Bunking off school could soon cost a lot more than a ticking off from the headmaster. Under tough new government plans, parents could face an on-the-spot fine of up to £100 if their child is caught playing truant.

Scotland: Treading a fine line with truants

Fixed penalties could be imposed by head teachers, police or council officers if any child is caught skipping class without the school’s permission. Under the proposals, which are designed to reinforce existing laws, repeat offenders face fines of £2,500 or even three months in jail.

The Government estimates around 50,000 children play hooky every day — and half of them do so with their parents’ knowledge and approval, a fact Ministers find unacceptable and are determined to stamp out. Adult Learning Minister Ivan Lewis warned today that “a small minority of parents” needed “a short, sharp shock”.

This new initiative is the latest in a long line of innovative measures aimed at cutting truancy in Britain. Schools text messaging parents about their child’s absence, mass police sweeps of town centres and truant hotlines have all been trialed with varying degrees of success over the last two years.

So will on-the-spot truancy fines work? And is it fair for parents to be blamed for their children’s behaviour?

John Banger, head of education at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) isn’t impressed with the Government’s tough talk and says head teachers will be reluctant to fine parents for their child’s absence. “Teachers don’t want to be responsible for imposing fines. If schools are to overcome the truancy problem they need to work in co-operation with parents, and not in an environment of conflict. These proposals would damage the relationship between parents and teachers,” he says. He also argues that fining children’s parents could lead to a backlash when the child comes back to the classroom and would unfairly hit those on low incomes.

“The child could come back (to school) angry and resentful and the fine could impact their life in a negative way. If they’re living in a family with one income it could affect the whole economic well-being of that family. They would also have to shoulder the responsibility and guilt of that fine,” he explains.

But Banger says the fines could at least persuade parents to stop taking their children away on holiday during term time — something which he says has been a problem for some time. “Parents seem to think it’s acceptable to pull their child out of lessons for a fortnight because it’s cheaper to go to Benidorm that week — it’s not. Children should be in the classroom, they miss out significantly on learning, drop back a stage and miss out on all those lessons,” he argues. He says parents and teachers must ensure that children are getting the best education they can get by being in school all day, every day.

Those who do skip class, he explains, struggle to get to grips with what’s going on in later lessons, feel it’s irrelevant and decide to miss school again in what becomes a vicious circle, where truancy breeds truancy. And children missing school aren’t just missing out on an education — they’re also putting themselves in a potentially dangerous situation, he says. Truants out on the streets, unsupervised and free to do whatever they like, can often start messing around near train tracks, busy roads and building sites, while research has also shown a disturbing link between truancy, drug abuse and crime.

In York, mass sweeps of the town centre once a week saw youth crime fall by two-thirds in 2001. And when police targeted truants in Newham, East London, car crime fell by 70% in the north of the borough, while in the south street crime was cut by 17% and burglaries by 39%.

Sophie Davison, a spokesperson for parent support group, Parentline Plus, says the Government should be focusing on the reasons why truants skip school rather than coming down hard on their parents. She says nearly one in five calls to the charity’s helpline last year were from parents concerned about their child’s truancy and insists the Government needs to take a more sensitive and sympathetic approach to absenteeism. “There are so many reasons behind why children miss school. We found 35% were being bullied and were too frightened to go to school every day. Others miss school because of problems at home. When parents divorce, children often want to stay at home because they feel insecure.

“Fining parents when these kinds of things are going on isn’t going to help anyone. Parents don’t need reminding of their responsibilities.”  Fining mums and dads, she stresses, will also make them feel like failures and will seem like an attack on their abilities to look after and care for their child’s well-being. She says persistent offenders with specific problems need to be introduced to support services and argues that the Government has a responsibility to find out why some parents aren’t concerned about their children playing truant rather than hitting them with fixed fines.

Davison also stresses that while holidaying out of term time isn’t ideal it isn’t necessarily damaging to the child’s education. “Parents can make sure they catch up with homework, take schoolwork with them and then attend after school clubs when they get back,” she says.

By Nick Foley
7 October 2003

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2011619

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