Truancy reaches record levels
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
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Truancy in England's schools rose to record levels last year, with about 63,000 pupils skipping class every day, Government figures suggested today.
Nearly 273,000 pupils missed at least one day of school every week through truancy, illness and other reasons during 2006-07.
Ministers acknowledged that "much more" must be done to tackle persistent absentees and appealed to parents not to take their children on holiday during term.
Children's Minister Kevin Brennan stressed that "overall absence is at a record low".
"But working with schools and local authorities we need to do much more," he said.
About 7% of pupils account for a third of all absence in England's secondary schools last year.
"Local authorities, schools and parents all have a key role to play in ensuring children attend school, are on time and don't go on unauthorised term-time holidays," Mr Brennan said.
"We want to offer all the support we can to vulnerable children - for example, young carers, children with special educational needs and victims of bullying.
"However there's no excuse for parents who turn a blind eye or schools that accept weak reasons for absence."
The total rate of absence fell to its lowest level, with children in primary and secondary schools missing 6.49% of sessions during 2006-07.
But the rate of "unauthorised absence" - used to judge truancy - rose to its highest on record, with pupils away for 1% of all school sessions.
The unauthorised absence figure meant an estimated 63,000 pupils were skipping class in England's schools on a typical day.
Mr Brennan said 58,000 more pupils were in school each day in 2006-07 "than would have been the case" if overall absence rates were still at the level of a decade ago.
He said the rise in unauthorised absence was down to schools getting tough on pupils who offer weak excuses for missing class.
"The logical consequence of successfully getting tougher on absence is that the overall figure will fall and fewer excuses be accepted, increasing 'unauthorised' absences," he said.
"So it is no surprise when the 'unauthorised absence' figure goes up because schools are taking a tougher stance on weak excuses they may once have authorised.
"The result is that overall absence is going down because parents are getting the message every lesson counts.
"Dubious absences are now being rigorously queried rather than overlooked as they may have been a decade ago."
He argued that "unauthorised absence does not equal truancy".
"It includes lateness, term-time holidays and flimsy excuses and so does not reliably represent 'problem absence'."
Mr Brennan is writing to all local authorities urging them to keep up the pressure on persistent absence and make parents more accountable for their children's attendance.
For the first time the figures provided details of the reasons why pupils missed school during the year.
Illness was by far the biggest reason for pupils not attending class, with 55% of all absence down to sickness.
But the second most common reason was children taking family holidays during term time with the permission of the school.
Agreed family holidays accounted for 10% of all school absence, with unauthorised holidays making up a further 1% of the total.
Primary school children were far more likely than secondary pupils to be taken out of school on holiday with their parents.
They were also more likely to miss school through illness than older children.
Headteachers claimed the rise in unauthorised absence was down to schools taking a tougher approach, particularly to term-time holidays.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Schools work extremely hard to raise attendance and get persistent truants back into school.
"This can only be successful if parents co-operate with the school and ensure that their child is there every day.
"A rise in unauthorised absence is more likely to occur because schools have tightened up on the definition of 'unauthorised' than because of a growth in truancy.
"In particular, schools have become stricter over parents taking their children out of school for holidays in term time."
