Almost 65,000 children a day are skipping school

Nick Gibb has described an increase in the number of children skipping school of 3,000 a day since last year as “very worrying”.

With the equivalent of almost 65,000 children a day playing truant, the Shadow Schools Minister said that the Government’s multi-million pound truancy strategy has failed, and that it was now time to get to the roots of the problem.

Nick said tackling the problem of reading failure early in primary schools is crucial, as well as giving teachers the powers they need to keep order, and he added:

“Children need to be in the classroom if they are to get the education they need to succeed later on.”