19 August 2009

RISING NON-ATTENDANCE IN WA PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS PUTTING GROWING NUMBERS OF CHILDREN AT EDUCATIONAL RISK: AUDITOR GENERAL

Auditor General Colin Murphy’s latest report, tabled in Parliament today, found that attendance in WA’s public schools has been declining steadily.

The report, ‘Every Day Counts: Managing Student Attendance in Western Australian Public Schools’, found that although the overall attendance rate for public schools is 91 per cent, some 49 000 children in Years 1 to 10 are at educational risk because they do not go to school regularly.

The number of students at educational risk as a result of non-attendance grew to 28 per cent in 2008 – a six per cent increase from 2007. On any given day in 2008, around 15 500 students were not at school.

Of significant concern is the marked drop in attendance as students move through secondary school. By Year 10, only 53 per cent of students attend regularly.

Non-attendance is a problem among Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

Poor attendance rates among Indigenous students make them over twice as likely to be at educational risk, while non-Indigenous students show the largest increase in the number of students at risk because they do not go to school regularly.

“A good education gives a child key life and career skills, helps them participate in their community and can be a powerful tool in overcoming social exclusion and disadvantage,” Mr Murphy said.

“A large and growing number of children are at risk of missing out on those skills and opportunities because they do not go to school regularly.

“For the vast majority of children, attending school is the way to get an education. For some, the impact of not doing so can last a lifetime. Although we cannot place a value on the social cost of this problem, we can estimate the financial impact.”

In 2008 absent students missed out on $185 million of education services. Re-integrating students who have been absent further increases the cost of managing attendance.

Mr Murphy said that while the Department of Education and Training’s approach to managing attendance generally works for students who are occasionally absent, it is not working for those who are persistently absent.

The Department’s understanding of the reasons behind non-attendance, particularly for specific groups, needs to be improved.

Together with better use of available attendance data, this understanding would improve the Department’s capacity to plan and target interventions, and help them identify and build on successful strategies being used in individual schools.

Better support and guidance for schools and districts on when and how to take action on non-attendance would make it more likely that students with attendance issues consistently get the help they need, when they need it, to get back to school.

“It is clear to me that making sure that children are in school regularly has not been given the same level of priority as other factors that can put a child’s education at risk,” Mr Murphy said.

“Parents and schools have major roles to play, but addressing rising levels of non-attendance cannot be left to them alone. Improving attendance will depend on effective partnerships between, families, schools, the Department, other agencies and local communities.”

Attachment: Summary attendance statistics by school district

The complete report can be downloaded from: http://www.audit.wa.gov.au/index.html

Ends/

Media Contact:Marcia van Zeller
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