The Public Accounts Committee, the Parliamentary spending watchdog has criticised the DfES for losing its battle against truancy. MPs said they were alarmed that despite pound;885m being spent on combating the problem in seven years, there had been a 10 per cent increase in unauthorised absences in 2005.
This week’s tables listed each school’s truancy record. Nationally an average of 1.3 per cent of lessons were missed due to unauthorised absence, which compares with 1.2 last year.
* warwick.mansell@tes.co.uk
