The rise in teenagers skipping school across English-speaking countries. Evidence from PISA

Jake Anders, John Jerrim (), Maria Ladron de Guevara Rodriguez () and Oscar Marcenaro-Gutierrez ()
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John Jerrim: UCL Social Research Institute
Maria Ladron de Guevara Rodriguez: Departamento de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Malaga
Oscar Marcenaro-Gutierrez: Departamento de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Mlaga
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Oscar Marcenaro Gutierrez

No 24-10, CEPEO Working Paper Series from UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

Abstract: Many countries are grappling with the long shadow that COVID has cast over their education systems, including dramatic increases in absence from school. This paper presents new insights into this issue by investigating how the proportion of teenagers skipping school has changed following the COVID-19 pandemic across the developed world. We find that this problem is mainly confined to industrialised English-speaking nations, especially affecting teenage girls. In contrast, the proportion of 15-year-olds skipping school remains similar to pre-pandemic levels in most other members of the OECD. Counter to much of the previous literature into COVID-induced learning loss, we find no evidence of a link between student truancy and length of school closures. Our results do highlight, however, that English-speaking nations risk falling behind their international competitors unless radical action is taken to reduce the growing number of teenagers regularly skipping school.

Keywords: PISA; absence; truancy; COVID-19; school closure; learning loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I24 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2024-11, Revised 2024-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeowp24-10.pdf First version, 2024 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:cepeow:24-10

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