Almost every school became a “virtual school” amid a global pandemic in 2020. School refusal became a national issue, and attendance numbers still haven’t bounced back.
School refusal is an emotionally based avoidance of school grounded in heightened anxiety.
Teachers and child psychologists say it has contributed to an unprecedented decline in school attendance in every state and territory.
Founder of The Youth Excel Centre, Michelle Mitchell, shares solutions for parents and students struggling with school refusal on The Briefing:
“I think some kids realised that they didn’t have to go to school,” Michelle Mitchell said.
Mitchell discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted attended numbers once schools were back in person.
“Going back to normal life, we went: this is just too much. Just getting kids back after summer break or after a weekend is a little bit harder. It’s like the Monday morning blues,” she said.
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Attendance rates in 2019 for students in years 1 to 10 were at 91.4 per cent, however, in 2023 they were at 88.6 per cent.
Among the solutions the government is investing in is enrolling affected students in the very thing that put the issue in the spotlight, virtual school.
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