Labor Government and Truancy in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

Running head: LABOUR GOVERNMENT AND TRUANCY IN THE U.K. Labour government's measures to mitigate truancy in the U.K. Barbara Ashton [Name of the University] TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 ABSTRACT 3 CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 5 CHAPTER TWO - CAUSES FOR TRUANCY 7 CHAPTER THREE - STEPS TAKEN BY THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT TO CONTAIN TRUANCY 9 CHAPTER FOUR - OUTCOME OF THE GOVERNMENT'S VARIOUS STRATEGIES TO CURTAIL TRUANCY 13 CHAPTER FIVE - CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 15 REFERENCES 18 ABSTRACT This dissertation aims to establish that the Labour Government after assuming office in the United Kingdom has considerably reduced truancy. The first chapter introduces the topic of truancy in the United Kingdom. Truancy is the unauthorized absence of students from school (Stoll. P, 1990). This absence can range from a single class to several weeks (Atkinson M, Halsey K, Wilkin A & Kinder K, 2000). The second chapter examines the causes of truant behaviour. Despite the unequivocal exhortation of the 1996 Education Act that only the school authorities have the power to permit absence from school, parentally approved absence from school poses a major and enduring quandary and many a time the excuses given by parents to explain the absence of their children are not credible (OFSTED, 2001). The third chapter describes the various measures and strategies adopted by the Labour Government for combating truancy. In this regard, several initiatives taken by the authorities like penalizing parents of truants, establishment of truancy patrols, enhancing fines against parents and offering several incentives for attending school were described. The fourth chapter examines the results of such endeavours. Gradually, parents were convinced that attendance and higher levels of attainment were correlated (Education war on truancy, 2007) and this led to a decline in absenteeism. In this context, the decline of truancy in Cedar Mount High, Plant Hill Arts College and Manchester Academy were cited (The sad truth about truancy, 2007). The last chapter consists of the conclusions and recommendations made by experts in the field of education in the context of truancy. CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION Truancy has been described as the absence of students from school without a valid reason (Stoll. P, 1990). The duration of non - attendance varies from a single class to many weeks (Atkinson M, Halsey K, Wilkin A & Kinder K, 2000). Several reasons exist for such truant behaviour and bravado, depression, retention by the parents in order to supervise younger children at home, etc, are some of the usual reasons. Parentally approved absence from school poses a major quandary and endures despite the instructions of the 1996 Education Act that such absence could be sanctioned only by the school authorities. Moreover, several of the some of the seemingly credible reasons given by parents to account for the absence of their children from school are dubious (OFSTED, 2001). It has been observed that forty thousand students abstain from school each day without proper authorization (Audit Commission, 1999). Since 1997, the Labour Government has been repeatedly emphasizing the importance of education, because the nations' future is largely dependent on the effectiveness of education.These initiatives have borne fruit and superlative results have been obtained by the schools in terms of student results and increased proficiency of the teaching staff (At a glance, n.d.). Investment on its own is incapable of ensuring an education of a high standard. The requirement is to combine reform with investment. Some of the reforms that have been implemented, in order to achieve this objective, are specialist schools, literacy and numeracy strategies, superior vocational education and the right to adult skills training (At a glance, n.d.). Despite these successes, the fact remains that quite some children have been deprived of a proper education due to the existence of incompetent schools.Although, inner city area schools have displayed appreciable GCSE improvements, the fact remains that quite some effort will be required to reduce the disparity between students hailing from inner city areas and prosperous areas (At a glance, n.d.). CHAPTER TWO - CAUSES FOR TRUANCY In Birmingham, the authorities adopted a highly stringent attitude towards unauthorized absence. The result was an above average rate of school attendance. During the period 2005 - 2006, the Birmingham City Council issued quite a few penalty notices and initiated court action against several parents. Consequently, many parents accepted the fact that attendance and higher levels of attainment were interrelated, and accorded regular attendance at school the importance that it deserved (Education war on truancy, 2007). One of the main facts displayed by league tables is the absence of pupils in schools. These tables revealed that the worst instance of truancy or unauthorized absence had transpired in Manchester. Students of secondary school, in Manchester, were absent without authorization to an extent of 2.9 per cent, whereas the corresponding national average was 1.3 per cent (The sad truth about truancy, 2007). Some of the major reasons for truant behaviour have been identified as peer pressure, dearth of deference towards teachers, the subject matter being taught and the manner in which it is being taught, problems faced by students at home, attitude of the parents towards schooling, bullying and problems associated with learning what is being taught in the classroom (Reid. K, 2005). A study conducted in respect of the education welfare service or EWS personnel discovered that truancy was due to adverse personal, family and community issues (Kinder, K., Harland, J., Wilkin, A., and Wakefield, A. 1995). To elaborate it can be stated that at the level of the individual, the causative factors for truancy were identified as the diffidence, inadequate communications skills, a very low opinion of oneself, poor academic performance, etc (Reid. K, 2005). The family condition of the student was also a contributor to truancy if the parents permitted absence from school, if there was no respect for education in the family, if the family was beset with domestic troubles, if the quality of parenting was incompatible or insufficient and if the financial status of the family was dismal (Reid. K, 2005). The effect of community factors was mainly restricted to socio-economic issued, locality, personal prejudices and an overall feeling of worthlessness. The factors that engendered truancy at the school level were management that was incompetent, laxity of supervision with regard to students, strained and inadequate relations with fellow students and teachers and irrelevant material being taught to students (Reid. K, 2005). In another research finding, it was pointed out that in general truants have less confidence in their academic abilities, a much lower sense of self - esteem and display a greater amount of antisocial behaviour (Reid. K, 1999). The problem is compounded by the fact that these students are disliked by students. The truants are usually despondent, sad, untruthful and have committed theft quite frequently. Moreover, if the parents have developed difference of opinion to the extent that they no longer wish to live together, then such an issue contributes to truancy (Butler, I, 2003). CHAPTER THREE - STEPS TAKEN BY THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT TO CONTAIN TRUANCY Truancy is a very serious problem. In view of its gravity, several measures have been adopted to address it. Patrolling in streets and shopping areas has been commenced and parents who permit their children to absent themselves from school have been fined. As an incentive to attend school, several of the community leaders have decided to initiate a novel strategy to contain truancy by making available tickets to musical shows and by distributing MP3 players to students who attend to their classes regularly. Another important incentive that is provided by this programme is the delivering of talks by music stars in respect of the value that live education possesses. Moreover, these programmes aim to apprise the students of the benefits that accrue from such live education. These measures resulted in the reduction of truancy from 7.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent at the Cedar Mount High. In Plan Hill Arts College, the decline in truancy was from 6.8 per cent to 4.8 per cent. Further, in the Manchester Academy, unauthorized absenteeism revealed a one percent point reduction from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent (The sad truth about truancy, 2007). A severe problem is posed by unauthorized absence of schoolchildren in the Leicester region. In this region, around 2.3 per cent of half-days were lost. New College proved to be quite successful in curtailing truancy and authorized absenteeism by as much as half in the year 2006. The principal David Kershaw stated that the school's attendance was on the increase and that this result could be attributed to improved teaching (Truancy still poor- but improving, 2007). There has been a joint effort by judges, education authorities and others to curtail truancy; this is known as the Pueblo's Truancy Reduction Program. The Risley and Corwin Middle Schools and the Keating Education Center have selected and offered eighty - two students to participate in this program. The results of this programme have been extremely gratifying and most of these students have shown substantial improvement in their reading, mathematics and languages skills. Further, their grades improved appreciably and increased from a fail to average or better. This program assists children in attending schools regularly. The main feature of this programme lies in the fact that although it does help every student to resolve their problems, nevertheless, it enables them to attend school regularly. In addition, it brings to their notice the benefits of a better education (John Norton, 2007). Several recent legislative guidance documents like the Circular 3/99 and the Welsh Assembly government's reports have been introduced in order to counter the problem of truancy. Such endeavours pave the way to the emergence of the Antisocial Behaviour Act that consists of parental agreements in respect of truancy and misconduct. Due to this act, fines will be imposed on parents for the truancy of their children. Such steps have been taken to make the fact clear that parents are responsible for ensuring that their children attend school. If parents ignore the issue of attendance of their child, constitutes a serious offence. Nevertheless, instituting claims against parents has not been successful (Zhang, M., 2004) because truancy was linked strongly to poverty, social status, the place of residence and neighbourhood problems (Reid, K., 1999). The research of Malcolm et al (2002) in respect of primary and secondary schools disclosed that the sanction of leave of absence to students by the teachers was not constant. Moreover, schools accepted different excuses for the absenteeism of students. In some instances, the school staff, concerned with the security of the students accorded prime importance to regularity in attendance (Malcolm, H., Wilson, V., and Davidson, J., 2002). The belief entertained by most of the education authorities was that very few students in each school were truants. Other teachers stated that they would consider the problem only if the students were absent for longer periods. A few teachers expressed that they would be anxious even if absenteeism were for shorter durations. In case of students attending primary school, it was observed that truancy in boys was more than in girls. Girls in all - white secondary schools indulged in unauthorized absence to a greater extent than boys did. In schools having students of all races, girls' absenteeism was greater than that of the white boys. Twenty - seven percent of the children stated that their absence from school was of their own accord without any parental intervention. This fact resulted in a chain of truancy that could not be broken up easily. In seventeen percent of such incidents, the children could have contrived to leave school without this being noticed by the school authorities. Several children stated that boredom was the main cause for their absence. Some pupils expressed the fact that they would not regret being truant even in the future. Many absentees from school were of the opinion that their parents would be infuriated if they came to know of their misdeeds. Sixteen percent of secondary school students have agreed that they had been absenting themselves from school. In all white secondary schools, girls were apprehended on a larger number of occasions than boys for absenteeism were. However, ethnic minority students were not so forthcoming in accepting their truant behaviour (Reid, K., 2005). CHAPTER FOUR - OUTCOME OF THE GOVERNMENT'S VARIOUS STRATEGIES TO CURTAIL TRUANCY The aim of the nation was to reduce absenteeism by one-third between 1997 and 2002. However, this objective could not be achieved by the administration in England, Wales and Scotland. All secondary schools were required to ensure a target of ninety -two per cent attendance. In primary schools, the corresponding target remained unchanged at ninety five percent. As such, schools, LEAs and the DfES introduced various methods to counter the problem of truancy and improve attendance. Some of these steps comprise of the initiative of countrywide truancy elimination by the individual LEAs and speedy trial of the parents of regular truants. Furthermore, this problem can be mitigated by deploying police in some specified schools, providing funds to LEAs to promote schemes that encourage attendance and improvement in behaviour. Moreover, truancy can be curtailed by making suitable changes to the national curriculum, encouraging vocational education and the promotion of schemes like Sure Start, Excellence in Cities, etc. Recently, the Birmingham education authorities expressed great satisfaction with the success attained by them in the war against truancy. This vantage position was reached by these authorities subsequent to some schools in the city being depicted as belonging to some of the worst schools in the area. This position of strength was hard won and some of the factors that conduced to obtaining this victory were the adoption of sufficiently stringent measures while dealing with truancy. Further, these authorities refused to countenance all dubious excuses. In addition, the City Council of Birmingham served hundreds of penalty notices and initiated legal action against the parents of truant students. This made it amply clear that truancy would not be tolerated and that it would invite very severe penalties. In this endeavour, the schools have been instructed to note the absence of a student as unauthorized absence, until the school authorities were provided with a plausible reason for the absence by either the parent or some relevant person (Education war on truancy, 2007). The position in Leicester's schools was daunting with regard to truancy. It was exceeded in this notoriety by just seven other authorities. From this abysmal position, Leicester has made positive efforts and has obtained much success in reducing truancy. This success was due to better teaching and adoption of very stringent measures against truants and their parents (Truancy still poor- but improving, 2007). CHAPTER FIVE - CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Working with truants is a complicated process. The outcome of the study reveals that the vocational and other national curriculum schemes pave the way to success. Though the findings in respect of the opinions of experienced education workers varied, many people were of the opinion that the main hindrance to success was the lackadaisical attitude adopted by parents towards their children. This attitude has resulted in an inadequate enforcement of anti - truancy strategies. Education social workers recognized this problem as being most important. The Government has to bestow greater attention upon this problem, in order to improve its efficiency (Reid, K., 2006). The measures adopted by the education social workers vary from one authority to the other (SIHE, 2003). The duties that have to be performed by the various authorities are different. The majority of the social education workers owed their duties to parenting orders, licensing and job issues. In about half the authorities, education social workers are part of a wider support service involving such responsibilities as behaviour and out-of-school provision. In others, they are managed as a separate entity (SIHE, 2003). It is an established fact that a new perspective is required in education social work. At present, the existence of various terms, titles and responsibilities among the staff working in the education social work and the activities are being scrutinized. While reviewing these aspects other considerations have also to be taken into account. Some of these considerations are that the status, salary, participation and responsibilities of the education social work group should be identical from authority to authority. The staff have to be imparted the necessary training and exposed to specialized development programs besides the implementation of national conditions of service (Reid, K., 2006). The National Association of Education Welfare Officers (NASWE, 2004) having understood the importance of the above-mentioned factors has designed a systematic program in relation to the future strategic training requirements. This program necessitates the active participation of all education welfare officers and education social workers in synchronization with other units of children's support services that are present in the local education authorities (Reid, K., 2005). It also requires maintaining improved skills in areas such as behavioural support, education psychology and other special needs. Moreover, there has to be better cooperation with departments that are responsible for the welfare of the ethnic minorities. Education social work and education welfare have become a part of the social inclusion teams in some of the local education authorities. These prominent changes due to the Every Child Matters (2003) and the Children Act 2004 have resulted in the establishment of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams (Reid, K., 2005). Education social workers who have been imparted social work training are employed by the local education authorities (Reid, K., 2006). Although, their contribution to reduction of truancy is considerable, a lot more research has to be conducted in order to ascertain the extent of their contribution (Reid, K., 2006). From the above research, it can be concluded that significant improvement has been observed in combating truancy in the schools of the United Kingdom. Truancy, as such, has not been eliminated from the education system. However, truancy will be reduced drastically in the near future due to the importance being attached to truancy and education by the present Labour Government. This process requires the full implementation of several measures like imparting training to the education staff, providing psychological support to students and improving cooperation between the ethnic welfare departments. These measures will pave the way for combating truancy to the fullest extent possible. REFERENCES 1. Atkinson M, Halsey K, Wilkin A & Kinder K., 2000. Raising attendance. Slough: NFER. 2. At a glance: education retrieved from http://www.labour.org.uk/index.phpid=4092. 3. Audit Commission, 1999. Missing out: LEA management of school attendance and exclusion. (Briefing, October 1999) London: Audit Commission. 4. Butler, I., 2003. Social Work with Children and Families, London: Jessica Kingsley. 5. Butler, I., 2003. Divorcing Children: Children's Experience of the Parents' Divorce, London: Jessica Kingsley. 6. Education war on truancy, January 11, 2007. Birmingham Post 8 English (c) 2007 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd. 7. John Norton, 17 January 2007, Turning the tide of truancy, The Pueblo Chieftain, English. Distributed by McClatchy - Tribune Information Services. 8. Kinder, K., Harland, J., Wilkin, A., and Wakefield, A., 1995. Three to Remember: Strategies for Disaffected Pupils, Slough: NFER. 9. Malcolm, H., Wilson, V., and Davidson, J., 2002. Out-of-school Care, Glasgow: Scottish Research in Education Centre, University of Glasgow. 10. NASWE, 2004. Future Direction of the Education Social Work Service, Carlisle: NASWE. 11. OFSTED, 2001. Education Action Zones: commentary on the first six zone inspections. London: The Stationery Office. P. 2. 12. Reid, Ken. November 2005. The causes, views and traits of school absenteeism and truancy: An analytical review. Research in Education.Manchester.Issue.74. P. 59. 25 pgs. 13. Reid, K. 1999. Truancy and Schools, London: Routledge. P. 77. 14. Reid, Ken., May 2006. The view of education social workers on the management of truancy and other forms of non-attendance. Research in Education, Manchester. Vol.75. pg. 40. 15. SIHE, 2003. Improving attendance Strategies within Sefton, Swansea: Swansea Institute of Higher Education. 16. Stoll P. 1990. Absent pupils who are officially present. Education Today, 40, 3, 22-5. 17. The sad truth about truancy. January 11, 2007. Manchester Evening News English (c) 2007. 18. Truancy still poor- but improving, 11 January 2007, Leicester Mercury, English (c) 2007 Leicester Mercury. 19. Zhang, M., 2004. 'Time to change the truancy laws Compulsory education: its origin and modern dilemma', Pastoral Care in Education 22 (2), 27-33. Read More