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No hocus pocus answer to truancy, NUT warns

Posted on 26th May 2009

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There is no easy solution to serial absenteeism in the nation's public schools, a spokesperson for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has claimed.

Christine Blower, general secretary at the NUT, said tackling persistent non-attendance is a long and arduous task because the causes of it are deeply ingrained in society.

She said: "There are no magic solutions to tackle core truancy. Schools do their best to deal with persistent truancy but they cannot, on their own, address deep-rooted social problems which lead to truancy," she said.

Evidence suggests there is a correlation between levels of authorised and unauthorised absence in individual secondary schools, according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

It has been found education facilities with low levels of authorised absence also far better in terms of non-attendance.

According to official figures, 441 of the 687 schools with low levels of valid absences (up to six per cent) also had low levels (up to 0.3 per cent) of absences that were not official.

Meanwhile, a total of 58 of the 497 schools with high levels of authorised non-attendance (ten per cent or higher) also had high levels (one per cent or above) of illegitimate absences. ADNFCR-921-ID-19186863-ADNFCR