Parents warned over term holidays

School registers can often be affected by family holidays

Almost one in five school children have gone on holiday during term time, latest research has shown.

Official figures revealed that 139,000 youngsters - 19% of all Scotland's 723,0000 pupils - took breaks averaging five days during the school year.

A total of 645,000 pupil days were lost because of holidays, with just over a third of these authorised by schools.

Education Minister Peter Peacock said children being taken on holiday was almost on the same scale as truancy.

He warned parents to consider the implications before taking their child out of classes.

'Small minority'

Mr Peacock said: "Parents need to think very carefully about whether that is absolutely necessary."

The school attendance and absence statistics released on Tuesday also showed that about one million pupil days were lost due to youngsters truanting, with 143,000 children - 20% of all pupils - skipping classes at least once during 2004/05.

Compared with results from the previous year, truancy in schools was up by 0.1%.

The figures showed that just 10% of all pupils were responsible for 90% of truanting and 2% of children were responsible for half of it.

The executive seems to have made no progress in this in order to stop parentally-approved absences Fiona Hyslop SNP

From the fourth year of secondary school through to sixth year, boys had a noticeably better attendance record than girls.

Some 79% of pupils had an attendance rate of 90% or more, while about 34,000 youngsters - 5% of school children - had a 100% attendance record.

The Scottish National Party's education spokeswoman, Fiona Hyslop, accused ministers of "pussyfooting about" on the issue of absenteeism.

Ms Hyslop called on the Scottish Executive to follow the example of England, where she said ministers had been working with holiday companies to try to stop the rise in prices for trips outwith term time.

She said: "The executive seems to have made no progress in this in order to stop parentally-approved absences where parents are taking children out of school to go on holiday."

Truancy rates have risen by 0.1%

Cosla education spokesman Councillor Rev Ewan Aitken described the truancy figures as grim and sai they made sad reading.

He said: "Although it's a very small minority of pupils who are responsible for the majority of truancy, the effects and consequences for that small number can be grave."

The Edinburgh councillor said automated call systems were helping to reduce absences, particularly among occasional truants.

But he added: "Persistent truants require individual, integrated responses from a range of agencies working together with schools, pupils and parents to identify and address underlying problems and develop constructive solutions."

The Tories also voiced concern about truancy rates.

Education spokesman Lord James Douglas-Hamilton said: "The Scottish Conservatives would introduce a greater choice for parents and pupils by letting funds follow the children and offer greater choice in the curriculum.

"This would at least go some way towards dealing with this problem by engaging pupils and allowing them to study where and what they want."