Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate, in a certain city, the actual number and incidence ratio of long absence and school non-attendance on the basis of cumulative guidance records over a 3-year period of all children, in elementary and junior high schools, who were absent from school for more than thirty days in one school year. The results were as follows: from 1989 to 1991, in total, the incdence ratios of long absence were 1.64%, 1.64%, 1.62% and those of school non-attendance were 0.93%, 0.95%, 0.95% respectively. It was revealed that the ratios of long absence in junior high schools was higher compored to those in elementary schools being caused by an increase in school non-attendance. And it was evidently confirmed that the large number of school non-attendance in this investigation compared to the “reluctance to go to school” in the report of Ministry of Education was caused by an ambiguous definition of the term.
