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Parents Taking Children Out of Class to Do Christmas Shopping

Posted on: Sunday, 11 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Gareth Edwards

PARENTS have been caught taking children out of school to go Christmas shopping in Edinburgh.

A police crackdown on truants has led to officers catching more than 30 children wandering the streets or hanging around shopping centres when they should have been in school.

And to the surprise of officers, the majority of them were accompanied by their parents. Police and education groups are now calling for more to be done to make parents aware of the importance of keeping their children in school.

Those parents caught with their children during school hours have been warned and details will be passed on to the relevant school, as well as education welfare officers and child support services.

The patrols were the latest stage of "Truancy Watch" being carried out across Edinburgh in a bid to clamp down on pupils who dodge classes. Most of the children caught during the operation have been aged between 11 and 14 years old and found in areas like Princes Street, Princes Mall, Cameron Toll and the St James Centre.

The latest crackdown followed the release of attendance figures from the Scottish Executive which showed truancy rates in the Capital were the highest in any Scottish city for the second year running.

Attendance figures for the past year showed that despite high- profile measures, truancy levels have remained the same.

It is still one of the main reasons for absences from school and last year accounted for 1.5 per cent of all teaching time. Police chiefs were keen to get involved with combating truancy, after raising concerns that children skipping school could become victims of crime or become involved in criminal activities themselves.

Sergeant Tom McInally, who led the operation, said: "It is a worrying trend and it is something we are seeing across the city. It is difficult to say why parents do it but many of them simply don't realise how important it is for their children to be in school.

"One woman, for example, was going Christmas shopping and wanted her daughter there so she could help.

It is important parents get the message that they shouldn't take their children out of school unless it is absolutely necessary.

"As for the scale of the truancy problem, we are aware of it and we reacted to last year's figures by working with the council to create initiatives like this one."

Judith Gillespie, development manager at the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: "This is in the same trend as parents taking their children away on holidays, and there seems to be less of an understanding these days about the importance of keeping your children at school all the time.

"It is a growing social trend and taking children out of school to do Christmas shopping is another example of it. The parents are simply looking at what is easiest for them. They are not thinking about the importance of school.

"The schools put a lot of hard work into informing parents about their responsibilities, but with each new group of children there are new parents who don't understand these things." The city council is already looking at ways to hammer home the importance of school attendance, announcing earlier this week that the parents of the Capital's worst truants are to be ordered to take classes in how to bring up their children in a bid to tackle the youngsters' bad behaviour.

City education leader Ewan Aitken said: "I find it extremely disappointing that some parents are choosing Christmas shopping over the curriculum. It sends out the wrong message, and it devalues both the education experience and the hard work of school staff. It is also in danger of undermining that child's future.

"Parents might think that one day doesn't matter, but they have a responsibility to give their children the best opportunities in life, and that means a good education. It is not the fact that they are out of school as much as the message it sends to the children, that shopping is more important than studying."

Source: Evening News; Edinburgh (UK)

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