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Gippsland Has Highest Truancy Rate In StateGippsland has the highest rate of school absenteeism in Victoria, Liberal Member for Gippsland Province Philip Davis said today. By Philip Davis - 13th December 2004 - Back to News The Auditor General’s report Managing School Attendance was tabled in Parliament this week, highlighting the dire problem of truancy throughout the state, but in particular student absenteeism in Gippsland.
Mr Davis said he was appalled to hear that not only was Gippsland home to the highest truancy rate in the state, but the region also experienced the greatest increase in truancy between 2000 and 2002.
"The report found that in Gippsland, there was an average of 15.35 days of absence per student in 2002, giving the Gippsland region the greatest increase in truancy in the state and also the highest absence rate," he said.
"This report also found that 46 per cent of absences in secondary schools across the state were unexplained and parents were not contacted about an unexplained absence within a month in 21 per cent of cases.
"This simply is not good enough.
"Our schools can’t fix the problem because they don’t know what it is – there is no attempt to determine the cause of truancy.
"The Bracks Government now has no choice but to get its head out of the sand and admit that we have truancy problems in Gippsland and throughout Victoria."
Mr Davis said it was interesting to note that the Auditor General advocated the use of SMS to alert parents to student absences when an explanation wasn’t received by 10am, and when the Liberal Party proposed this method earlier in the year it was ridiculed by the Education Minister.
"Given the Minister’s lack of action on truancy to date, she must now take a proactive approach and do something to fix it," he said.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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