Tories slam government over truancy figures

The Conservative Party has claimed today that the latest figures point to a "growing culture of truancy engulfing schools", despite a £650 million high-profile government campaign.

After winning power in 1997, the Labour government pledged to slash truancy by one-third by 2002, introducing schemes such as "sweeps" by police and educational welfare teams, and "truancy-buster" awards of £10,000 for schools which achieve attendance targets - plus measures against irresponsible parents.

However, the Tories have claimed that 566,644 secondary school pupils bunked off in 2001-02 – up from 423,635 in 1996-97. In primary schools, 564,445 children played truant compared with 541,765 six years ago, the Conservatives claimed.

Shadow Education Secretary Damian Green said: "The Education Department regularly announced another new crackdown on truancy, but sadly this tough talk is not matched by results.

"We have witnessed a 25% increase in the secondary school truancy rate under Labour, yet another example of how they have failed to keep their promises on education. What schools need is a return to the power of heads to impose discipline, and an improvement in the vocational curriculum so that all children feel they are gaining something useful from every school day."

Government statistics show that every day more than 50,000 pupils miss school without permission and an estimated 7.5 million school days are missed each year through truancy.

Research shows that these children can easily be drawn into crime and anti-social behaviour and more likely to be unemployed after leaving school.

The Youth Justice MORI survey of young people 2002 shows that those who play truant are more likely to offend than those that do not, with two-thirds (65%) of truants having offended versus less than a third (30%) of those who have not played truant.

In May 2002, DfES announced a series of intensive truancy sweeps to pick children who should be in school. And in December last year, the government launched its latest round of truancy sweeps.

Tougher penalties for parents include fines of up to £2,500 and jail sentences.

(GMcG)