Schools turn text messaging against truants
Text messaging, currently the favourite pastime of teenager mobile phone-holders, is being turned on young people tempted to play truant.
Two schools in Dublin are operating a pilot scheme that will inform parents about absent students – through a text alert.
Portmarnock Community School and Manor House in Raheny, are using a computerised database to record students who fail to turn up for lessons – and automatically send out a standardised message to parents notifying them their child has missed the regular morning roll-call.
David Sweeney, principal at the Portmarnock school, explained “It’s a simple way to filter out students who are missing.
“If the absenteeism is legitimate, parents can ignore the message. If not, they can ring the school.
“This has been introduced it to comply with new legislation contained in the Education and Welfare Act, requiring schools to notify parents and for parents to take more responsibility for the whereabouts of their children,” he said.
The schools have been piloting the technology for nearly two months, and plan to have it in full use by the start of the new school year in September.
The operator, Dataset IT Systems, are the only company in Ireland making the technology available.
Managing director Tim Rafferty said “It seemed like an obvious thing to do with today’s technology. Schools can notify 100 people with half a dozen clicks of the mouse.
“If the students know their parents are going to be told of their absence from school that quickly, they will be less likely to do it. They can get into all kinds of trouble when "mitching".”
Other Dublin schools have signalled an interest in trying out the system.
