Minister McEntee launches national campaign on school attendance
- Published on: 24 September 2025
- Last updated on: 24 September 2025
Trends highlighted in publication of TESS Annual Attendance Report and Student Absence Report for the 2023/2024 year
Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee, in partnership with the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), has announced the launch of a nationwide multimedia campaign to promote regular school attendance across Ireland.
The campaign launch comes as new data from TESS shows more than one in five children and young people at primary and post-primary level miss more than 20 days of their school year.
The TESS Annual Attendance Report and Student Absence Report for the 2023/2024 school year, published today by Tusla, also show that while absenteeism remains high, total days lost and chronic absenteeism have both fallen for the second consecutive year. Minister McEntee said that while the reduction in the total number of days lost was positive, the level of absenteeism in schools remained far too high.
- Primary schools: The data shows that the number of days lost by students at primary level has decreased from 8,689,829 in the 2021/22 school year to 6,247,325 in the 2023/24 school year. This represents 8% of the total school days in the 2023/24 school year. 8.6% of total days were lost in the 2022/23 school year.
- Post-primary schools: The total number of days lost has risen for the second consecutive year to 6,029,243 from 5,569,447 in the 2022/23 school year, but this increase is largely accounted for by the increase of 24,000 students in the total post-primary student population. The total days lost in the 2023/24 school year represents 11.3% of total school days. 11.4% of total days were lost in the 2022/23 school year.
The data published today has shown that there has been a reduction in the level of chronic absenteeism (20+ days missed) in schools but that levels are still higher than pre-pandemic figures:
- Primary schools: For the 2023/24 school year, 94,501 (22.1%) of students in primary missed more than 20 days, down from 110,151 (25.1%) in the 2022/23 school year.
- Post-primary schools: 67,612 (21.2%) of students in post-primary lost 20+ days in the 2023/24 school year, up from 65,883 (22.3%) in the 2022/23 school year.
The new multi-platform campaign seeks to help address absenteeism by encouraging everyone involved in the lives of children and young people – including parents, guardians, teachers, and communities – to support and prioritise regular school attendance. The campaign’s message is clear: when children are not in school, they miss out on learning, friendships, and the chance to grow.
Minister McEntee said:
“Childhood is a time of great opportunity. Every day in school is a building block for a child’s future. When students miss school, they miss out, not only on learning, but also on social development and valuable time with friends and teachers. I am pleased to be launching a new multimedia campaign to raise awareness of the importance of consistent school attendance and encourage positive behaviour change. One key part of this effort is the Anseo Framework, a school-based model that gives principals, teachers, and families the tools they need to tackle absenteeism. This will be rolled out to 60 schools.
“In my first Dáil speech as Minister for Education and Youth, I committed to taking action to address unacceptably high levels of children and young people missing school. Today, I’m reaffirming that commitment: we are bringing forward new legislation, and strengthening supports for schools and families to ensure every child has the best possible opportunity to achieve their full potential.
“Children and young people in communities across Ireland are missing a concerning number of school days each year. These days add up quickly, and as a result, there is a real risk that many students will not achieve their full potential from education. Regular school attendance is essential not just for academic achievement, but also for wellbeing, social development and long-term life outcomes.
“While I welcome that improvements have been recorded for a second year in a row, the number of children and young people missing significant time from school is still far too high. In the last school year, one in five students missed at least a month of school. This requires continued action.”
Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion, Michael Moynihan said:
“Encouraging school attendance is within the power of everyone in a student’s life. When a child or young person can go to school, they should go to school. Every school day is a new day and a new opportunity for everyone to actively encourage school attendance.”
Áine O’Keeffe, Director of TESS, said:
“Increasing school attendance is the key function of TESS. We are very excited to launch, together with Minister McEntee, a new national multimedia campaign aimed at raising awareness around the often-underestimated impact of missed school days here and there and leading those who are responsible for school going children to supportive resources to improve daily attendance.
“TESS is also delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response the Anseo Framework has received from schools around Ireland. We are rolling it out to 60 more schools this term, with the potential to introduce it to many more in the current school year and to all schools by 2028.”
Watch the TV campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLsNP4lXOKU
Expansion of Anseo attendance tool
After a successful trial in four schools during 2023–2024, TESS and the Department of Education and Youth are now starting a phased national rollout of the Anseo model to sixty schools. Anseo is a practical tool that helps schools improve attendance. The model facilitates schools to identify patterns of absenteeism at the student, class and whole school level to develop nuanced and timely responses to drivers of school absenteeism. This helps schools respond in a timely and targeted way. Using the model will enable school leadership to use their school level attendance data to understand the shape of their attendance patterns and to plan appropriate interventions for all students.
About the nationwide attendance campaign:
The campaign shows how being in school helps children learn, grow, and make friends. It highlights that every school day is a fresh start, full of excitement and new opportunities. The campaign also aims to raise awareness about how many school days are being missed, and how those missed days can add up over time. Importantly, it shows parents, guardians, and schools where they can find more information and support to help improve attendance: gov.ie/SchoolAttendance.
Encouraging school attendance is something everyone in a child or young person’s life can help with. When a child or young person can go to school, they should go to school. Every school day is a new day and a new opportunity for everyone to support and encourage attendance.
The campaign will be visible across a wide range of platforms, including:
- Television and radio
- Print and outdoor advertising (bus/Luas shelters, cinema)
- Social media and video on demand
- Comprehensive outreach activities
Additional Information
About TESS
TESS, under the Department of Education and Youth since 2021, promotes attendance, participation, and retention through three strands:
- Educational Welfare Service
- Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL)
- School Completion Programme (SCP)
These services work collaboratively with schools, families, and communities to support students at risk of early school leaving and foster strong parent-school partnerships.
The Anseo Framework empowers schools to analyse attendance data and implement tailored solutions that address their unique challenges - scalable to individual pupils and adaptable across diverse school contexts.
Further findings outlined in TESS Annual Attendance Report and Student Absence Report for the 2023/2024 school year:
- In DEIS Urban Band 1 schools, where students face greater socio-economic challenges, 994,183 days were lost – accounting for 11% of the total – with 38% of students missing 20 or more days. This is down from 1,099,380 days lost (11.9% of the total) in the 2022/23 school year and 42.9% of students missing 20 or more days.
- Retention rates in Irish post-primary schools remain high, with 90% of students who started first year in 2017 sitting the Leaving Certificate by 2022 or 2023
- Retention rates in DEIS post-primary schools fell to 83.4% in 2023, down from 83.8% in 2019, but narrowing the gap with non-DEIS schools to 8.7 points from 9.3 points in 2019
Progress to date on key initiatives to promote school attendance and tackle absenteeism includes:
- Legislative Reform: Plans to extend the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 to include children under six in primary school.
- Anseo Framework: Following a successful pilot, Phase 1 rollout began this month in 60 schools, with full implementation to take place across all schools by 2028.
- National Multimedia Campaign to promote attendance awareness.
- Annual Attendance Returns: Schools reminded of their reporting obligations to enable better planning and support.
- National Attendance Conference in 2026 to share best practices.
- Real-time Data Scoping Project: Underway to enable earlier intervention.
