Why Victorian students are skipping school at record rates
MORE parents than ever are plucking their children out of class for family holidays, with Victorian students missing more than 1.5 million days of school last year. And parents have revealed the driving factor.
Education
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VICTORIAN students missed more than 1.5 million days of school last year because they went on family holidays.
New data reveals parents are increasingly plucking their kids out of state schools to go on holiday, such absences rising by almost 30 per cent in five years.
The controversial trend hit primary schools the hardest, with grade 1 students missing the most school — more than 193,000 days last year, an average of 3.6 days per child.
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Monash University academic Maria Gindidis was shocked the state’s youngest learners were the worst impacted, saying parents may believe the early years of primary school were less important.
“It is the exact opposite — they lay the foundations and put into place their conceptual skills,” said Dr Gindidis, a lecturer in teacher education and chief examiner. Missing cumulative topics — particularly literacy and numeracy — was an issue because “there could be a gap in learning that could be problematic (later on)”, she said.
Across Victoria, each state school student lost an average 2.6 days of school for holidays last year.
High school students were increasingly heading away in their most important years — year 11 and 12 students were 78 per cent and 75 per cent more likely to go away during term in 2017 than in 2013.
But the issue isn’t confined to public schools — the Herald Sun has found private school handbooks that urge parents against taking holidays during term.
The Department of Education figures, released to the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information, have startled principals and education groups.
Australian Principals Federation president Julie Podbury labelled the number of days missed for holidays as “extraordinary”.
“It’s an awful shame and too many kids are missing out on far too much education,” she said. “There’s a really clear pattern here — because holidays are so much more expensive during the school holidays, parents are making decisions about their hip pocket, all the specials and deals are happening during term time.
“As a parent, you have sympathy to that, but kids can’t afford to take that much time out of school.”
Australian Education Union’s Victorian branch deputy secretary Justin Mullaly labelled the increase a “significant shift”.
“Parents need to beware, the balance is important … We can’t afford to have a situation where attendance at school is an optional thing,” he said.
Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said “the driving force is affordability”.
“Everyone knows if you want to go away during school holidays … it’s more expensive,” she said. “And the reality is not everybody can take holidays at the same times because of employers.”
Ms McHardy said while governments argued about the importance of school, life experience had a positive impact on students.
Raw data of total student absences — with 21 types including holidays, parents’ choice, illness, late arrival and unexplained — was obtained by the Herald Sun through FOI then equated against the enrolled student population per year level over five years.
Overall, total absences have soared by more than 11 per cent in government schools between 2013 and 2017, to 10.6 million absences last year alone.
STUDENTS SKIPPING SCHOOLS DOUBLES
THE number of school days Victoria’s students wag has almost doubled over five years.
Students skipped nearly 50,000 days of school last year alone, up 95 per cent since 2013.
On average, one in four students in years 9, 10 and 11 were truant for at least one day last year. Year 10 pupils missed the most days — a total 11,521 days between 39,273 students.
But a troubling trend showed students studying VCE were more likely to skip school than they were five years before. Year 11 pupils’ truancy rates were up 132 per cent on average and year 12 students increased 41 per cent between 2013 and 2017.
Minister for Education James Merlino said absenteeism had been “chronically underreported”.
“In the past 18 months we have overhauled how we record this data and funded additional regional staff, placing a significant focus to make sure no child falls through the cracks,” he said. Truancy has become such an issue in Melbourne’s southeast that a City of Frankston councillor is calling for a program to punish parents of the worst offenders.
Parenting classes, community service and fines would apply to mums and dads under the anti-truancy program, based off a US strategy.
Councillor Kris Bolam said the council would submit a motion to the Municipal Association of Victoria State Council in October urging the state government to renew its focus on truancy.
“Kids are hanging around the railway station when they should be at school,” he said.
Cr Bolam met with a Department of Education official recently, who he said claimed truancy was down in Frankston but “they haven’t given us any data”. “These figures should be a clarion call to action for our state bureaucrats and politicians,” he said.
Mr Merlino said a $44 million Navigator pilot program funded in the most recent budget “got more than 1000 Victorian kids re-engaged in school who would have otherwise had high rates of truancy and dropped out altogether”.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the overhaul of school attendance data last year “led to the significant spike in truancy figures”.
She said Victoria’s average attendance from years 1 to 10 was above 90 per cent last year but “more can always be done”.
DISTANCE EDUCATION
KELLY Lear and husband Andy said an overseas trip during term two took their children “out of their comfort zone”.
Daughter Harriet, 7, and son Kip, 5, had a month off school when they went to the UK for their grandmother’s 70th birthday.
“We spoke to teachers beforehand — our children are in prep and grade 2 — so they weren’t really concerned,” Mrs Lear said.
“I suggested they do a journal each day.”
Harriet and Kip now have written stories from their time in Bangkok, Liverpool, Scotland and Paris.
The mum of two — who herself took three months off school for a family trip that was “one of my favourite memories and life experiences” — said they would have thought twice if the kids were struggling in their studies.
“I don’t fully condone taking time out of school whenever you want, but for special events that happen once in a lifetime, why not?” she said.
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