Almost 50,000 children leave school without any explanation

The Education Policy Institute, a think tank based in Westminster, has just released research that suggests almost 50,000 children have disappeared from school placements for no credible reason. The report discloses the disturbing information that during the academic year of 2016-17, one in twelve pupils from the year groups of seven through to eleven, somehow vanished from the school records without any explanation.

The study focuses specifically on pupils who have probably been excluded for financial concerns, or to help the school`s overall GCSE grades - it doesn`t cover those pupils who may have left due to personal or family reasons.

The research shows that, of the 49,100 pupils surveyed in the 2016-17 study, there were 55,300 unexplained departures from school, which can only mean that some pupils left their schools, returned at a later date, only to leave once again.

The National Education Union report broke down the demographics of their findings, revealing that as many as one in three pupils in the social care system, along with one in eight black pupils and one in seven disadvantaged pupils have experienced unexplained school moves.

It also seems to be that just a few schools make up a disproportionately large number of absent pupils: only 6% of secondary schools, that is 330 across the United Kingdom, account for almost a quarter (23 percent) of the unaccounted moves. Why exactly this should be the report doesn`t make clear, but there is obviously a particular problem with those schools that needs to be attended to.

Ofsted has recently critiqued schools for the practice of `off rolling` pupils just before GCSE`s, a technique used to improve their league table results, where those pupils who might not obtain a high enough grade are removed from their course, for fear they may damage the precious results table that the school publishes every year. In 2018 Ofsted said that `some of the most vulnerable children are being let down by an increasingly fragmented system,` and commented that there was a `perverse incentive` for schools to prevent students sitting exams when they might get grades that lower the school`s league table results.

The report from the EPI may well be further indication that schools are coaxing and manoeuvring pupils out of the system, with the same aim as `off rolling` pupils - to ensure their exam league table results are falsely maintained.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of school leaders` union NAHT, said that this was probably not the case: `It is important not to conflate and condemn all the different reasons a pupil might leave a school`s roll.`

`To be clear, the practice of off-rolling a pupil to `game` the data is wrong. But not all unexplained pupil exits are off-rolling, and this report still cannot tell us exactly how widespread bad practice is.`

Dr Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), a trade union in the United Kingdom for school teachers, said that `The data is shocking if not surprising,` and went on to say that the real reasons for the unexplained absences must be accounted for.

`It is urgent that we move beyond the numbers, analyse the real reasons behind these moves, and challenge the government policies which are undermining inclusive and high-quality education.`

It is extremely disturbing that so many pupils seem to have simply vanished from the system without any explanation. The state has a duty of care towards these children - if their education is cut off early, they will miss out on later life opportunities, and can never hope to reach their full potential.