Parents pay for the price of truancy

An average of one parent every two weeks is sent to prison in the UK during term time for failing to ensure their child is goes to school, says the Metro newspaper.

According to goverment figures, prosecutions of parents reached 10,000 in 2007, which is a rise of 76% since 2000. The unauthorised pupil absence was 0.7% in 2002 when the first parent was jailed for her children's persistent truancy. It had risen to 1.0% in 2007.

Clearly this is unacceptable. Nonetheless, it comes as no surprise that as parents are under more pressure to keep up with modern-day life and working patterns, they are spending less time and energy with their children.

The question arises if imprisoning parents will lead to less truancy? As a stand-alone measure, it would probably have very little effect. Unsurprisingly, this current government is doing what any other government has done in times of pressure - create draconian measures for challenges that could be dealt with more effective and less costly measures.

The fact of the matter is that more and more women are having to work to bring in an added income to keep the family flourishing. Traditionally, men have taken a backseat role when it came to managing the household and their children.

Fortunately, there are many fathers who are taking a more active role in the upbringing of their children. Children need both parents in their lives playing an active role. When a child is playing truant, he or she has many possible reasons for that to happen. When the mum AND the dad engage themselves more, do you think the reasons behind potential or actual truancy would be unearthed?

See you next time!

Harun Rabbani