Every day that a child misses school is “a setback”, an expert in children’s wellbeing has said.

Education minister Helen McEntee has announced a new major programme of work aiming to tackle educational disadvantage.

This plan incorporates a number of recommendations from a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) review into the current Deis scheme published last summer.

The Department’s new plan focuses on improving opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, meanwhile working towards a more flexible system of supports for schools.

These plans come as the number of chronic absences from school has more than doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, about one-in-four primary school children and more than a fifth of post primary school kids have missed at least a month of school during the 2022 to 2023 school term.

On Lunchtime Live, Irish Examiner political commentator and former Barnardos’ CEO Fergus Finlay said described the figures as “frightening”.

“It was our [Irish Examiner] education correspondent Jess Casey who revealed the figures and they really are frightening,” he said.

“I mean, I know from years of working in Barnardos that every day a child misses school is a setback in that child's life and to think that kids are missing a quarter of school days now through absence, the consequences into the future for them are very serious.

“They're kind of untold in a way - we've never had figures quite like that.

“I don't know what the reason is - I suspect COVID was so disruptive for an awful lot of families and an awful lot of children that perhaps there are families and children really having difficulty adjusting to normality, if you know what I mean.”

Mr Finlay said he welcomes change within the Department of Education.

“I really welcome what I've heard the Minister of Education is proposing to do, because this problem is bad, but it's worse in disadvantaged communities,” he said.

“It's worse around the Deis school system – [that] system is designed to enable additional resources, additional teaching capacity, additional support to be available for the kids who need it most and clearly, we need to invest even more than that.”

Student leaning on the desk in a classroom. Image: Alamy

Mr Finlay also said he thinks parents are more scared of their kids being sick in school post-pandemic.

“There have been a number of infections that have gone around schools and I think that has frightened parents,” he said.

“I think parents are much more aware and frightened of infections now than they were but that's another thing we've got to get past.

“It is absolutely, absolutely essential to the social, emotional and educational development of children that they are part of school communities.

“School life [is] not just about learning, particularly in primary school, it's not just about learning.”

Mr Finlay said play and friendship are as important for a child’s development as actual education.

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An empty classroom, Alamy