The pandemic has managed to stop the escalation that the municipality of Santa Cruz had been suffering in the data on school absenteeism. According to the analysis of the Report of the Municipal Service for the Detection, Prevention and Attention of School Absenteeism, the number of students who missed class without justification during the 2020-2021 academic year was 2,493, which is 616 less than those registered during the 2018 academic year. 2019, the latest for which data is available, and which brought the percentage of school absenteeism to 14%. With the data from last year, this percentage is lowered to 12%, for an enrolled population that reached 20,778 students. It seems clear that the limitations that the pandemic has been imposing, with online classes first, and face-to-face later, but also the limitation in social gatherings have affected this indicator, in this case, positively.
COVID has also crept into the causes of school absenteeism, where those related to families have grown notably, going from 40% to more than 50% in the last year. Thus, to the usual reasons collected in previous courses in this one have been added others such as digital absenteeism, or that caused by families in the quarantine process for suspected COVID contagion. There have also been cases of families that refuse to join for fear of contagion, or of those who claim to have a member who belongs to a risk group, but without presenting anything to support it.
The rest of the motivations have to do with issues such as those related to family health (illness that requires outpatient treatment, or diagnosed depression of responsible family members …). Negligent behaviors, lack of interest in the educational process, difficulty in reconciling, mental difficulties in the family, or the low value given to education within the family are also outlined.
The causes of absenteeism focused on the students themselves have also increased compared to 2019, going from 13% in that year to almost 17% in last year. Once again, digital absenteeism is reviewed as one of the reasons, but also the lack of basic skills for learning, deficits in social skills, pregnancy, lack of motivation, mistreatment between colleagues, COVID infections, transphobia or homophobia.
But this analysis also takes into account the reasons for absenteeism that originate in the educational centers themselves (2.48%), such as the disagreement between the interests of the families and the educational center, the disciplinary expulsions that they are reflected as unexcused absences, or the resistance to collaborate with families, among others. In this section, the study also points out that the educational response not adjusted to the socio-educational needs of the students encourages absenteeism. Specifically, the report points to the non-existence of specific programs that articulate concrete responses to address absenteeism situations at the center, unmotivating teachings, or organizational and curricular formulas poorly adapted to the characteristics of the students, and content that is not appropriate to the level of competence. curricular.
Regarding causes centered on the environment (0.17%), those related to the socioeconomic and cultural level of the families are some of those mentioned.
The study carried out by Eulen, the company that has assumed this service until the new one is tendered, clarifies that the students who, residing in the municipality of Santa Cruz, attend classes in other municipalities such as La Laguna, have not been included. Candelaria, Tacoronte among others, because it is not part of the sample of the municipal schools. The number of these cases amounts to 2,370.
Student body
According to the data provided by the report, the cases attended by the Municipal Absenteeism Service, throughout the school year, total 1,801 cases, and correspond to the stages of Infant, Primary, Secondary and Basic Vocational Training. The highest percentage of absentee students is located in FP, almost 60% of the total is located in this educational level, followed by Secondary (17%), Infant (8.43%) and Primary (8.25%).
With regard to gender differences, the majority of absentee students are men, 53%, compared to 46% women.
The highest incidence of absenteeism occurs in the Southwest
In the analysis made by districts, although the average of the municipality is 12% of students who miss class unjustifiably, the truth is that four of the five districts exceed that percentage. In this way, it is observed that in the past year the Southwest District stands out above the rest in terms of the number of cases, with a percentage of 15.80%. This means that of 4,773 students enrolled in the last year, 754 cases of absenteeism were reported in schools in the Southwest. It must be taken into account that this district is the one with the largest school-age population, so its data is influenced by this characteristic.
In the Salud-La Salle District, unexcused absences by students account for 15.49%, or what is the same, of 5,499 enrollments, 852 students have regularly missed classes. In Anaga, the percentage of absenteeism also exceeds 15%, specifically it is 15.47%, while in Ofra-Costa Sur the percentage drops to 13.48%.
Faced with these figures, the extremely low presented by the Centro-Ifara district is striking, with 2.45%, which means that of the 4,982 enrolled students, 122 are students considered absentee. Considering the number of cases that remained open during the school year (737), again the Southwest is the one with the highest incidence of school absenteeism, accumulating 5.45% of the cases that remain open.
