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Dept for Education and Employment

Answer

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list by local education authority the truancy figures and percentage of pupils involved in the last 10 years, indicating the factors at work where reductions have been most marked. [140942] Ms Estelle Morris: The precise data requested in this question are not available centrally. I have today placed in the Library a table that provides rates of unauthorised absence in secondary schools in England by local education authority for each year since 1993-94, when absence figures were first collated centrally. I will write to my hon. Friend further with data for primary schools and place a copy in the Library. Over three years, we are investing in excess of £500 million across England on projects tackling truancy and school exclusion, and other initiatives to get children back into school and learning. Effective projects include the purchasing of electronic equipment to monitor attendance, additional staff to chase-up truants, and reward schemes for acknowledging regular attendance. Schools are also being encouraged to set up pupils mentoring schemes and to develop home-school liaison through the implementation of home-school agreements. Schools can also set aside part of the National Curriculum at Key Stage 4 to allow certain pupils to spend more time on work-related learning. Last month, in conjunction with my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, we announced further measures to tackle truancy. This includes a co-ordinated national programme with truancy sweeps; an extra £43 million in 2001-02 to tackle poor behaviour in schools with truancy as the top priority; extra Learning Mentors in Excellence in Cities areas; increased penalties for parents who take no action to secure the attendance of their children; and asking schools with above average truancy records to set new targets for attendance. Together, these initiatives are designed to help schools reduce truancy and raise overall attendance levels.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

357 c649-50W;357 c648-9W; 140942

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Attendance Finance Parents Monitoring Primary education Standards Secondary education Work experience Truancy

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk