63,000 pupils 'play truant every day'
NEARLY 350,000 pupils skipped classes last year – through illness, family holidays and a Muslim festival.
Truancy, or “unauthorised absence”, is now at one per cent, up from 0.9 per cent, or around 63,300 youngsters going missing on a typical day.
Some 4.9 per cent of pupils were classed as “persistently absent”, for at least 15 per cent of school time – the equivalent of a month of lessons in a year.
The Department for Education said absence at state primary and secondary schools for the autumn and spring terms of 2012/13 was 5.3 per cent – up from five per cent the year before.
The Government said overall the rise was partly due to fewer pupils off sick – the main cause of absence – in 2011/12 when the Muslim festival of Eid also fell outside of term time.
Education Minister Elizabeth Truss said: “It is vital all children attend as much school as possible.”