The Department for Education has announced a controversial new initiative to tackle pupil absence in England: every school will be issued with an AI-generated target for minimum pupil attendance.
Unions Decry 'Whitehall Diktats'
Teaching unions have responded with immediate criticism, arguing the move will pile additional pressure on already overloaded headteachers without addressing the underlying causes of classroom absence.
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, stated that schools are already working tirelessly to improve attendance. He condemned the government's approach, saying, "Issuing them with yet more targets will not help them with that work and is the wrong way to go."
Echoing this sentiment, Pepe Di'Iasio of the Association of School and College Leaders urged the government to understand school realities. "Schools already move heaven and earth to ensure that all their pupils attend regularly," he said, highlighting that many factors contributing to absence are beyond a school's direct control.
The Government's Stance and Method
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defended the policy, stating, "We can only deliver opportunity for children in our country if they're in school, achieving and thriving. That's why I want every school to play its part in getting attendance back to and beyond pre-pandemic levels."
The individual target for each school will be generated artificially, based on the attendance levels achieved by other schools in similar circumstances. These circumstances will include factors like local deprivation, geographic location, and the specific needs of the pupil population.
Official government figures published last month revealed a worrying trend: while overall attendance has improved, the rate of severe absence—where pupils miss more than 50% of school sessions—is on the rise again. The data also showed that one in three schools has demonstrated no improvement in attendance rates.
Implementation and Support
Headteachers will receive their unique targets this month. In a move to foster improvement, schools will be connected with high-performing institutions that serve similar communities and have comparable needs. This is intended to allow headteachers to learn from best practices elsewhere.
The government has confirmed that these AI-generated attendance targets will not be made public and will not be accessible to the schools inspectorate, Ofsted, aiming to use them as an internal benchmark for support rather than a public accountability measure.
