'Ghost children' cost city council over £1 million

CLAIM 'ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL' NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL PUPILS

- ELLIOT BALL

THOUSANDS of Plymouth children are persistently missing school and in a bid to tackle the problem more than a million pounds has been spent locally.

In total, 5,494 students were listed as persistently absent’ in the 2021/22 academic year, meaning they had an attendance below 90%. The previous year this number stood at 2,843.

The figures, obtained by Minerva’s Virtual Academy (MVA), also show that Plymouth City Council has spent more than 1.2m in the last three years trying to tackle the problem of 'ghost children' The local authority has also raked in 12,000 in fines for non-attendance.

A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council told The Herald that this was a 'national issue' and the sudden increase was on par with regional increases. They also explained that the overall rate had been affected by increases in Covid-19 cases.

One mum from Plymouth knows all too well the pressures that can come with having a child for whom the 'onesize-fits’ all system of education simply doesn’t work. After her son struggled so much within mainstream education, where he also experienced bullying, he became unable to attend which led to him being labelled a school refuser’