Nearly a third of British secondary school students are avoiding school due to anxiety, research has found

Nearly three in 10 high school students avoid going to school because it makes them anxious, a new study shows.

Across Britain, 28% of 12 to 18-year-olds have not been to school for this reason in the past year, with experts warning that many were staying away because they would have felt unable to cope with the situation.

The findings, viz a study conducted for the youth health charity stem4suggest that poor mental wellbeing is a major reason for the post-Covid surge in school absenteeism.

Dr. Nihara Krause, the charity’s founder, urged schools, the NHS and ministers to increase support for anxious and distressed young people under the age of 18, as “emotionally based school avoidance” leads to pupils being absent for long periods , disrupting their education and putting enormous pressure on the school. families.

“School and the challenges it sometimes brings can increase anxiety for some young people, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope.

“Emotionally based school avoidance is a very concerning and growing phenomenon. This is different from absenteeism from school due to truancy. It is when a child or young person experiences extreme anxiety or fear related to going to school. This fear can be so great that they no longer go to school.”

Krause, who has developed five apps to help troubled youth manage their mental health, said 24% of those avoiding school said they did so because of family problems, 18% because of bullying or friendship problems and others because of exam stress.

“These findings are deeply alarming as they demonstrate the far-reaching impact that untreated anxiety and other mental health problems can have on a young person’s life.

“What may start as a few days off from school can quickly turn into long-term absenteeism. Without specialist support, which is both expensive and time-consuming, some children and young people will have their education, and therefore their life chances, significantly affected,” she said.

In the representative sample of 1,025 young people, 48% said they had mental health problems and suffered from anxiety, depression, an eating disorder or another diagnosable condition. Among them, 50% had missed school because they wanted to go to school too much.

The findings come amid acute concerns among schools, parents and ministers about school absenteeism. For example, one in ten pupils in England in their GCSE year were absent last school year – 70% more than before Covid struck in early 2020.

The former shadow minister for mental health, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who led last week a debate in the House of Commons on children’s mental healthsaid the research had uncovered “an epidemic of unhappiness that is keeping children away from the classroom”.

To address this, she said, “we need specialists in schools, a recruitment campaign to solve chronic mental health staffing problems and work undertaken to enable young people to access support in their communities.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Schools have seen more and more children struggling with their mental health in recent years, especially since the pandemic, and this is impacting not only their learning but also their attendance and behavior. ”

He urged ministers to ensure every school had a mental health support team – only 38% of schools in England do so – and that all schools and colleges could provide guidance.

Prof. Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has told parents that children with mild to moderate anxiety should still come to school as long absences could make them worse. The government has unveiled plans for attendance centers and attendance mentors to tackle the problem.

A Government spokesperson said: “Attendance is essential to a child’s well-being, development and achievement and that’s why we have launched a national campaign to help persistently absent children return to school.

“This campaign will be supported by the launch of 18 new attendance centres, bringing the total to 32, to support 2,000 schools, in addition to £15 million to expand a pilot mentoring programme.

“In addition, we are promoting mental health care for children in schools, including by offering senior mental health training to all schools and colleges by 2025, expanding the coverage of mental health teams to at least 50% of pupils in England. from March 2025, and provide £2.3 billion a year for NHS mental health services to reach an additional 345,000 children.”