Lost pupils may be committing crime

At least 10,000 children are missing from English schools and the Government's education watchdog fears many are working in the black economy or committing crime.

Neither schools nor town hall education chiefs know where these children are, Chief Schools Inspector Mike Tomlinson said today.

Most are aged around 15, he said. He blamed parents for condoning their absence from school and said schools and local authorities should do more to track them down and return them to education.

Mr Tomlinson was speaking as he published his annual report on schools which found that while discipline had not improved, attendance had got worse. He said of the 10,000: "In some instances schools and local authorities have simply written these pupils off their books.

"Some of them have simply opted out of the school system. They may be part of the black economy, they may be committing crimes. I want to see more done to find them."

He also said parents who condone unruliness in their children must take some blame for the thousands of teachers who quit London posts in disgust every year over pupils' bad behaviour in the classroom.

The loss of such staff is the single biggest threat to maintaining standards, he said. Schools are forced to turn to supply teachers - in London one in 10 staff are from supply agencies - and this makes indiscipline worse.

His comments came the day after supply teacher Amy Gehring, 26, was cleared of sex offences against teenage boys at a Surrey school. However, she can never teach in this country again because she is alleged to have had sex with a 16-year-old pupil at a previous school.

Mr Tomlinson said more than one in five teachers leave the profession within the first three years. His report said most were quitting because of the bureaucratic burden of the job and pupils' poor behaviour.

He urged parents to do more to support staff, adding: "Teachers don't feel valued by the public at large, including some parents. In particular, parents need to support schools and the application of codes of discipline. It is impossible for teachers to impose discipline if parents won't support them."

Mr Tomlinson said some parents needed to take more responsibility for getting their children to school in the first place. "A large number of the children picked up in shopping malls are actually accompanied by adults," he said.

The threat to standards is worst in London and most acute in the poorest schools which found it hardest to recruit and retain teachers.

The stark message came in a report which celebrated the highest ever teaching standards overall. But while Mr Tomlinson said the gap between the best and worst primary schools was closing, he warned that the gulf between the best and worst in secondary education was growing and said the poor quality of many temporary teachers was often to blame.

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