ATTENDANCE RATES for primary and secondary pupils in Dundee have improved but are still the second-worst in Scotland, writes Grant Smith, education reporter.

City council education convener Kevin Keenan welcomed the rise in the figures published yesterday by the Executive, and said schools were working hard to cut down on absences. The statistics, covering the 2005/06 school year, show that sickness was the main cause of Dundee pupils missing class.

Secondary pupils in Angus, Perth and Kinross and Fife were also out of school more often than the national average, but primary pupils did better.

The figures were released on the day the Executive began a consultation on improving attendance rates and making stronger links between child protection and absence from school.

This was prompted by the murder of Livingston pupil Rory Blackhall (11), whose family was not alerted to his absence from school.

Education minister Hugh Henry said, “It’s important we don’t get the problem out of proportion. The vast majority of pupils have excellent attendance records, with 32,000 boasting an impressive 100% attendance.”

He praised the success of a scheme piloted at 600 schools across the country that uses technology to alert parents when their children fail to turn up at school.

The system saw a 0.5% rise in attendance at secondary schools. Primary figure was 0.1%, but truancy is much less of a problem among younger pupils.

Mr Henry said, “It’s clear the systems discourage absence and have an added child protection benefit, alerting parents if their child unexpectedly fails to turn up at school.

“After the success of the pilot, I’d encourage more schools to consider implementing absence alerts. I’m sure it will help us continue to make inroads into truancy and it will free up staff time to focus on the hard core of persistent truants.”

Statistics showed Scots primary pupils turned up 95.0% of the time in 2005/06, the same as the year before, with those at secondary school averaging 90.4%, up slightly on 2004/05.

Fourth-year secondary pupils are the most likely to be absent, girls more commonly out of class than boys at S4 to S6. Sickness accounted for almost half, with pupils from deprived areas more likely to be ill.

Almost 140,000 pupils were recorded as truanting at least once during the school year—amounting to almost one million days of education lost—but much of the problem was confined to persistent small minority. Just 2% of pupils account for 50% of truancy.

Holidays are another main reason for absence, with schools recording more and more of these as unauthorised absences.

On an average day some 50,000 pupils are missing from school in Scotland. Almost 23,000 were sick, 5000 were truanting, 3600 were on holiday and about 800 were temporarily excluded.

The Executive said, “Pupils in urban areas were absent more often than those in rural areas. In general, schools with higher levels of deprivation had higher levels of absence, with the effect being greater in secondary schools.”

Pupils registered for free school meals, a standard measure of deprivation, were more likely to be missing than those who were not, a spokesman said.

That helps to explain the situation in Dundee, where attendance at primary was 93.2%, the second lowest score of 32 local authorities, but up 0.3% on 2004/05. The figure was only 1.8% below the national average as there tends to be little difference between the best and worst areas at this level. Dundee primary pupils averaged 16 half-days of authorised absence and six half-days unauthorised.

Secondary figures vary more widely. Dundee was equal-second bottom with an attendance rate of 83.6% —6.8% below the national average, but up 0.3% on the previous year. Secondary pupils averaged 26 half-days of authorised absence and 17 days unauthorised. The sickness rate was 5.3%.

Welcoming the figures, Councillor Keenan said, “The city council and schools have worked very hard to improve attendance rates. There is a direct link between attendance and achievement and pupils can only make real progress if they are actually in school and taking an active part in lessons and school life.

“Secondary schools operate a group call system to make parents aware of unexplained absences and there are a number of systems in operation to monitor attendance rates.

“There has also been a drop in the number of unauthorised holiday absences in schools. We thank parents who have listened to our message and considered the implications of taking time off for holidays during school terms. I would encourage parents to continue to support us by trying to avoid taking pupils on holiday during term time.”

More than half Scots councils have used the group call messenger system and the firm behind it said truancy rates had fallen 27% in Dumfries and Galloway, 20% in Dundee and 13% in Highland.

Groupcall MD Lawrence Royston said, “Scotland has led the way in this area and it now underlines the case for a similar pilot to be undertaken in schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.”

For the rest of Tayside and Fife, there was a noticeable split between the attendance figures at primary and secondary level.

Attendance at primary in Angus was 95.4%, with Perth and Kinross on 95.2%, both above the national average, while Fife was only a little behind on 94.3%.

But all three were below average at secondary—Angus on 89.1%, Perth and Kinross 89.0% Fife 88.3%. Figures for half-days of authorised and unauthorised absences in schools were all lower than Dundee’s. Sickness rates at secondary were 4.3% in Angus, 3.9% in Perth and Kinross and 5.1% in Fife.

Examples of authorised absence include sickness, bereavement, religious observance, family weddings and attendance at sporting or cultural events not organised by the school, but approved by them. Unauthorised absence includes family holidays, truancy and any absence that is not explained to the school.