More than 170,000 children in England missed at least half their school lessons last year, which is a record high, government figures suggest.
This amounts to 2.3% of pupils who were “severely absent”, which means they missed at least 50% of possible classes, in 2023-24 compared with 2.0% in 2022-23.
Overall, 171,269 pupils were classed as severely absent in the last academic year, up from 150,256 in 2022-23, the Department for Education (DfE) data showed.
It is the highest number recorded since the current DfE data began in 2006-07. In 2018-19, the last academic year before the Covid-19 pandemic, 60,247 were classed as severely absent.
And the unauthorised absence rate rose from 2.4% in 2022-23 to 2.5% in 2023-24, according to the figures. In 2018-19, the rate was only 1.4%.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We need to accept that schools cannot solve this issue on…