The public sector union Unison has decided the best people to consult about the 80,000 pupils who skip school each day are the truants themselves.

It intends to set up panels of children in London, Scotland and north-west England to discover why around 10% of schoolchildren play truant at some point.

The findings from the exercise, being run in association with the National Association of Social Workers in Education, will be offered to the Government's social exclusion unit.

Unison said it had devised the consultation scheme because it believes the problem of pupils not going to school has reached epidemic proportions.

Around 80,000 children are missing from schools

The unions hope truants will be able to tell them what causes their behaviour.

They also want to learn what could be done to make schools more attractive to pupils who are tempted to cut lessons.

On Friday, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, blamed children bunking off school for 40% of street robberies.

Truants are also responsible for around a third of house-breaking incidents and car thefts, Mr Blair said.

Most of these crimes are committed during school hours.

The unions want to know how to make lessons more attractive

The Schools Minister, Stephen Byers, has identified a lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills as the cause of truancy.

"It is clear many boys who fail to learn to read and write soon lose any interest in school," he intends to say in a speech next week.

"But it seems instead of causing chaos in the classroom, they're out on the streets terrorising ordinary folk.

"These figures show how important early intervention is to ensure that every child has the ability to read and write.

"There is now clear evidence that for many youngsters the lack of basic skills leads to truancy and exclusion, ending all too often with criminal activity."

A survey of 500 young offenders in the European Union found 90% had played truant and nearly two-thirds of those under 25 were habitual lesson-skippers.
 

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