Figures 'hide truancy problem'

Wales has some of the worst truancy figures in Europe

Official figures on truancy at Welsh schools could be hiding the true extent of the problem, according to a BBC Wales investigation.

The Week In Week Out programme found that the system of registering truancy figures allowed schools to return attendance rates which masked the true rates of absence.

Wales already has among the worst truancy rates in Europe, with about 17,000 pupils absent from secondary schools every day.

I don't think the figures on attendance are very reliable or have been reliable for a number of years Professor Ken Reid

The current system allows schools to mark children as present, even if they then play truant after registration.

Schools are under pressure to return good attendance rates, and some educationists fear that some are allowing absences to go unchallenged.

Recent truancy sweeps across Wales revealed that many youngsters were off school with their parents' support.

Professor Ken Reid, a truancy advisor to the Welsh Assembly Government, said: "Most schools try to minimise the number of cases of unauthorised absence because they don't want to appear top of any local truancy league table.

Court cases

"I don't think the figures on attendance throughout the UK are very reliable or have been reliable for a number of years."

A west Wales council took advantage of anti-truancy laws to prosecute 20 sets of parents in 2003.

Carmarthenshire council has said attendance figures have improved since several parents were fined by magistrates for the children's non-attendance at school.

This year, magistrates in Llanelli became the first in Wales to jail a woman because her 14-year-old son regularly skipped class.

Under laws introduced in 2000, penalties for persistent truancy were increased to a maximum fine of £2,500 or a jail term of three months.

Week In Week Out is on BBC1 Wales on Tuesday at 2235 BST.