Robots could fill in for absent students in schools, UK groups propose

Robots could be used to boost school attendance in the UK, allowing students to join classes remotely from a “safe space,” according to a proposed strategy.

In a pilot project carried out in the Wirral, northern England, telepresence robots increased child attendance by as much as 21%, a new report from advocacy groups Child of the North and the Centre for Young Lives said.

As a potential strategy to tackle school absence in the UK, which “rocketed” since the pandemic, the report outlined the use of telepresence AV1 robots from the Oslo-based company No Isolation.

According to the firm, its robots “connect absent students to learning, ensure belonging, and support reintegration back to the classroom.”

Data from the pilot project in the Wirral also showed that the use of robots increased the number of hours pupils engage with learning by 42% and the number of hours used to engage with “social opportunities” by 40%.

“The robot sits in the young person’s seat in class, and they access a live stream of the lesson via an electronic tablet in a safe space (e.g., at home or an intervention room within school),” the report explained.

It noted that the Wirral’s intention is to use the AV1 robots as “a short-term intervention” that would allow children to “gradually re-integrate back into school or re-engage with learning.”

Different strategies must be considered to increase school attendance as opposed to the "one-size-fits-all" approach, according to Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives and former children’s commissioner for England.

“The reasons why children miss school are often complex and there is no silver bullet,” Longfield said, adding that the “often punitive approach that previous governments have taken to tackle absence needs to be consigned to the past.”

“Simply, threatening parents with fines is not working for many families and not reducing severe absence rates,” she said.

Parents face a fine of £80 ($104) for taking their children out of school without permission. A parent who receives a second fine for the same child in a three-year period will automatically get a £160 ($208) fine.

Repeat offenders could be prosecuted, which could lead to another fine of up to £2,500 ($3,248).

The report comes after the most recent data from the Department of Education showed that 2.1% – or about 158,000 – pupils in England were “severely absent” in the fall and spring terms of 2023/24.

This was more than double the percentage of pupils who were severely absent in the same period of 2018/2019, the academic year before the pandemic. Students who miss at least half of possible school sessions are considered to be severely absent.

“The crisis in school attendance goes beyond numbers – it represents the life chances of thousands of children,” said Mark Mon Williams from Child of the North.

“When children are not in school, they are not just missing lessons; they are at risk of potential danger, and they are losing opportunities for healthy development,” he said.