Parents blamed for plummeting school attendance rates in NSW

More than half of all NSW public school students in one year group are not turning up to school regularly— and critics are pointing the finger at parents. See the shocking figures here.

School students in NSW are wagging school at unprecedented rates with less than half of all Year 10 school students actually turning up to school regularly.

Teachers say parents trying to be nice to their children is part of the rise in absenteeism but have warned them letting children stay home for frivolous reasons is leading to massive learning gaps which will haunt them all the way to Year 12.

The percentage of public high school students coming to class more than 90 per cent of the time went from 64.5 per cent in 2018 to 55.4 per cent in 2021, Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority data reveals.

Year 10 students in public schools have the worst attendance, with the percentage of students coming to class more than 90 per cent of the time going from 58.4 per cent in 2018 to 49.3 last year — with girls less likely than boys to come to class.

But the massive drop in turning up to class is reflected in all year levels.

Children are just not turning up to school. Picture: Burak Sr

Over all public primary school grades attendance went from 79.4 in 2018 to 74.0 per cent in 2021.

Meanwhile Catholic and private schools saw attendance levels drop only fractionally across all year levels from 79.5 in 2018 to 77.3 per cent in 2021.

The figures do not bode well for students NAPLAN results this year which are yet to be released, with a previous study of 400,000 Australian students finding every single missed day of school saw a sharp decline in numeracy, reading and writing.

That study found results did not just detrimentally impact NAPLAN scores for one year, but for years to come.

Upper House MP Mark Latham said truancy officers which were used in the 80s and 90s should be reinstated to follow up children who do not turn up to class while there needed to a special focus on schools with high Indigenous populations.

“My view is that there is a critical attendance issue in schools in Walgett, Bourke and Moree and at Walgett, only three per cent of students attend 90 per cent of the time,” he said.

The attendance rate of NSW Year 10 students has dipped dramatically, with just half turning up to school regularly.

Mathematical Association NSW vice president Karen McDaid said parents who took their kids out of school for the first week of term for extended holidays or who let them stay home simply because they were “tired” were doing a massive disservice to them.

“Just missing out the basics like Year 7 algebra — if you have to do one or two step problems and you haven’t had the grounding in it, that is a gap which will follow you through all the to Year 12,” she said.

“If they miss out on the content that has been set out by the syllabus, it is very difficult for them to catch up on it.”

Ms McDaid said it was up to parents to come down harder on children and make sure they attended school.

She said parents needed to support the school in making sure that they attend every day and needed to maintain the discipline of regular attendance with them rather than indulging children.

“I have heard this excuse before, ‘she is a bit tired this morning so I let her sleep in’ and I ask why she is tired and they say ‘she didn’t go to bed until half past 10’ and I say why didn’t you tell her to go to bed?” she said.

“If a parent isn’t in partnership with the school, and the parent isn’t behind the school, children are smart and know they can use that divide.”

A NSW Department of Education spokeswoman conceded that the past two years were “challenging” for attendance but said 90 per cent of students in Kindergarten to Year 12 were at school on an average day —while schools with bad attendance records were getting extra help.

“We’re also providing guided and strategic support to those schools who require extra help with attendance through our School Success Model,” she said.