Truancy rates rocket

TRUANCY rates have rocketed to record levels with a 40 per cent increase in Oldham.

Hard-up parents taking their children out of school for cut-price holidays have been blamed for fuelling the rise.

A total of 48,935 absence days were unauthorised in Oldham during the last school year’s autumn and spring terms — up from 34,911 the previous year.

Nationally, children skipped more than eight million days of school as truancy rates soared.

Unapproved family holidays made up 1.8 per cent of overall absences, up from 1.5 per cent.

Pupils in primary and secondary schools in England missed 1.03 per cent of half days due to unauthorised absence — up from 0.97 per cent.

It means almost 64,800 pupils skipped school without permission on a typical day.

In Oldham, 59,470 half-days (1.55 per cent) were missed due to unauthorised absence in secondary schools and 38,400 (0.82 per cent) in primary schools. The primary school rate has almost doubled.

But the number classed as persistent absentees, skipping more than five weeks of school, has fallen to 930 secondary pupils (6.1 per cent) and 510 (2.7 per cent) primary pupils — down from 1,027 (6.7 per cent) and 519 (2.8 per cent) respectively. Nationally, there were 241,200 persistent absentees.

The figures suggest schools are cracking down on persistent offenders while absences elsewhere are soaring.

Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb said: “The increase in the number of children skipping school is very worrying. Children need to be in the classroom if they are to get the education they need to succeed later on.s

“The Government’s multi-million–pound truancy strategy has failed. It’s time to get to the roots of the problem, which are low levels of achievement and poor behaviour.”

Lib-Dem schools spokesman David Laws said: “These figures are disgraceful, with truancy now at a record high.

“Despite promising to get a grip on this problem, truancy levels have rocketed under this government.”

The statistics were published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said: “While these figures show a slight increase in overall absence, figures do fluctuate from term to term and the overall trend over the last decade is a positive one.”