Wales’ education secretary vowed to get to grips with secondary school attendance amid concerns it could take more than a decade to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

Lynne Neagle told the Senedd she wants to see pre-pandemic secondary school attendance levels restored by the end of the Senedd term in May next year.

Average attendance – which was 90.5% in the 2023/24 academic year, down from 94.3% in 2018/19 – has ticked up to 90.9% so far in 2024/25, according to latest statistics.

Ms Neagle welcomed some small improvements in the academic year to date but said: “Progress has been too slow and there is more to do. I want to see pre-pandemic levels restored within this Senedd term. That will require a collective, sustained effort.”

With average attendance among pupils eligible for free school meals at 84.8%, a fall from 91.2% pre-pandemic, Ms Neagle stressed: “The significant amount of learning lost by those eligible for free school meals is a particular concern and must improve.”

Estyn’s 2023/24 annual report warned it would take more than a decade for secondary attendance to return to pre-pandemic levels at the current rate of improvement.

Leading a debate on March 18, Ms Neagle said: “I am really concerned about the messages in the report about attendance and I can say to you absolutely that we are not waiting 10 years to restore our attendance levels to what they need to be.”

The Conservatives’ Tom Giffard said the proportion of secondary-age pupils absent for at least 20% of sessions leapt from 4.6% to 16.3% between 2018/19 and 2022/23.

He told the Senedd: “We've previously seen the Welsh Government welcome the slight increase in attendance numbers in Wales compared to the last academic year but again completely ignore the fact that our numbers are so much lower than the rest of the UK.”

Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds called for bold steps to “break the cycle” between poverty and low educational attainment, warning of troubling trends among the poorest pupils.

Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell added: “We cannot allow the next generation, particularly those who are most disadvantaged, to wait as long as a decade to see improvements.”

Mr Campbell raised concerns about a lack of suitably qualified teachers in secondary schools, particularly in mathematics, sciences and through the medium of Welsh.

Labour’s Buffy Williams said: “Estyn’s report sets out some examples of good practice but it is also clear that, in some areas, the school system is not performing as it should.”

She told the Senedd that Owen Evans, Estyn’s chief inspector, found that teacher shortages are having a tangible impact on the quality of teaching and learning.

Ms Williams, who chairs the Senedd’s education committee, warned outcomes for pupils will suffer if schools continue to struggle to recruit and retain high-quality teachers.

Lee Waters, a fellow Labour backbencher, highlighted Estyn’s finding that the number of students training to be secondary teachers has declined by nearly half in the past decade.

Mr Waters, a former minister, highlighted that the chief inspector pointed to a poor public perception of the profession as one of the underlying issues hindering recruitment.

“Good teachers change lives, good teachers inspire a generation…,” he said. “We don’t talk enough about teachers as public service servants, teachers as inspirational figures, teachers as people who can lift up others.”

Mr Waters, a father of children in the education system, told the Senedd he has been struck by how joyless teaching and learning has become at times.

He said: “I think we've created a system – we teach to a test, we push for a set of results and metrics, and it's killed the joy of learning and the spirit of inquiry too much.”