On a national level, Hajdu-Bihar is one of the counties that are doing very poorly as regards school absences. In accordance with the law, the parents of 25 Debrecen pupils have been denied schooling allowances.
Schoolbags have their own chairs. There are always a lot of absentees in the Daniel Rakovszky primary school. The parents of 18 children have already been denied schooling allowance and 13 more are still waiting for a decision. They had no excuse for missing 50 classes. Lots of pupils haven’t yet missed 50 classes but their parents have already been notified about their being regularly absent.
According to the year end data, 66 pupils in Debrecen were absent from at least 50 classes without leave. The majority of them are awaiting a final decision. The latest data show that they mean less than one-fourth of all the ditchers in Hajdu-Bihar County. Until the middle of November a total of 188 children were absent from at least 50 classes without leave in the schools of the county.
“This ratio is small but it’s still a big problem because those who don’t go to school will not be able to get qualifications and will belong to the group of unemployed people.” – said Julianna Racz social worker to DTV.
Experts say that in most cases it is the irresponsible parents who are to blame for the absences. Many of the concerned children grew up in families in which most of the ascendants didn’t finish the 8th grade of the primary school, often not even the 4th grade.
