Poor pre-school attendance indicator of future problems, study shows

The analysis showed that a five-year-old child with a strong pre-school attendance record has an 11% chance of having to repeat a year later on. The risk for a child of the same age whose pre-school attendance record is poor shoots up to 54%. Poor attendance means being present fewer than 22 half days in a year.

In general, Flanders scores well in pre-school attendance, with 99% of five-year-olds in the region registered. Only 2.5% of the registered pre-schoolers have poor attendance records. Children with low attendance records tend to not have Belgian nationality and largely come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Most of them do not speak Dutch at home.

Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits said that she will use results from the study to formulate policy proposals to further increase the participation of five-year-olds in pre-school. “The sooner a child goes to school, the less chance they have to fall behind later,” she said.