A total of 3,927 students attending state schools had over 10 days of unauthorised absences during the 2016-17 scholastic year, at which point state school procedure requires that the school intervenes in the situation, information tabled in Parliament shows.
Education Minister Evarist Bartolo was asked about absenteeism in the 2016-17 scholastic year by Partit Demokratiku leader and MP Godfrey Farrugia. Farrugia asked for the number of students who did not attend school throughout this scholastic year and for the reasons of this absenteeism.
Bartolo in response tabled information which showed that there were 1,258, 763 and 1,906 students in Primary, Middle and Secondary state schools respectively who were absent for more than 10 days.
The Education Minister said that a number of parents had been taken up to face the Regional Tribunals, and also reminded that children are legally obliged to attend school from the Year 1 level – the first level of primary school.
With regards to the reasons for absenteeism, Bartolo said that they varied and could have been down to reasons pertaining to the students themselves, to their families or to the school that the children attend.
In saying this, the minister provided a table with some problems that have led to the aforementioned absenteeism. In the case of individual factors, physical and mental health problems, social problems, emotional and behavioural problems, anxiety and separation anxiety, grieving due to a death, school phobia (in that the student refuses to attend school), difficulties with adapting to the country in the case of foreign students, and even students being untraceable by means of having left the country, were all cited as being some reasons for absenteeism.
Other familial factors were also listed as a possible reason for absenteeism. Some of these reasons are students having parents with a lack of ability to bring them up, students having parents suffering from an addiction, students with parents who were victims of domestic violence, students suffering through some form of abuse, students coming from a family with financial problems, students with parents going through relationship problems, students with parents suffering from mental health problems, and students having families with a culture pre-disposed against school.
Bartolo also noted that there are instances where a student is permitted to miss school for a prolonged period of time. These would be students who are either sick or have a valid reason, such as the death of a family member, difficult familial situations, or trips abroad which have an educational scope, Bartolo added in his answer.