When the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, vowed last week to get “tough” on persistent school absenteeism, you might have expected someone like me – a former teacher, a mother of five and a firm believer in education – to applaud. There is plenty to welcome in Phillipson’s announcement: she has pledged to support parents and help children get back into the classroom. But when this approach doesn’t work, she is prepared to get “tough” – implying that the parents of persistently absent children need to be punished.
Some 21% of pupils in England are now labelled as “persistent absentees” – meaning they miss 10% or more of school time each year. Plenty of evidence suggests that these absences have a devastating impact on a pupil’s future: a report last year by the Children’s Commissioner for England revealed that only 36% of pupils who were persistently absent passed five or more GCSEs, compared with 78% of regular attenders. There are undoubtedly parents who need a little more stick and less carrot when it comes to ensuring their children are in school, and one approach has been to fine parents (currently, schools in England can issue a fine when children miss five days of school within a year for unauthorised reasons).
