The education ministry has, for the time being, abandoned work on tightening regulations concerning school attendance. The proposed changes were removed from the new version of the draft Act on Students’ Rights and Duties. The original draft amendment to the Education Law and certain other acts had included, among other things, stricter rules on unexcused absences.
Under the proposal, failure to comply with compulsory schooling or compulsory education would have meant either an unexcused absence on at least 50 percent of school days in a single month, or at least 25 percent of school days over the entire school year. According to the education ministry, the current threshold of 50 percent unexcused absences over a full year is too high.
The draft also assumed that a student would not be classified in one, several, or all subjects if they exceeded a 25 percent threshold of unexcused absences—without the possibility of taking a classification exam.
Withdrawal after consultations
However, as explained by Kacper Lawera, Director of the Department of Communication at the Ministry of National Education, the ministry has, at this stage, withdrawn from work on tightening attendance regulations in schools. These proposals were removed from the new version of the draft Act on Students’ Rights and Duties, published at the end of January.
Lawera explained that after the consultation and opinion-gathering phase—during which comments were submitted regarding this solution—and following subsequent internal work within the ministry and the government, a decision was made to abandon changes to the attendance provisions. In the ministry’s assessment, taking into account conclusions from the consultations and positions submitted later, these proposals require further internal analysis.
Lawera added that “they did not, however, constitute the core of the act, which primarily focuses on creating a catalogue of students’ rights and duties and establishing a structure of student rights ombudspersons, so their removal does not affect further work.”
“For now, raising the issue of attendance in other amendments is not planned,” Director Lawera said.