News Item
Wagging school to get harder
Melbourne Sun Herald
by MARY PAPADAKIS January 07, 2007
VICTORIAN schools are using mobile phone technology to catch out truants as new figures show students on average missed an average of 14 days of school each in 2005.
Parents have received instant text messages alerting them to their child's unexplained absence.
The growing use of SMS comes after Department of Education figures show state school students have been absent an average of 14.3 days in 2005 -- up from 13.79 days in 2004.
So far, 19 Victorian government and three private secondary schools have adopted an SMS system offered by Adelaide-based company MGM Wireless.
The company's Victorian director, Kim White, said Victoria would also have its first primary school using the system by the start of first term.
Mr White said the company hoped to more than double the number of Victorian schools involved by the end of 2007. About 250 Australian schools use the system.
"Truancy and unexplained absences are a very real issue and it is for that reason that schools are turning to us for help," he said.
Mr White said the system had an immediate impact on absenteeism.
"We can see in excess of a 50 per cent improvement straight away," he said.
An SMS is sent to parents or guardians of a child absent from roll call asking for an explanation.
The messages continue until contact is made.
The system also monitors trends in student attendance and alerts parents and schools to repeated absenteeism.
Mr White said the system, which costs schools about $10,000 each year to run, also relieved teachers and administration staff from having to chase up absent students.
Victorian Principals Association president Fred Ackerman said attendance was typically a problem in the early and second last years of primary school and the middle years of secondary school.
"Attendance needs to be consistent across all of the 13 years," Mr Ackerman said. "It's a significant issue for Victorian schools and it's a growing problem."
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