During the pandemic, the number of registered absences in upper secondary school decreased and fewer people lost their student aid. Now the level has increased again and is higher than before the pandemic.
– Some students may have gotten used to a different way of working, and getting back to regular teaching can then be a bit slow, says Jonny Lindström, high school director at Nobelgymnasiet Karlstad.
Four hours invalid absence
When students at upper secondary schools are judged to have more than four hours of invalid absence per month, the school can report it to CSN, which can then decide to withdraw the student grant. And the reasons for invalid absence are many. From school fatigue and mental illness to students having a job alongside their studies.
A total of 34,600 students or 9.8 percent of all high school students in the country had their student allowance withdrawn, which is the highest number to date and 6,800 more than the previous academic year.
Increased for several years
The proportion of students who had their student grant withdrawn due to invalid absences increased for several years until the pandemic, when the levels dropped noticeably. The introduction of distance learning when the schools closed was judged to be the reason.
– But at the same time, we measured differently then, and it is difficult to report absence for someone who is not here from the beginning anyway, says Jonny Lindström.
Unauthorized absences are still more common among boys than among girls. The reasons are many, but the trend is clear.
– If we exclude the pandemic years, over the past 15 years we have seen a continuous increase in the percentage of students who have their student allowance withdrawn due to invalid absences. Why this is so, there is no real answer, but one explanation could be that the schools’ reporting to CSN, which pays out the grant, has improved, says Peter Engberg, analyst at CSN.