Minister bemoans extent of truancy

Too many children are missing school through truancy and
exclusions, a conference in London was told last week.

Minster for young people and adult skills Ivan Lewis said:
“Yesterday’s truant all too frequently becomes tomorrow’s young
offender.”

Addressing a conference on reducing truancy, Lewis said 50,000
pupils were missing school without permission every day. But he
said reports accusing the government of wasting £50m returning
700 truants to school were “very misleading”.

“The fact is that, yes, £50m has been spent nationally, but
this has been on a range of initiatives to improve behaviour and
reduce bullying and exclusions as well as to impact on truancy.”