Student attendance at Victorian high schools hits record low

Secondary schools have recorded a massive drop-off in students attending class compared to pre-Covid. Check your school’s attendance rate.

Victorian secondary school attendance has plummeted to a record low, with 100,000 fewer students meeting key benchmarks in 2022 compared to the pre-Covid era.

In what experts are describing as a post-pandemic crisis, the Herald Sun can reveal last year less than half of Victoria’s secondary students attended school 90 per cent of the time or more.

This was a massive fall from three-quarters in 2019.

Of the sector’s 440,000 students, 316,800 attended regularly in 2019 but this plummeted to just 215,600 in 2022 – a staggering drop of 101,200 students.

The government says pandemic illness was a key contributor to the attendance decline but experts also blame the “social and emotional impact of extended lockdowns”.

In the most extreme example, the percentage of students attending nine or more days out of 10 collapsed from 78 per cent in 2019 to 25 per cent in 2022. Even leading high-fee schools such as Ballarat Grammar, St Michael’s Grammar, Genazzano and Luther College had attendance level drops of more than 40 percentage points when on-campus classes returned last year.

Pandemic illness has been cited as a key contributor to the attendance decline. Picture: iStock

The attendance level is based on the proportion of students in years 1 to 10 turning up to class 90 per cent or more of the time.

This figure dropped to as low as 3 per cent at one school, analysis of semester one 2019 and 2022 data released today on the My School website shows.

Monash University professor and clinical psychologist Nicole Rinehart said the pandemic had directly impacted student attendance rates.

“As a clinical psychologist who saw vulnerable children through the pandemic, I can absolutely say yes it has had an impact then and now,” she said.

“The impact is not over.”

The pandemic has directly impacted student attendance rates. Picture: iStock

Australian Catholic University senior lecturer in educational leadership and former principal Dr Paul Kidson said for some students, remote learning was a “safer and more comfortable” alternative.

Dr Kidson said kids who were refusing school shouldn’t be “pushed prematurely”.

A St Michael’s Grammar spokesperson said the decline in attendance was “predominantly due to Covid absences and isolation requirements”.

A Ballarat Grammar spokesperson said its attendance levels were also affected by isolation rules, particularly for boarding students.

A Department of Education spokesperson said Victoria had the highest school attendance rates in the country.

“All jurisdictions experienced a decline in student attendance rate in 2022,” they said. “This is mostly attributable to students being away from school for medical reasons, including illness.”