Updated at 1.35pm with ministry statement

Short-term truancy among secondary school students has reached a new high, as over 300 more pupils missed school in the first half of this scholastic year than throughout the whole of last year.

In total, 8,944 students were absent for stretches of time without authorisation, which is some 80 per cent of the 11,061 students at secondary level. Despite stepped-up efforts from the government in recent years to curb absenteeism, figures tabled in Parliament showed that more students were absent this scholastic year for stretches of up to 10 days by February, with 7,679 pupils being absent without a valid excuse.

There were 7,372 secondary school students absent without permission throughout the 2015-16 scholastic year, according to the data.

A breakdown of primary and secondary absenteeism for last year and the first half of this year shows there were 69 students who did not attend school for more than 81 straight days. Last year, this figure stood at just 35.

The figures for the 14,917 students at the primary level revealed a different trend, and so far, truancy among younger students has not increased.

The parents of a child who misses school are slapped with a fine of as much as €2.33 for each day they are absent without valid reason. Failing to pay is considered a criminal offence under the Education Act.

In reality, the measures taken are half-baked

According to Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, attendance procedures rolled out in 2014 stipulate that parents not sending their children to school must call ahead and send a note explaining the reasons.

It is then up to the head of the school to determine whether the excuse was valid. The most common reasons for absenteeism given by guardians, the minister said, were health issues within the family, the children being sick for fewer than three days and the death of a family member.

Reacting to the fresh data, Malta Union of Teachers Kevin Bonello said that the union had long been saying that the measures to curb absenteeism were not right, labelling them as “incomplete”.

“The decision by the government to introduce a fine system to curb absenteeism should have been accompanied by a proper structure able to cater for students who are returning to schools against their wish after very long absences,” Mr Bonello said.

The current system of putting them with their age group despite their having missed out on a number of lessons and then “expecting the teachers to do miracles” was clearly not working, he went on.

“If students miss school for a year but are aged 14, they will be placed in Form 4, even though they missed Form 3,” Mr Bonello said, adding that there were cases where some students had missed up to three years of schooling.

The union also urged the government to address the situation in which students were completely disinterested in formal schooling, as while long-term absenteeism had decreased, this was not the case with absenteeism in the short term.

“In reality, the measures taken are half-baked and fall short of achieving the desired targets.

“What this country really needs is a system of fines that should be slapped on the minority of guardians that fail to support their children and fail to cooperate with schools,” Mr Bonello said.

Mandatory programmes in parenting skills for parents identified by the communities as needing to acquire such skills also need to be introduced, the union head believes.

Ministry statement

In a statement, the ministry said the report did not reflect the full picture as it only took into account the number of secondary students missing for between one and 10 days, without noting that this was mainly due to sharp decreases in the number of students missing for 11 days and more.

"The numbers actually show unauthorised absenteeism decreasing overall - long-term absentees are becoming short-term absentees."

It said that a considerable number of secondary students who missed more than 10 days in previous years had now decreased their absenteeism to under 10 days, hence the relative spike in this bracket.

The total number of secondary students who missed more than 11 days last year was 2,335 down to 1,265 this year.

The statistics showed that the 11-20 bracket wasaround 50% less, and by the end of the year this should be well below the previous year.