Attenders and non-attenders : effects on pupils' primary school experiences

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the issue of attendance and non-attendance in streamed junior classrooms. It reviews the importance of a quality education for all, together with the psychological, social and medical causes of non-attendance, studying national absenteeism data together with attendance records collected from our case studies to understand the impact of missed schooling on pupils' primary school experiences. This qualitative study made use of ethnographic participant observations in two contrasting Year 5 classrooms in a Maltese state school and ten interviews with the pupils from each class. The authors carried out separate interviews with the pupils' parents. We have identified the coping mechanisms and resilience of children who are polarised at opposite ends of the streaming system and found that the curriculum and pedagogy channel pupils according to social status rather than ability. Moreover, irrespective of the causes of non-attendance, pupils who had parental academic support and family cultural capital did better at school than pupils whose parents were unable to provide academic support to fill in the gaps of missed schooling. We recommend that schools recognise the need for all pupils to succeed irrelevant of family background. Keeping in mind that the school has the important task of caring for each pupil and maximising individual potential, we suggest that schools put together a professional team to cater for the holistic development of pupils and tackle the psychological, social and medical causes of non-attendance from the beginning of the pupil's school career.