Parents of truants will get a text message

The Scottish Executive is expected to announce that it is piloting a new way of tackling truancy.

About 5,000 children truant on any given day and schools are to respond by trialling a new computer system.

It will send texts to mobiles or voice messages to ordinary phones and one parent said the system was proving popular.

Messages will be sent to the phones of parents whose children have not turned up to class by morning registration.

The system doesn't take a lot of time or effort from parents once they've been notified Anna Moran Parent

The system, which will be similar to systems in place in other parts of the UK, will cost each school �1,000 a year to run and the executive will meet the �6,000 installation cost.

Education Minister Peter Peacock is expected to announce that the executive is funding trials in half of Scotland's schools.

Mr Peacock said: "Too many pupils are trying truancy. Pupils who miss school pay a high price - damaging their school results, career prospects and life chances - and that's why we are determined to improve attendance in our schools.

'Tracking truants'

"Calls and text messages are just one way we are tracking truants, working with parents to ensure that they know where their children are."

Headteacher Muriel Buchanan, from Drummond School in Edinburgh, said the system had proved a success.

Speaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, she said it was improving communication between parents and the school over pupil absenteeism.

"It's having an impact because it's catching people quickly," she said.

"All absences are keyed in the morning and the system phones home on a repeated basis until the parent responds and then the system switches off.

It goes without saying that anything which could tackle absence from school and save teachers' valuable time is a good thing Ronnie Smith EIS general secretary

"If a child is not in school then you can't educate them, it affects attainment targets and that child's attainment. It's essential we get children into school."

Anna Moran, whose daughter is a pupil at Drummond School, said the system had proved popular among parents.

She said: "Initially we had our teething problems with it, but once you get used to it, and providing people listen to the message right to the end and respond appropriately, it works really well.

"It doesn't take a lot of time or effort from parents once they've been notified."

Staff at Stonelaw High School in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, said it saved them making up to 50 calls a day to parents.

The scheme was welcomed by teachers' union, the Educational Institute of Scotland.

General Secretary Ronnie Smith said: "It goes without saying that anything which could tackle absence from school and save teachers' valuable time is a good thing."

The Scottish School Board Association said it was confident the scheme would prove successful.

SSBA president Caroline Vass said: "If parents are given immediate notification of truancy, hopefully by working in partnership with schools and the young people concerned, we can achieve the desired results of nipping this type of absence in the bud and improving the future prospects of would-be truants."