Primary school attendance in Dublin below required level

Dublin, 23 September 1916 - The attendance of Dublin’s children at primary school falls far below the required level.

There should be 53,004 names on the rolls of national schools in Dublin, but only 42,652 are currently there.  Furthermore, the average attendance is just 33,354, some 60% of what it should be.

The Dublin School Attendance Committee had sought new legislation that will make it easier for them to prosecute parents who neglect to send their children to school, but such reforms have yet to become law.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]