Over a quarter of students enrolled in state schools in Malta’s inner harbour area have been skipping school in recent weeks without providing a valid reason for doing so.

This is not the first time that truancy among students from this area – namely Ħamrun, Marsa, Floriana, Valletta, Msida, Paola and Pietà –  made headlines. However, in the past two scholastic years the rate of absenteeism during the first months of school hovered around the six per cent mark.

The latest figures published in parliament show that 25.7 per cent of those attending San Ġorġ Preca College (which consists of schools from the inner harbour area) missed class between October 14 and November 16.

An additional one per cent were absent for medical reasons, while a further 16 per cent were excused from missing school for other reasons.

The information was supplied in reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Clyde Puli.

Malta’s schools were closed because of COVID-19 in March but were reopened when the new scholastic year started in September.

Attendance, however, is not mandatory and parents are still free to take the final decision on whether they should send their children to school or not. Of all the state schools, the San Ġorġ Preca College Msida Educational Hub had the highest unexplained absenteeism rate, with 57 per cent of students failing to turn up.

Children’s Commissioner Pauline Miceli had expressed concern about school attendance in early September.

Attendance was highest in Gozo, with more than 77.5 per cent of students attending the Gozo College making it to class during the period reviewed. Meanwhile, only half of the students eligible to attend a newly set-up virtual school logged in during the first few weeks since virtual lessons kicked off.

According to the figures, 48.9 per cent did not attend class and no reason for their absence was provided. Just over five per cent had a reason for not turning up.

The virtual school caters for some 600 students who are vulnerable or who have guardians who are vulnerable. There are some 25 teachers, who are also vulnerable, involved.

Children’s Commissioner Pauline Miceli had expressed concern about school attendance in early September, urging the government to keep school attendance compulsory and only exempting those deemed vulnerable from attending.

If school attendance did not remain compulsory, children living in vulnerable situations, particularly those who were regularly absent from school prior to the pandemic, would continue to fall through the net, she warned.