Schools failing to tackle pupil absence, report claims

The National Audit Office's (NAO) latest report has criticised the limited progress made by schools in reducing pupil absence levels.

The report found that, although the Department for Education and Skills (Dfes) spent around £885 million to tackle the problem, the levels of 'unauthorised absence' – through truancy and term-time holidays – remained unchanged.

The NAO said that absence needed to be managed, because pupils with higher absence rates are more likely to leave school with few or no qualifications and are more at risk of being drawn into crime and anti-social behaviour.

The report found that absence rates vary sustantially between schools, from under 1% to nearly 30% in some cases. The NAO said that these differences were likely to be due to how schools deal with absence.

However, the report found that although the level of unauthorised absence had remained steady –at 0.7% of school days – total absence had fallen to 6.7% in 2003-2004, from 7.6% in 1994-95.

According to NAO, the Dfes's range of attendance improvement initiatives seemed to be helping improve attendance. The report stated that the Behaviour Improvement Programme had an impact in the first schools it was introduced into, helping the absence rates fall, on average, twice as fast as the national absence rate, although the report also noted tha a fifth of the schools using the programme had not reported an improvement in attendance levels.

Commenting on the report, NAO chief, Sir John Bourn, said: "Better attendance at school by pupils improves their educational achievements and, in turn, their lives and prospects. Even a small reduction in absence would result in many pupils receiving greater benefit from their education. The rate of absence from schools in England has proved difficult to reduce.

"However, the efforts of the Department for Education and Skills, local authorities and schools are starting to have an impact. They must keep up the momentum and reinforce in schools and among parents and pupils the importance of attending school."

The NAO report recommended that the Dfes' attendance strategy should also focus on improving primary school attendance and changing negative parental attitudes, to help avoid the problem of truancy worsening in secondary school. The report also suggested the use of electronic systems to help register pupils and monitor attendance as well as adopting the curriculum to motivate students who struggled with academic subjects, to encourage attendance.

School inspections by education watchdog, Ofsted, also had a "valuable role" to play in improving attendance, the report added.

However, the Conservatives Shadow Education Secretary, Tim Collins, said:"The heroic amounts of money that have been wasted on futile truancy initiatives would have been far better spent on making our classrooms happy, challenging and secure places in which to educate children of ALL ages and abilities. Among 14-16 year olds, disengagement from mainstream education is the single most significant cause of truancy and low exam attainment that so often leads to low self-esteem and a drift into petty crime."

Liberal Democrats Shadow Education Secretary, Phil Willis, also criticised the government's policy. He said: "Every aspect of Government policy in this area has failed. Threatening parents with prison and handing out fines have come to nothing. Teachers, pupils and parents deserve better: smaller class sizes that give teacher more time with each pupil, better flexibility between academic and vocational courses and reforming the curriculum so our young people see school as relevant."

(KMcA/SP)