More kids are skipping school, even though the government has spent £885m trying to beat truancy, according to an important group of MPs.
About 55,000 pupils are missing school every day, a 10% rise on 2004, says the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
The report also says kids from poorer homes are more likely to skip school, and that too many kids are being taken on holiday in term time.
A teachers' group says more needs to be done to get kids interested in school.
They say the amount of tests on British kids makes them unhappy about being in class.
A spokeswoman for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: "We have the most tested young people of any Western country.
"If you tell a seven-year-old that they have failed, then you are bringing that child up to be someone that does not like school by the time they are 14."
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