Attendance and absence

This section provides statistic on pupil attendance and absence at primary and secondary schools in Scotland.  

Attendance across Scottish cities and Glasgow City Region

There is some variation in attendance across Scotland's public schools by sector: in 2022/23, the overall attendance in primary schools was 92% compared to 88% in secondary schools. Attendance dropped during 2020/21, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued to drop in most areas in 2022/23. The figures shown below for 2022/21 have excluded times when the schools were closed due to COVID-19. 

From 2010/11 to 2018/19, school attendance rates were somewhat steady across the Scottish cities, ranging between around 91% and 94% attendance. Rates dropped for each of the cities in 2020/21, as the impacts of COVID-19 and the related restrictions were felt. This trend continued in the 2022/23 figures, with Glasgow having 88.9% attendance, compared to 88.6% in Dundee, 91.2% in Aberdeen, 91.6% in Edinburgh and 90.2% across Scotland as a whole. It is likely that these reflect ongoing COVID-19 related absences and issues. 

A similar pattern can be seen in the Glasgow City Region local authorities, where attendance rates ranged between around 91% and 96% between 2010/11 and 2018/19, and dropped for all local authorities during COVID-19. East Dunbartonshire (92.7%) and East Renfrewshire (93%) had the highest rates of attendance in 2022/23. These were the lowest rates for these local authorities in this time period, but they were still higher than Glagsow's attendance rates even before COVID-19. The lowest rates in GCR in 2022/23 were in West Dunbartonshire (88.4%) and in Glasgow (88.9%). 

Persistent absences

The Scottish Government also records statistics on persistent absence. In 2022/23, 32% of students across Scotland were absent for 10% or more of the school year. This varied between local authorities, with 39% of students in Glasgow recording persistent absences. 

Across Scotland, persistent absence (i.e. where a pupil has missed 10% or more days) is one-and-a-half times higher in secondary school compared to primary school. When comparing Scotland's four largest cities, Glasgow has a higher proportion of persistent absence than Aberdeen (29.2%), Dundee (38.8%), and Edinburgh (27.4%). East Renfrewshire (21.1%) and East Dunbartonshire (22.2%) had the lowest rates of persistent absence in Scotland. Only West Dunbartonshire (41.6%), North Ayrshire (39.8%) and North Lanarkshire (39.4%) had higher rates than Glasgow (38.8%). 

Absence by reason 

The largest group of instances of recorded absence in primary schools across Scotland was 'authorised absences'. Within this category, the main reason was 'sickness without educational provision' – this accounted for almost half (48%) of all absences in primary schools, and one third (32%) of all absences in secondary schools. The 'attendance' category mainly recorded pupils being late. Temporary exclusion was recorded in 0.6% of absences from primary school and 4.1% of absences from seconday school. Unexplained absences (including truancy) accounted for 13% of primary school and 21% of secondary school absences, making up most of the category of 'unauthorised absence'. 

Attendance by ethnicity and English proficiency

The statistics released show attendance rates in Scotland and in each local authority for different ethnic groups and for students grouped by level of English proficiency. For Glasgow, attendance rates were lowest for students from a 'White - gypsy/traveller' ethnic background (70.2%) or from a 'White - Scottish' background (87.9%) and highest for students from an 'Asian - Chinese' (96.4%) or an 'African' (94.4%) background. Attendance rates were also slighty lower for students new to English (87.8%) or who had English as their first language (88.4%), than for those at various stages of learning English (ranging from 90% to 91.9%). 

Attendance by SIMD 

There is a gradient of attendance rates for students from different SIMD quintiles. Students in Glasgow from the most deprived quintile had a 87.5% attendance rate in 2022/23, whereas students from the least deprived quintile had a 93.6% attendance rate.