NSW Premier backs plan to withhold welfare for truancy

NSW Premier backs plan to withhold welfare for truancy : "The measure will first apply to six communities in the Northern Territory and two in Western Australia.

'It's another measure to ensure that parents live up to their responsibilities,' Mr Iemma told reporters today.

'It is an important legal obligation - you can't flout the law."

Absolutely. Our children need to be in school. OUR children. Everyone's children. It is a legal obligation for all Australian families but it is also something which is highly desirable in order to keep us productive and competitive. Attendance is a must. I noticed while I was on a random site the other night that some American schools advertise their attendance on the school's home page. They put up what percentage of attendance they have that day and then ask the question...is your child at school? This assumes parents and the general public go to these sites and are aware.It also assumes people care about these things. Teachers cannot teach classes where students are missing and missing students get knowledge gaps and then we have to invent expensive bridging programmes later on to create a viable work force. This is double the expenditure for us. There has to be a method whereby we get serious about attendance. Developing early attendance patterns is desirable. We need to pick non attenders up early in their education so then it doesn't become a problem later on down the track where , I could well imagine, some big child is telling their parent they are not going to school.If we target early education then 5 years from now we shall have proper attendance. It cannot go on like this. You often see kids out of school and they cannot all be on welfare and they cannot all be on excursions.We have to make non attendance unpleasant and attendance desirable.