§ Mr. Stuart Holland
asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his assessment of the relationship between the truancy rate in inner-city schools and the social and economic structures of (a) inner-city constituencies in general and (b) Lambeth and Vauxhall in particular.
§ Mrs. Rumbold
The Department does not collect figures about truancy. Socio-economic factors may contribute indirectly to school attendance problems, but the attitude of parents to education and the quality of the experience offered to children at school are in the Government's view more influential in promoting good attendance. The important initiatives which the Government is taking to improve the quality of teaching, the school curriculum and examinations should affect school attendance beneficially.