In the United Kingdom, picking up students to avoid school

UA school in Kent, United Kingdom, is determined to combat truancy and has taken steps to ensure its students are guaranteed transport between their home and school.

The BBC says that the main users of the service are financially strapped students who live far from school and are often forced to make long journeys on public transport, which discourages them from attending class.

A case used by the television network to illustrate the situation is that of two students, Leo and Roxanne, who were kicked out of their home with their mother last fall. They were staying again in an apartment that was two bus rides away from the elementary school, a total of about 40 minutes of travel.

The mother, who suffered from mental health problems, was later unable to take her children to school, resulting in absenteeism.

When the Education Department asked Kelsey, Leo and Roxanne’s mother why the children were missing so much school, the woman admitted she was experiencing difficulties in her personal life and a ‘minibus’ service was quickly activated to collect students in the morning. And drop them back home at the end of the day.

The move, Kelsey said, “made a big difference” and allowed the family to stabilize until after a while the children were transferred to a school closer to home. This term, Leo and Roxanne never missed a single class.

The number of truants in the UK has doubled significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic, mainly due to mental health issues and financial difficulties for families, a recent report has revealed.

Missing classes can harm children’s education and development [e] and its future prospects”, said Robin Walker, chairman of the parliamentary committee responsible for the report.

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