WQ90440 (e) Tabled on 11/01/2024

Will the Minister provide a full breakdown of the number of pupil absences due to ill-health since 2018?

Answered by Minister for Education and the Welsh Language | Answered on 19/01/2024

Data

Measure

2017/18

2018/19

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

Percentage of absences due to an illness absence

55.0

52.0

37.1

50.2

49.8

Total half-day sessions of illness absence

3,989,754

3,832,950

3,110,398

6,104,538

5,520,538

 Notes/Caveats

  1. There was no attendance data for the 2019/20 academic year due to Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic
  2. The number of half-day sessions of illness absence in the 2020/21 academic year is low due to school closures in the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic
  3. The "Percentage of absences due to an illness absence" is illness absences as a percentage of only absence codes, not all attendance codes
  4. Data from the academic years 2017/18 and 2018/19 were produced using validated annual collections, all other years used administrative data from schools' MIS. This data has been made as comparable as possible, however there are still differences caused by the different sources of the data.