The Minister of Education and Technical & Vocational Training the Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin said the core purpose of the education system must be to instill in young people a fortified sense of self and equip them with the essential skills needed to navigate life successfully and confidently as well as to live happy and fulfilled lives.
“Literacy and numeracy lie at the heart of this process. They open the world for human functioning and form the foundation of critical thinking — and these functionalities have been a central focus of the Ministry’s efforts,” the Education Minister said during her Contribution to the 2025/2026 Budget Debate in the House of Assembly on Thursday, June 5, 2025.
“Before any of this can happen, we must ensure that children are in school — that they are present in the environment where these skills are taught and cultivated. School attendance, therefore, has been a fundamental tenet and major priority of our education strategy over the past three years.”
She said research shows a strong link between school attendance and overall wellbeing including long term health outcomes. “Our own national data demonstrates that chronic absenteeism often reveals serious risk factors — and sometimes precedes tragic outcomes.”
The minister explained that ensuring that children are in school has been a non-negotiable priority of the Ministry of Education.
She said, “An attendance crisis was especially acute in the days, weeks, and months after schools reopened in January 2022. In response, the Ministry launched an intensive campaign — ‘Find Every Child.’
“This began with community walks led by educators, school support staff, unions, Non-Governmental Organizations, and parents across the country and evolved into more sustained and structured strategies.”
The Minister said the Education Ministry engaged additional attendance officers and monitors, and expanded the attendance unit. These officers act on daily reports to locate chronically absent students. In January 2024, the National School Attendance Hotline (422-2253) was launched to allow for confidential reporting of absenteeism.
“These officers go into homes and communities. They work with agencies such as the Child Welfare Division of the Ministry of Social Services to offer support and facilitate students’ return to school.”
She said a critical innovation has been developed in the Education Management Information System (EMIS), which features a dashboard that raises an alert for any child in any public school anywhere in the country who is chronically absent. Attendance officers are required to respond immediately.
The Education Minister explained that one of the criteria for obtaining the High School Diploma is meeting a minimum attendance requirement. This reinforces the shared national understanding: children must be in school.
“Through coordination with the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, we have closely tracked attendance data. Today, the national average attendance rate stands at 95.2 percent — surpassing the goal of 95 per cent set by this administration in 2021. And our efforts continue to increase this.
“Additionally, we introduced a critical new initiative — initially piloted in a few schools, then expanded to all Family Island and All-Age Schools, and now, as announced by the Prime Minister, extended to every public primary and all-age school in the nation.”
She said, “Once this phase is complete, every public pre-primary and primary school in the country will be covered — serving an estimated 20,000 students daily.”
The initiative, the National School Breakfast Programme, launched October 2023, provides a nutritious start to the day, and improves attendance, concentration, and classroom performance — reportedly resulting in stronger engagement and a noticeable shift in school culture.
By Llonella Gilbert/Bahamas Information Services
The post Education Minister Provides an Overview on Strategies to Monitor School Attendance appeared first on ZNS BAHAMAS.
