Students who were absent for long periods were often struggling to reintegrate with their classmates, with educators “bending backwards” to help them keep up, the teachers’ union said.

Malta Union of Teachers president Marco Bonnici told Times of Malta that such long periods of absence often resulted in “serious misbehaviour and lack of adaptation to the school structure”.

“Schools and educators are often bending backwards to address the needs of these students with little support,” the MUT head said.

He was reacting to information tabled in Parliament showing that just short of 2,000 parents have had to face legal action for not sending their children to school during the 2016-17 scholastic year.

Read: Tackle rising absenteeism holistically, say educator

Replying to a question in Parliament by MP Etienne Grech, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said that throughout the 2016-17 scholastic year there were 1,759 parents who had been taken to various tribunals for not sending their children to school for more than three days.

These parents, the minister said, did not have a valid excuse for doing so.

According to Mr Bartolo, in 619 of the cases, the students were still in primary school.

In Malta, education is compulsory until the age of 16.

According to the latest available data, which covers the 2015-16 scholastic year, there were 8,944 students in secondary school alone who were absent without permission for more than three days throughout that scholastic year.

Read: More than 10,000 court cases over student absenteeism since 2009

Parents of children who miss school are slapped with a fine of €2.33 for each day the child is absent without a valid reason. Failing to pay is considered a criminal offence under the Education Act.

The fine is part of efforts by the government to curb absenteeism in schools and which has, for years, plagued the education system. Efforts also include the introduction of several vocational subjects, which the government has insisted, provide an education more in touch with the students’ needs, reducing their temptation to miss school.

The MUT president also said that while absenteeism has been reduced through a number of measures taken in the past years with the input of personnel, including prefects of discipline, anti-bullying services, school counsellors and other grades, there is currently a shortage of personnel for the above services.

“This does not augur well for the completion of the strategy to tackle absenteeism in the coming months,” Mr Bonnici said.

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