TORIES have hit back at Government plans to crackdown on truancy from schools saying punishing the parents will not work.
Last week, Education Secretary David Blunkett and Home Secretary Jack Straw announced new measures to tackle truancy, including an extra £43m to go towards police action on the problem.
The move follows a highly successful "sweep" of children skipping school by police and council officers in Bolton recently.
The Government says it is reacting to the fact that currently more than 50,000 children stay off school every day.
One measure the Government is proposing is to increase fines for parents of school absentees.
Shadow Home Secretary Theresa May says such laws would be impossible to enforce.
She said: "I welcome moves to encourage more involvement from the police to get children back to school.
"But I fear that simply increasing fines for children who fail to attend will not work.
"How much faith can parents have in a Government which penalises the parents rather than addresses the core problems of why their children are persistently truanting?"
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