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Attendance at grant-aided primary, post-primary and special schools 2011/12: Summary statistics

Key points
~ Thursday, 31 January 2013

Absence rates

  • While there does not tend to be large variation in absence levels year on year, overall absence was slightly lower in all sectors in 2011/12 than in any of the previous four years
  • In primary schools in 2011/12, 4.8% of all half days were missed due to absence, comprising 3.4% authorised and 1.3% unauthorised absence. This represents a decrease on 2010/11, when overall absence accounted for 5.1% of the total half days (3.7% authorised and 1.4% unauthorised).
  • In post-primary schools in 2011/12, 7.0% of all half days were missed due to absence, 4.4% was authorised absence and 2.6% was unauthorised absence. In 2010/11,overall absence represented 7.4% of the total half days, 4.6% authorised and 2.8% unauthorised.
  • In special schools, 9.8% of all half days were missed due to absence in 2011/12, comprising 6.5% authorised and 3.3% unauthorised absence. These figures show a decrease in overall and authorised absence since 2010/11, when levels were 10.2% and 7.3% respectively and a slight increase in unauthorised absence (3.0% in 2010/11).

Reasons for absence

  • The most common reason for absence in all schools was illness, which is an authorised absence. Illness accounted for 61.9% of all absent half days in primary schools,
    49.9% in post-primary schools and 47.6% in special schools. This equates to 3.0%, 3.5% and 4.7% of the total half days respectively.

Comparisons with England, Scotland and Wales

  • Data for Scotland for 2011/12 is not available since it is now produced on a biennial basis. Of the other regions, the highest overall absence rates were recorded in Wales – 6.2% of the total half days in primary schools and 7.8% in post-primary schools. This compares with 4.8% and 7.0% respectively in Northern Ireland. However, unauthorised absence was notably higher in NI schools than in any other region, at 1.3% of the total half days in primary and 2.6% in post-primary.

The full report can be accessed via the following link on the DE website