School truancy rises to highest recorded level

The figures for pupil absence during the 2008/9 academic year show that 1.05 per cent of half days at school were missed without authorisation.

The figure was 1.01 per cent the previous year and has risen steadily since 1996, when just 0.73 per cent of half-day sessions were missed without permission.

The rate of truancy in special schools is double the overall rate, the figures also reveal.

Despite the rise in truancy the overall absence rate, which includes sickness and authorised leave, has fallen from 6.29 per cent to 6.27 per cent.

Schools minister Vernon Coaker said: "Schools are, quite rightly, cracking down on absence. Weak excuses for missing school, such as over-sleeping or a day's holiday, are no longer accepted, so it's no surprise that with this tougher approach there is a slight rise in unauthorised absence."

He called on parents to do more to ensure their children attend school adding that councils have the power to issue fines, parenting orders and parenting contracts to parents of persistent truants.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said that tackling persistent truants was "a long hard slog" and warned the government against making promises to cut truancy rates that it can not keep.