Introduced for the first time during the 2024-2025 school year, the Vaudois Joker holidays were very asked. Of the 96,000 students in the canton, nearly 43,000 used this possibility, almost one in two students. The majority of the holidays were taken on Fridays, often linked to prolonged weekends or before the holidays.
The Department of Education and Vocational Training (DEF) by State Councilor Frédéric Borloz delivered the first figures for this unprecedented measure on Vaudois soil on Friday. Already established in other cantons, Joker leave offers families the opportunity to ask up to six half-days of absence per school year without having to provide the justification.
“After a full year of use, the canton of Vaud has the first quantitative data. The figures show that this offer meets a real expectation from families,” write the services of Minister PLR.
Decrease in absence rates?
In total, 42,691 students used Joker leave at least once, which represents 44 % of the workforce of the compulsory school. The vast majority (25,651) only asked for one. This leave represents 7% of all school absences.
“The comparison of the grounds of absence with the previous years could demonstrate that the implementation of Joker leave contributes to the decrease in absence rates for health reasons, as well as requests for individual leave for personal reasons,” notes the department.
Another observation: Joker leave is used throughout the year. Notable peaks are observed around school holidays, in particular on Fridays, for example on December 20, February 14 and April 11.
The record was reached on June 6, the day before the Pentecost weekend, with 3,908 requests recorded for a single day, depending on the figures. On average, this represents a little less than a joker leave by class that day.
Increase in requests at the end of the year
The data collected also shows a more sustained use of Joker leave in the last weeks of the school year. More than 16,000 requests were identified just for June.
Of the 17 days that count the most joker leave, eleven are concentrated in the last six weeks before the summer holidays. The peaks are particularly marked for six of these dates which count more than 2,000 leaves.
To enrich this first encrypted analysis, the Directorate General for Compulsory Education and Specialized Pedagogy (DGEO) will carry out a qualitative evaluation of Joker leave by consulting the establishments and associations of parents of students. Based on these returns and DEF analyzes, any adjustments will be made.
This article was published automatically. Source: ATS
