Helen McEntee revealed that school absenteeism has “doubled” since the Covid-19 pandemic as she pledged to “reverse this trend” in her role as Education Minister.
“Since Covid-19 and the pandemic, the rate of absenteeism in schools has, unfortunately, increased significantly,” the Minister told this Dáil this week.
“The proportion of children in primary schools missing more than 20 days has doubled since the pandemic. This is even more profound among some cohorts of children and young people.”
She added: “As Minister for education and youth, I am determined to take actions that can reverse this trend.”
The Minister explained that the reasons students do not attend school are “many” and “complex”, and that getting to grips with the issue would require a “real partnership approach” between schools, homes and community supports, as well as listening to children and young people.
“I think there is a real opportunity now that the responsibility for youth is moving into the Department to ensure there is that synergy,” she said.
“We have our schools, which are really important places for our young people to be supported. The question, though, is how we can work outside the schools with our youth services more and ensure greater connectivity between both? How can we ensure that we support our young people to flourish in school and outside of school to ultimately maximise their potential and help them to achieve their ambitions for the future?”
Notably, figures released at the end of December 2024 found that the number of students referred to Tusla over concerns about poor school attendance has risen by more than 25% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Low school attendance is widely understood to contribute to worse exam results, leaving school early, and overall poorer academic outcomes.
An OECD report in late 2021 found that Irish pre-primary and primary schools were closed for longer than the international average under Ireland’s Covid lockdown at that point. Meanwhile, at second-level, Irish schools closed for less time.
In addition to addressing school absenteeism, the Minister outlined that a “key commitment” in the programme for Government was to deal with the national teacher shortage.
“This will be absolutely key,” she said.
“Between 2018 and 2024, the number of allocated primary teaching posts has increased by 14% or more than 5,000, while post-primary posts have increased by 18% or more than 5,000. Our population, though, is growing, and so is the demand.
“We need to do much more and in the coming weeks I intend to set out additional measures we can take to improve our teacher supply and to support our teachers.”