Number of Capital pupils skipping school has fallen

THE number of pupils taking “unauthorised” time off from school has fallen in the Capital, as education bosses praise anti-truancy procedures.

New statistics show that the percentage of youngsters skipping school has fallen from 2.6 per cent last year to 2.5 per cent this year.

Edinburgh is also performing better than the Scottish average for unauthorised absences, with the national figure sitting at 2.7 per cent for the year.

City education leader, Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, said: “It’s good to see that the level is staying relatively low, and I think this can be put down to a range of procedures and approaches we have in place to deal with truancy.

“When pupils don’t appear at school we know very quickly and we notify their parents and this helps to get them in.

“Where pupils are consistently off, and there is no good reason, we work hard to reengage them and their parents in school life.”