The impact of the Teacher-Tutor figure demonstrated

Direct support from teacher-tutors, on a continuous basis and in close proximity to elementary school students, has a promising impact on reducing absenteeism and school failure, reveals a study carried out by a research team from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Coimbra.

Funded by the FCT, the project involved the monitoring, for one school year, of 277 students from the 2nd and 3rd cycles of basic education, with educational paths marked by failure, divided into two groups: one that benefited from tutoring and a control group. The results point to significant differences between the two: while the students in the former went from an average negative school result to an average positive one and reduced their level of unjustified absenteeism by 50%, the latter saw an increase in the number of unjustified absences.