England: Autumn truancy figures show rise
The latest truancy figures for England show another rise, with an increasing number of pupils missing school to go on holiday.
The absence rate for primary and secondary schools rose from 6.26% in autumn 2007 to 6.42% last autumn.
The most common reasons given were sickness and family holidays, according to data from the government.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said the figures were "a concern", but absence rates had fallen over the last decade.
In total last autumn term, 60,700 primary and secondary pupils missed classes on a typical day. Almost 38,000 were classed as "persistent absentees", missing one day of school a week.
In primary schools, the overall absence rate (which measures the total possible number of school sessions against those missed) was 5.61%. That is an increase from 5.36% in the autumn 2007 term.
In state secondary schools, the rate was 7.34% – up from 7.27% in autumn 2007.
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June 18th, 2009 at 20:19
And they will continue to rise as long as kids are imprisoned by a system the government calls “education” but which is nothing more than a structure which has turned the pleasant experience of learning into a meaningless and awkward process of forced memorization, unconnected to anything the individual child may or may have envisioned. It is the reverse of real learning.