Call for supports to keep kids in school as 28k students quit before sitting LC

Irish Daily Mirror

06-07-2025

At least 28,500 kids due to sit their Leaving Cert or the Leaving Cert Applied over a five-year period left school early, figures have revealed.
This includes 13,222 students who left school in the last two academic years alone, without completing their final exams. On average, 91% of students complete the Leaving Cert.
The figures were released to Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins following a series of parliamentary questions to Education Minister Helen McEntee.
Deputy Cummins told the Irish Mirror that support needs to be in place to ensure that children are supported to attend school.
She said schools need to have a 'designated person' whose job it is to manage children's attendance in schools
She continued: 'We also need to have the wraparound services from Tusla with regards to social work for family support.
'We need to have the psychological supports for those children who have avoidance-based school refusal. Anxiety is a huge, huge issue that is being displayed in schools because children are not able to cope in mainstream school because of many, many different reasons.'
The data confirmed what year students started in secondary school and how many left before completing their Leaving Cert or Leaving Cert Applied.
Minister McEntee confirmed the most recent figures available concern those who began their post-primary education in 2017, and were due to complete their Leaving Certificate in the academic years 2021/22 or 2022/23, depending on whether or not they did Transition Year.
Figures for the 2018 cohort finishing in 2023/24 are not complete, she stated. Of the students who started secondary school in 2017, 6,398 left before sitting their Leaving Cert, while another 803 left without doing the Leaving Cert Applied, bringing the total number to 7,201.
Some 90% of students who started school in 2017 completed the Leaving Cert, while 79% sat the Leaving Applied.
Of the students starting secondary school in 2016, 5,324 (8.3%) left without sitting the Leaving Cert.
When the 697 children who did not sit their Leaving Cert Applied are included, the number who left school without their qualifications rose to 6,021.
The number of early school leavers for those who entered post-primary education in 2015 dropped compared to other years and stood at 4,912 (7.9%).
These students were due to sit their Leaving Cert in 2020 or 2021 amid large-scale pandemic disruptions. In 2020, the Leaving Cert was cancelled and predicted grades were introduced.
Some 5,169 students (8.5%) who started school in 2014 and 5,259 (8.7%) who started in 2013 did not sit their Leaving Cert.
It brings the total number of students who left school before sitting their exams to 28,562.
McEntee also provided Deputy Cummins with data on the number of early school leavers in Deis schools compared to non-Deis schools.
Across the same five-year period, an average of 15% left school before finishing their Leaving Certificate in Deis schools. However, this fell to 7% in non-Deis schools.