PARENTS’ inability to resist the lure of cheap holidays is being blamed for a surge in unauthorised pupil absence across the region’s schools.
Figures released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that the percentage of children being taken out of class when they should be in school has jumped at most local authorities in Merseyside and Cheshire.
Provisional government figures for the autumn term last year show unauthorised absence – when pupils are taken out of school without the consent of headteachers – has gone up in the majority of the region’s council areas.
Across England and the North West, the statistics show the percentage of half-days missed due to unauthorised absence has risen in Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Wirral, Halton.
Only Warrington recorded a drop, and in Cheshire the 0.8% percentage is the same as the previous year.
However, the figures make better reading for persistent absenteeism – classed as pupils missing 63 or more half-days – which continues to drop across the region.
Last night, education chiefs said the draw of cheaper breaks away, outside set holiday periods, were undoubtedly a factor in the higher scale of unauthorised absence.
This is despite headteachers, aware the cost to a child’s education far outweighs a cheaper family holiday, were increasingly refusing to grant pupils time off.
