Opinion

Time for honesty over taking kids on term time holidays

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

In Northern Ireland, by contrast, a child can mitch for nearly six full weeks without any consequences whatsoever. 
In Northern Ireland, by contrast, a child can mitch for nearly six full weeks without any consequences whatsoever.  In Northern Ireland, by contrast, a child can mitch for nearly six full weeks without any consequences whatsoever. 

PARENTS in Northern Ireland are the most likely in the UK to pretend their children are ill in order to take them on a term-time holiday, according to a new survey from Nationwide Savings.

This is a curious finding, as parents here are the least likely in the UK to get into trouble for unauthorised school absence.

In England, under guidelines introduced in 2013 by former education secretary Michael Gove, any absence not signed off by a school principal can incur a council fine, which if not paid can result in imprisonment. Absences may only be signed off for illness, bereavement, religious observance or “exceptional circumstances”.

In Wales the rules are the same, except that principals have discretion to grant up to 10 days a year for family holidays.

In Scotland, the state only steps in over persistent truancy but then it steps in hard, with fines and court orders. The SNP’s new ‘named person’ law, giving each child an individual public sector guardian, indicates a tightening regime.

In Northern Ireland, by contrast, a child can mitch for nearly six full weeks without any consequences whatsoever. Department of Education guidelines state that attendance must fall below 85 per cent, which works out at 28 days across a typical 185 day school year, before absence can be referred to an education welfare officer.

This is the first step towards any kind of official action and in nearly all instances it will simply mean sitting through a ‘helpful’ chat. Only a protracted refusal to engage with the welfare officer might eventually lead to fines, orders or worse. This does occasionally happen - news website The Detail discovered three parents had been jailed in 2008/09 for failing to ensure their children received a regular education, as the law requires. But these are desperately exceptional cases.

The system is even more generous than it looks, because principals in Northern Ireland have been free to authorise holidays. The Department of Education had been cracking down on this but gave up in 2009 when former Stormont education minister Caitriona Ruane was found to have taken one of her children to Cyprus during term time.

Ruane accused the Irish News, which broke the story, of interfering in her family life. Interfering in family life is the Department of Education’s job.

After a seven year administrative sulk the crackdown has recently resumed, with principals being told they can no longer sign off holidays. This does not appear to be due to the switch from a Sinn Féin to a DUP education minister in May. It seems the high-profile debate about school attendance in England has inspired officials here to start waving their own clipboards around again. Being able to afford an annual family holiday is one of Stormont’s indicators of child poverty but it turns out that is only a cause for hand-wringing when it suits.

Principals are now in the invidious position of having to tell parents their holidays are not ‘authorised’, which will often be misinterpreted as an obstructive withholding of permission. It is bad enough that people are involving their children in lying about being ill, without falling out unnecessarily with their school.

If Stormont’s regime is about to tighten the next step will be revised guidelines. That is what happened in England - principals there had the same 10 day holiday discretion as in Wales but this was widely perceived as an entitlement, causing Gove to intervene. Parents here will not be allowed to start treating their 28 day leeway as an allowance.

School attendance has been in the headlines because a father on the Isle of Wight, originally from Northern Ireland, successfully appealed a council fine. Jon Platt persuaded a panel of judges that he was ensuring his daughter received a regular education, as taking her to Disneyworld had not caused her attendance to drop below 90 per cent - the threshold that defines persistent truancy in English guidelines. A similar argument would presumably win here.

Ensuring a regular education is a parent’s only statutory duty, with no definition of what that entails. It can include home schooling without any inspection, meaning you could in theory have your child taken off the school roll than put back on again either side of a holiday and incur no unauthorised absence.

But this is all so needlessly confrontational and that is exactly what should be avoided. Be honest with the kids, be polite to the school and go on holiday when you like.

newton@irishnews.com