The Department of Education has launched a campaign to improve school attendance in local Government schools.

The Department of Education Attendance Working Party, made up of senior teachers from the different educational sectors, along with members of the Education Advisory Team met with Minister for Education John Cortes and the Director of Education last week to discuss the issue and launch this strategy.

Qualitative and quantitative information has informed professionals of the issues around school attendance, and they are concerned about the low levels of attendance seen across many pupils in Gibraltar Government schools and the impact this has on the holistic development of our children. The working party has already started to address aspects which fall in the professional domain and the newly launched awareness campaign now aims to make school attendance a public wide consideration; and educate parents, carers and children about the importance of regular school attendance.

The Working Party will strive to build an ethos across Gibraltar schools where all understand the importance of school attendance. This will be strongly supported by the Department of Education's fundamental priority of ensuring pupils can and want to be in school.

Minister for Education, John Cortes, said: “Attendance at school is important in ensuring that the child benefits from the learning experience. Missing school will strongly prejudice the child, which will be reflected in the child not achieving the full potential that our excellent Education system offers. In many cases it will lead to additional problems in later life, including social problems and absenteeism at work. Parents, carers and the community as a whole need to be aware of the importance of being at school, and this is what this Working Party, one of several we have recently set up, means to achieve.”