues becoming more frequent. Just think of the normal teenagers having to deal with them every day in school.
Delicious_MilkSteak on
My kids would fall into this bracket, they might get a week off for travelling but usually they are sick for the other days.
They pick up so my bugs in school we keep them out so more people don’t end up sick. It’s more than likely behaviour learned from Covid that if you’re sick you stay at home.
HedFuka on
This year there has been .multiple colds ,flu,and chest infections going round,the chest infections were severe,how do the dept of Education expect children to stay within 20 days,when a child can he off sick for at least 10 days with just one chest infection..ad to that a couple of colds and there is your twenty days gone even before Easter…
Substantial_Rope8225 on
I wfh twice a week and at least one day a week the kids next door are home from school; and that’s just on the days I’m there to see them running around outside
Unique-Mixture2054 on
Between stomach bugs, illnesses and clear school policies not to come to school when feeling unwell and a bit of extended holidays here and there off peak the 4 weeks ( which is 20 school days- excess of which is reported absence) it is very easy to stack up these days….
Elaneyse on
My kids have missed over the 20 days every year, never once due to holidays. Two of them were out for 11 days last year with chickenpox. One broke her arm and was out 3 days that it took for us to finalise treatment and then several more days for hospital appointments AND she has to miss another day this term for her final follow-up. This term so far they’ve had two deaths in the family, one of which was close enough to require me and their dad to help with the wake and the funeral so they’re going to be off for most of this week.
For my kids school at least, they’re required to be kept out of school for 48 hours after vomiting has stopped in the case of a bug, and are not allowed in if they require medication for a fever. Despite being vaccinated, three of my kids got influenza this year and finally returned to school after a full week only for a student to vomit all over their school desk and guess what they caught then?!
its_brew on
Probably stuck in traffic like the rest of the country
BitterSweetDesire on
To be fair.. We (Elder Millennials/Gen X) were sent in unless ya were dying.
That had majorly changed as a policy since covid. Parents are advised to not send them in and then this comes out…
Also most mothers aren’t at home now for the wee chancers who wake up pull a sicky and both parents have to leave at silly o clock to get to work.
I was marched down to school at half ten many a morning lol.
The landscape is different and there needs to be change to acknowledge that.
BadDub on
I got the award in high school for never missing a day 🤓
f1refly1 on
Secondary School in Ireland is not fit for purpose and needs to be reevaluated, especially for 13-16 year olds.
Some of my gripes:
– Short classes, a lot jumping between rooms and teachers for no reason. What’s the point in this?
– Big massive schools for no reason, horrible jump between primary school and secondary school. There’s a reason these problems immediately appear when kids hit secondary school.
– Low day to day impact. Students who go to school often come out feeling no sense of accomplishment in their day. The Irish school system teaches you to turn up and put up with it, even if you’re not getting anything out of it. If the kids don’t like it, the system basically tells them to fuck off. (Shock when they do)
– All of your grades are backloaded into one month at the very end, you bank nothing for turning up. Why go in 40 hours a week when you can just turn up in June and pass and get into most courses.
I personally see secondary school in Ireland as doing more harm than good for a lot of kids. I can tell you that it was the worst experience of my life, and many of the people I know report the same thing. I am very successful now, but if you asked a teacher in 6th year about me, they’d have said: “Who?”
DumbledoresFaveGoat on
Yeah I’ve been told multiple times by kids “won’t be in next week, we’re going to Centerparcs”. Yes, some kids are sick but there are a lot of kids going on holiday.
SweetTeaNoodle on
Well what did we expect would happen when we decided to let an immunodysregulating virus rip unchecked through the population? Kids are sicker more often now. Long covid has become the most common chronic illness in children, too. Install air purification and ventilation systems in schools and you’ll see less of this.
I’m not surprised. This “one size fits all” education system doesn’t suit some kids. Square pegs in round holes. It certainly didn’t me.
Weekend-Entire on
School is outdated AF
KILLIGUN0224 on
Pretty straightforward.
Decent folk are having less kids given they need to buy their own overpriced house and pay for creche etc
However the underclass are having 3/4/5 kids so the numbers of kids in school from bad families is growing faster and with that comes consequences.
AhhhhBiscuits on
As some have said, sickness and families going on holidays yes.
But there are some who are just not brought to school. Kids on my road, have not been to school since before Christmas because their mother is just too busy doing drugs and had different blokes up.
Tusla know, but ye know, nothing is done.
-myeyeshaveseenyou- on
So I live in the uk but I am Irish and my oldest child did two years of school in Ireland before we moved. During that time she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when she was 5.
Have had full blown threat letters from her uk primary over her absence. Her Irish primary let her get a head injury and didn’t tell us despite her being high risk for internal bleeding. Her uk primary wouldn’t even give her calpol to help keep her in school and half the absences were actually her being sent home half way through the day by them. Her uk primary and secondary also did not report accidents to us that she told us about that led to us having to attend hospital to make sure she was not bleeding internally.
She missed a fortnight of secondary two years ago aged 15 after the Easter break. I had a teacher ask her to guarantee she would be in for the next fortnight despite the fact she had been in and out of a&e and urgent care like a yo-yo for a fortnight vomiting blood and only narrowly avoided being admitted. As you can imagine I went ballistic at said teacher. For 12 years I’ve dealt with schools being so unsupportive with her health, they are only concerned with their attendance stats. On the flip side she has a sibling who has maybe missed 5 days of school total in 7 years. The two teachers who also kicked up the most stink about her absence have both had extended sick leaves themselves, my son has one of these teachers for the last year and has had a revolving door of substitute teachers for most of that time.
I have so much resentment towards school and how my daughter has basically been told time and time again that her health doesn’t matter. I have made it very clear to all three schools that while I value education and my daughter has high aspirations her health will always come first wether they like it or not. Her condition could literally kill her. The absolute lack of compassion when dealing with a sick child and the layer of stress schools have added to our family makes my absolute blood boil.
Snapper_72 on
And this isn’t even accounting for the students on reduced timetables, which the schools use to reduce the impact of difficult student on classrooms
29 commenti
It’s genuinely worrying that the ESRI is finding one in five children now miss over 20 days of school a year, with no real sign of improvement since Covid. That’s weeks of lost learning, and it’s hitting disadvantaged schools hardest. This isn’t just about attendance figures it’s about widening inequality and kids falling behind before they even have a chance to catch up. The bigger question is how we make parents understand that regular school attendance isn’t optional or trivial, but fundamental to their child’s future.
Bringing kids to school is genuinely not a priority for a lot of parents. Its fucking mental. Combine that with that lack of socialisation outside of school for kids these days and we’re in for a strange time in a few years with the reprecussions
Wonder to what extent this is down to cost of living? People can’t afford to go on family holidays when prices are hiked for mid terms so take them during off peak times etc etc
I don’t think the schools being closed for so long during COVID helped this. Sometimes parents think it’s fine now to miss loads of school.
GF says it’s rife and the biggest culprit are parents taking the children out for a week here and there for a holiday.
While I’m not suggesting that this is the main reason for this problem, it is I believe a contributing factor.
My sister teaches in an educate together school in Dublin (which I’ll just preface by saying she absolutely loves!) but naturally there are a wide array of different nationalities in her class, and actually very few Irish students.
The parents seem to think it is acceptable to bring their children on holidays for several weeks of the year, during term time, to whatever country they originate from. (I imagine it’s a lot cheaper flights etc. than during the Summer holidays)
And my sister would agree with them that it might as well be acceptable, because she reports this in each instance (as she is obliged to do) and nothing ever comes of it, so no wonder the parents feel like they can get away with it!
In many schools it’s common for kids to miss two or even three weeks in total every year, so they can go on family holidays outside of school breaks. Seems to be the norm now, parents are OK with it.
Puzzled at the focus on parental interest here. My kid refused to go to school for weeks on end, claimed illness and bullying and boredom. It put enormous strain on the family, but short of throwing a 12 year old over my shoulder what am I supposed to do? Kids of the pandemic have a different understanding and lived experience. Its not straightforward. Parents want the best for their kids, and (if im honest) the easiest life. For us at least that meant kid goes to school, not sit around the house moping all day.
[deleted]
My wife is a teacher and she says “school refusal” is a big issue and it is almost always difficult to get the parents to even work together with the school to help their child. Some kids just don’t want to go to school and their parents throw their hands up and say there is nothing they can do and look to the school or state services to solve it. We have infantalised a generation to believe there is always someone else to blame for their problems and therefore someone else should always solve it. And this generation are now popping out kids that they have no ability to take care of when things go wrong.
I’d say a lot of this is to do with people taking their kids on holidays during off peak hours but I do wonder if a lot is due to how the family dynamic has changed over years? Both parents will now most likely be working full time as will single parents. I was extremely lucky that I was able to work from home when my kid was young and now only do 3 days in office and two at home.
I’d say in the case of semi-independent teenagers the parents are relying on their kids trust and the kids might be taking the piss or having problems. There are two women in work I know who have an extremely difficult time getting their kids to go to school. They risk losing their jobs when they stay home to push their kids to go in. My kid is a teenager now and extremely trustworthy. I am very lucky that they are.
There is also the fact that schools have huge issues with getting staff now so end up under staffed. This allows for things like bullying among students to become more frequent and I wonder if some kids skipping school are doing so because they’re afraid to go to school. I know a lot of you might dismiss this but this sub is forever talking about “teenage scrotes” causing issues becoming more frequent. Just think of the normal teenagers having to deal with them every day in school.
My kids would fall into this bracket, they might get a week off for travelling but usually they are sick for the other days.
They pick up so my bugs in school we keep them out so more people don’t end up sick. It’s more than likely behaviour learned from Covid that if you’re sick you stay at home.
This year there has been .multiple colds ,flu,and chest infections going round,the chest infections were severe,how do the dept of Education expect children to stay within 20 days,when a child can he off sick for at least 10 days with just one chest infection..ad to that a couple of colds and there is your twenty days gone even before Easter…
I wfh twice a week and at least one day a week the kids next door are home from school; and that’s just on the days I’m there to see them running around outside
Between stomach bugs, illnesses and clear school policies not to come to school when feeling unwell and a bit of extended holidays here and there off peak the 4 weeks ( which is 20 school days- excess of which is reported absence) it is very easy to stack up these days….
My kids have missed over the 20 days every year, never once due to holidays. Two of them were out for 11 days last year with chickenpox. One broke her arm and was out 3 days that it took for us to finalise treatment and then several more days for hospital appointments AND she has to miss another day this term for her final follow-up. This term so far they’ve had two deaths in the family, one of which was close enough to require me and their dad to help with the wake and the funeral so they’re going to be off for most of this week.
For my kids school at least, they’re required to be kept out of school for 48 hours after vomiting has stopped in the case of a bug, and are not allowed in if they require medication for a fever. Despite being vaccinated, three of my kids got influenza this year and finally returned to school after a full week only for a student to vomit all over their school desk and guess what they caught then?!
Probably stuck in traffic like the rest of the country
To be fair.. We (Elder Millennials/Gen X) were sent in unless ya were dying.
That had majorly changed as a policy since covid. Parents are advised to not send them in and then this comes out…
Also most mothers aren’t at home now for the wee chancers who wake up pull a sicky and both parents have to leave at silly o clock to get to work.
I was marched down to school at half ten many a morning lol.
The landscape is different and there needs to be change to acknowledge that.
I got the award in high school for never missing a day 🤓
Secondary School in Ireland is not fit for purpose and needs to be reevaluated, especially for 13-16 year olds.
Some of my gripes:
– Short classes, a lot jumping between rooms and teachers for no reason. What’s the point in this?
– Big massive schools for no reason, horrible jump between primary school and secondary school. There’s a reason these problems immediately appear when kids hit secondary school.
– Low day to day impact. Students who go to school often come out feeling no sense of accomplishment in their day. The Irish school system teaches you to turn up and put up with it, even if you’re not getting anything out of it. If the kids don’t like it, the system basically tells them to fuck off. (Shock when they do)
– All of your grades are backloaded into one month at the very end, you bank nothing for turning up. Why go in 40 hours a week when you can just turn up in June and pass and get into most courses.
I personally see secondary school in Ireland as doing more harm than good for a lot of kids. I can tell you that it was the worst experience of my life, and many of the people I know report the same thing. I am very successful now, but if you asked a teacher in 6th year about me, they’d have said: “Who?”
Yeah I’ve been told multiple times by kids “won’t be in next week, we’re going to Centerparcs”. Yes, some kids are sick but there are a lot of kids going on holiday.
Well what did we expect would happen when we decided to let an immunodysregulating virus rip unchecked through the population? Kids are sicker more often now. Long covid has become the most common chronic illness in children, too. Install air purification and ventilation systems in schools and you’ll see less of this.
Actual Report for those interested: [https://www.esri.ie/system/files/publications/RS219_2.pdf](https://www.esri.ie/system/files/publications/RS219_2.pdf)
I’m not surprised. This “one size fits all” education system doesn’t suit some kids. Square pegs in round holes. It certainly didn’t me.
School is outdated AF
Pretty straightforward.
Decent folk are having less kids given they need to buy their own overpriced house and pay for creche etc
However the underclass are having 3/4/5 kids so the numbers of kids in school from bad families is growing faster and with that comes consequences.
As some have said, sickness and families going on holidays yes.
But there are some who are just not brought to school. Kids on my road, have not been to school since before Christmas because their mother is just too busy doing drugs and had different blokes up.
Tusla know, but ye know, nothing is done.
So I live in the uk but I am Irish and my oldest child did two years of school in Ireland before we moved. During that time she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when she was 5.
Have had full blown threat letters from her uk primary over her absence. Her Irish primary let her get a head injury and didn’t tell us despite her being high risk for internal bleeding. Her uk primary wouldn’t even give her calpol to help keep her in school and half the absences were actually her being sent home half way through the day by them. Her uk primary and secondary also did not report accidents to us that she told us about that led to us having to attend hospital to make sure she was not bleeding internally.
She missed a fortnight of secondary two years ago aged 15 after the Easter break. I had a teacher ask her to guarantee she would be in for the next fortnight despite the fact she had been in and out of a&e and urgent care like a yo-yo for a fortnight vomiting blood and only narrowly avoided being admitted. As you can imagine I went ballistic at said teacher. For 12 years I’ve dealt with schools being so unsupportive with her health, they are only concerned with their attendance stats. On the flip side she has a sibling who has maybe missed 5 days of school total in 7 years. The two teachers who also kicked up the most stink about her absence have both had extended sick leaves themselves, my son has one of these teachers for the last year and has had a revolving door of substitute teachers for most of that time.
I have so much resentment towards school and how my daughter has basically been told time and time again that her health doesn’t matter. I have made it very clear to all three schools that while I value education and my daughter has high aspirations her health will always come first wether they like it or not. Her condition could literally kill her. The absolute lack of compassion when dealing with a sick child and the layer of stress schools have added to our family makes my absolute blood boil.
And this isn’t even accounting for the students on reduced timetables, which the schools use to reduce the impact of difficult student on classrooms