Truancy rates increase

Truancy rates have increased by more than 10% in Rochdale.

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

A total of 54,880 absence days were unauthorised in Rochdale during the last school year’s autumn and spring terms — up from 48,365 the previous year.

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

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

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

It means almost 69,800 pupils skipped school without permission on a typical day.

In Rochdale, 69,450 half-days (2.23%) were missed due to unauthorised absence in secondary schools and 40,310 (1.01%) in primary schools - an increase of more than 6,000 in secondary schools and almost 7,000 in primary schools.

But the number classed as persistent absentees, skipping more than five weeks of school, has fallen to 700 secondary pupils (5.7%) and 350 (2.2%) primary pupils — down from 872 (7%) and 446 (2.8%) 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.

“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.”