Every School Day is a New Day - Campaign

4 weeks ago

Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee, in partnership with the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), has announced the launch of a nationwide multimedia campaign to promote regular school attendance across Ireland.

Regular school attendance is important to provide our children and young people with a solid foundation for life. When our children miss school, they miss out – on learning, social development and valuable time with their friends and teachers.

The campaign launch comes as new data from TESS shows more than one in five children and young people at primary and post-primary level miss more than 20 days of their school year.

Children and young people in communities across Ireland are missing a concerning number of school days each year due to casual non-attendance – a day (or two, or three) missed here and there. These days add up quickly. As a result of casual non-attendance there is a real risk that many of our children and young people will not achieve their full potential from education.

In fact, 1 in 5 students in primary and post-primary schools are missing a month or more of their school year.

Encouraging school attendance is within the power of everyone in a student’s life. When a child or young person can go to school, they should go to school. Every school day is a new day and a new opportunity for everyone to actively encourage school attendance.

The TESS Annual Attendance Report and Student Absence Report for the 2023/2024 school year, published today by Tusla, also show that while absenteeism remains high, total days lost and chronic absenteeism have both fallen for the second consecutive year. Minister McEntee said that while the reduction in the total number of days lost was positive, the level of absenteeism in schools remained far too high.

• Primary schools: The data shows that the number of days lost by students at primary level has decreased from 8,689,829 in the 2021/22 school year to 6,247,325 in the 2023/24 school year. This represents 8% of the total school days in the 2023/24 school year. 8.6% of total days were lost in the 2022/23 school year.
• Post-primary schools: The total number of days lost has risen for the second consecutive year to 6,029,243 from 5,569,447 in the 2022/23 school year, but this increase is largely accounted for by the increase of 24,000 students in the total post-primary student population. The total days lost in the 2023/24 school year represents 11.3% of total school days. 11.4% of total days were lost in the 2022/23 school year.

The new multi-platform campaign seeks to help address absenteeism by encouraging everyone involved in the lives of children and young people – including parents, guardians, teachers, and communities – to support and prioritise regular school attendance. The campaign’s message is clear: when children are not in school, they miss out on learning, friendships, and the chance to grow.

There is a dedicated government website to the campaign.