Continues School Absenteeism Shows Pandemic Effects Still Linger

The pandemic caused all kinds of irreparable harm to the country. Almost six years later, people are still wearing masks, still working from home, and student are still refusing to actually go to school, instead wanting to do their work from home as well. It has become a far cry from what we knew before the event, and as mentioned, a lot of the effects are still lingering.

That is especially evident in schools, which are still reporting very high absenteeism. The absentee rate has gone from about 15 percent in 2018-2019, to still sitting at about 24 percent. That means nearly one-quarter of students are missing at least one month of school per year. That means less time for education, more distractions, and no critical thinking.

Teacher Auguste Mayrat says the pandemic essentially ruined accountability in schools, and reversing the trend has proven difficult.

"If a kid is missing too many days...they are no longer doing truancy court, sometimes instead there is credit recovery," he says.

Being truant from school used to be a huge deal. Schools would call parents, and the student if caught skipping, would face serious consequences. Now, thanks to the ridiculous lockdowns, kids see that skipping as a new normal.

In addition, some schools are continuing to fudge their enrollment or attendance numbers. These bad actors need to be held to a higher standard as well.

"We need to reimplement a lot of these process and systems for recording attendance data," says Mayrat.

Punishing students again would be a good start. Not just a slap on the wrist, and some weak effort at detention. There needs to be more done to get kids to realize school is important.

The biggest solution is going back to what worked before the pandemic.

"You have to get tighter on controls...return to the standards we used to have...reinstitute measures like truancy court, really getting ahold of parents not sending kids to school, and making sure absences are excused," Mayrat says.

The other big issue, Mayrat adds, is that the most vulnerable kids who need educational intervention the most then miss out on critical needs by skipping.

Education has faltered in this country in recent years, and truancy is partly to blame. Accountability is the only way to fix it, and only time will tell if any schools heed the warning.