I wonder what evidence the levelling-up secretary, Michael Gove, has for his theory that cutting child benefit will reduce persistent absence (Gove suggests parents of truanting children could have child benefits stopped, 28 February). It has already been proved that fines are discriminatory, make little difference, and that institutional parent blame is commonplace. The tired conflation of school absence with antisocial behaviour is well past its sell-by date. It’s also not about term-time holidays, nor uncaring parents who are naive about the value of education, or who are being manipulated by their children.
The reason that rates of persistent absence continue to rise (1.6 million pupils out of a total of 7.2 million in England – 22.3% – missed more than 10% of school days in the combined autumn and spring terms 2021-2022) is that the education system has become too rigid, too narrow and has stolen too much time from teachers to do what they came into education to do – nurture the children and young people in their care.
