To ask the Minister of Education to detail how many children are currently not attending school and have not been de-registered from education, therefore are children missing in education.

The department receives monthly management information from the Education Authority on attendance. This information is cumulative, it counts information throughout the year and therefore cannot identify pupils who are currently absent from school. In addition, there are many reasons for a pupil to be absent from school and the pupil level information received does not provide the reasons for absence, only counts of present and absence half day sessions for each pupil.