Report 16

Follow-On: Managing Student Attendance in Western Australian Public Schools

Auditor General’s Overview

A good education is powerful. It gives children skills, opens up opportunities and is often a key part of overcoming disadvantage. Missing out on education by regularly missing school puts children at risk of lifelong consequences.

Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their children go to school regularly. In practice, parents, schools, communities, the Department of Education and other government agencies share that responsibility. This broad responsibility reflects the range of influences and responses often needed to improve the school attendance of some children.

My report highlights examples where schools have improved attendance, showing it can be done. However, it is not being done consistently or often enough to have much overall impact. Despite the new initiatives introduced since my 2009 report, there has been little change in the proportion of students at educational risk because of poor attendance.

What has changed is that the Department has a much better view of the patterns and causes of non-attendance. While this is an important first step, it needs to become the basis for broad improvement.

Improving attendance is never easy or simple, and there is no ‘off the shelf’ ‘one size fits all’ solution. But 80 000 children not going to school regularly, and 10 000 of them at severe educational risk because of it, is too many. Improvement will be incremental, gradual and need concerted collaborative effort. The powerful and long lasting benefits from going to school mean we all have a shared responsibility to make that effort.

 
Page last updated: August 19, 2015

Back to Top