Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, is to set out the "generational challenges" facing England's schools and pupils in a speech tomorrow. It will come a day after the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, announces the government's latest efforts to repair school attendance rates since the Covid pandemic.
Phillipson told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "The challenge that we're seeing at the moment around persistent absenteeism means that one in five children are regularly out of school. That figure is set to rise to one in four. That is a staggering number of children. It's damaging their life chances and it's damaging the life chances of all of the children within the school community too."
This story is from the January 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 08, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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