23 November 2005
Educational Welfare Agency looks for EUR6.1 million extra in Budget 2006

Families, Schools and Good Attenders Pay a Heavy Price for Absenteeism, Board outlines in its pre-budget submission.

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) today called on the Government to increase the agency's funding by EUR6.1 million in 2006 so that it can start to realistically reduce the human and economic cost of absenteeism to children, schools and society as a whole.

Launching the agency's pre-budget submission, CEO Eddie Ward said that despite huge growth in education expenditure over the past decade, many young people and children were still missing out on their right to an education simply because they were missing out on substantial periods of school.

"Absenteeism has serious costs for individuals, for families, for the State, and for teachers and schools. There are also significant costs, rarely mentioned, for those students who do attend school regularly," Ward said.

"Based on our research, we know that 84,000 children miss more than 20 days each year from school, of whom 28,000 may miss up to 40 days. 40 days requires a lot of catching up. This generation of children need a fully resourced national educational welfare service to begin to address this issue," he continued.

The Board outlined that research has shown that high levels of absenteeism can lead to poor achievement and poor educational outcomes leading to poorer life chances. Parents of children who are chronic non-attenders experience stress, health costs and absences from work as they try to deal with attendance problems. The costs to the State and society can include the loss of the contribution the young people could have made over their lifetime and the increased risk of involvement in anti-social activity and crime. Finally, there are significant costs for teachers and for schools because of the time spent investigating and reducing absences and the time spent helping absent students to catch up. Students who attend school regularly can also miss out, as more of class time is devoted to helping those who missed days at school.

The additional budget would bring the NEWB's total budget to e14 million, representing less than 1% of the total education budget. This would allow the NEWB to bring 50 new staff on board, 46 of whom would be working on the ground with parents, children and schools around the country. The Board currently has 94 staff, 83 of whom are involved in direct service delivery. In addition, approval is awaited for a further 20 staff, funding for which was provided for in the 2005 budget.

"Our primary aims for 2006 are to provide access to the service for children and schools in all counties; reduce overall caseloads; to being to develop preventative strategies that will support schools in their work and to look at the needs of specific population groups for example, Traveller children, early school leavers," Ward outlined.

For the second year running, school attendance data shows that Ireland has a high level of absenteeism. Primary school pupils miss 10 days on average out of a school year of 183 days and secondary school pupils miss 14 days out of 167. One in ten primary school pupils and one in five post primary school students miss more than 20 days. The problem is more acute in areas of disadvantage where almost one in five students in both primary and secondary schools miss more than 20 days.

"Targeting funding specifically and consistently towards school attendance is one of the most effective ways of tackling educational disadvantage and poverty," Chairperson Dr. Ann Louise Gilligan said.

"The State is investing a substantial amount of resources to address educational disadvantage through our schools. The effectiveness of this expenditure can be enhanced greatly through the provision of a comprehensive national educational welfare service which integrates with, and builds on, the work of schools and the other services which are engaged with children and young people" she concluded.

For more information contact: Eddie Ward; Telephone 087 1265278

Download 2006 Pre-Budget Submission English Version (PDF Format)
Download 2006 Pre-Budget Submission Irish Version (PDF Format)