Education Minister Paul Givan has launched a public consultation process concerning a new draft strategy designed to improve school attendance across Northern Ireland and gain a deeper understanding of the reasons underpinning pupil absence.

The proposed Attendance Matters Strategy identifies six key priority areas intended to provide comprehensive support for children and young people to ensure they attend school every day:

1. Promoting a nurturing environment to understand and reduce Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA).

2. Ensuring inclusive strategies to proactively promote positive behaviour.

3. Using data to accurately identify vulnerable children and young people and delivering timely early interventions.

4. Understanding why children are missing from formal education and actively taking steps to address these reasons.

5. Piloting a whole community approach to collaboratively improve attendance rates.

6. Transforming support specifically for schools and educational settings. Launching the public consultation, Paul Givan expressed serious concern over recent trends in pupil absence: "Recent trends in pupil absence show almost 82,500 pupils are currently missing 10% or more of their school days. There has been a significant increase in these figures since 2018/19, and this is a worrying trend that we should all be concerned about."

The Minister highlighted feedback from school leaders regarding the lasting effects of the pandemic: "School leaders have told me the impact of the pandemic on our children and young people should not be underestimated. This has consequences at primary and post-primary level, making the challenge of raising achievement and closing the gap more challenging."

Mr Givan emphasised that a child's happiness and sense of belonging in school are crucial for attendance: "If a child is happy in school, they will feel a sense of belonging, feel safe and supported, and will want to attend. My Department's updated attendance strategy reflects the importance of understanding why pupils are absent and the benefits of early intervention in strengthening our approach. It seeks to highlight the impact of non-attendance and seeks ways to put effective measures in place."

The Minister concluded by encouraging participation in the consultation: "I would encourage all those with an interest in this issue, particularly families and schools, to respond to the consultation and ensure your views are heard as we collectively find ways to ensure attendance is valued and achieved."