School absenteeism crisis

Ulster Unionist MLA Roy Beggs has expressed grave concern at startling school attendance figures, and called on the Minister to urgently address an issue that "limits educational achievement, future job opportunities and could contribute to cycles of deprivation".

Pointing to shocking figures, which include some 45% of pupils in the 15-17 age bracket from Belfast's The Mount and Carrickfergus's Northland ward having an attendance of less than 85%, the East Antrim MLA said that the Minister needs to prioritise, rather than remaining "fixated with both Irish Language education and an ideological obsession that all the worlds ills will be solved by doing away with selection at 11".

"Belfast council overall has the greatest problem with poor attendance, with 17.8% of post-primary pupils having less than 85% attendance. Within this figure, some 42.8% of young people in the post-primary bracket in The Mount and Shaftesbury wards of Belfast demonstrate an attendance of less than 85%.

"If the habits of regular attendance are not achieved at school, how do we expect a young person to attend regularly at work and hold onto their job?

"The statistics showing high levels of absenteeism show a very close relationship between areas of need. Indeed there are acknowledged links between persistent truancy and a child's life chances.

"Only 8% of truants achieve 5 A*-C GCSEs and around a third achieve no passes whatsoever. Recent research by the Youth Justice Board also shows that two thirds of truants admit to having committed a crime within the previous 12 months, many whilst actually truanting.

"There is no doubt that absenteeism is detrimental to students' achievement, self-esteem, and employment potential. Given that our teenagers of today will be parents of tomorrow, if we want to increase the chance of employment and to minimize levels of Child Poverty in the future, then we must address the issues causing absenteeism.

"But when has school attendance been highlighted by our current minister"