One fifth of pupils ‘missing’ from classrooms since pandemic
‘There is evidence to suggest some pupils are deliberately off-rolled by schools to fend for themselves’
A FIFTH of all children have been “missing” from school since the pandemic, a major report has found.
There has been a “dramatic increase” in the number of youngsters being home educated, driven by parents pulling their children out of school after lockdown, according to a study by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
Almost two million of England’s nine million pupils are failing to attend school regularly, according to CSJ analysis of the latest official figures.
This includes 1.67 million children who are classified by the Department for Education (DFE) as “persistently absent” in the autumn term of 2021, a rise of 82 per cent from the year before.
It also takes into account the 81,000 who are home educated, which the report notes is an “alarming” 34 per cent higher than before the pandemic.
“In some areas, the total number of children in home education more than doubled,” the CSJ found. “At present, half of all children taught at home were found to have begun their retreat from the classroom during lockdowns.”
The report’s authors interviewed local authorities about the surge in families withdrawing children from school since the pandemic. They were told some children were “anxious” about returning to school after lockdown and low-income families were more likely to opt for home education.
Researchers found many home-educated children previously had behaviour or attendance issues at school. One local authority told the CSJ that they recorded between 800 and 900 homeeducated pupils pre-pandemic, and now this figure has risen to between 1,300 and 1,400. Another relayed how its numbers had “close to trebled”.
The report also noted the long-term damage persistent absence, defined by the DFE as missing more than 10 per cent of school, can do to a child’s life chances. Persistently absent pupils are more than three times more likely to end up not in further education or employment when they finish compared with their peers.
Alice Wilcock, the CSJ’S head of education, warned of a “crisis” in attendance. She said: “While some may be receiving a good education at home, neither the Government nor local authorities have much idea of who these are or what is happening to them.
“Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that some are being deliberately off-rolled by schools to fend for themselves.”
The UK closed schools for longer than anywhere in Europe, other than Italy, during the pandemic. Between January 2020 and July 2021, British children were out of the classroom 44 per cent of the time.
DFE officials say the data on persistently absent children in the 2021 autumn term are not representative of a typical school year as numbers were driven up by pupils testing positive for Covid.
But the figure of 1,672,179 persistently absent children is significantly higher than the previous year – when it stood at 915,877 – and the year before, when it was 922,566. The CSJ report urged ministers to press on with plans for a national register for children who are home educated and to implement a “right to return” where a child who has been removed from a school can return to it within six weeks.
A DFE spokesman said: “We know the importance of a consistent education for children’s life chances which is why we have put in place a range of measures to help drive up attendance levels.
“These include strengthened guidance for schools and councils, new data dashboards, advisers working with local authorities and a mentoring pilot for persistently absent pupils, all with the aim of boosting attendance levels.”