Eighty-eight per cent of fines dished out to parents of truants are ignored – leaving more than €1.4 million unpaid since 2000. In total, 36,934 penalties have been given to parents who do not enforce school attendance, according to figures obtained by the Local Governance Parliamentary Secretariat.
Of these, 32,403 fines have not been paid.
The issue was flagged up by the head of Cospicua primary school Marion Falzon Ghio during a public consultation held with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo on Tuesday.
‘We are seeing change’
During the meeting, Ms Falzon Ghio said schools were being plagued by truancy and parents who did not prioritise education.
The €7 fine is handed out by local tribunals to parents whose children repeatedly miss more than three days of school in a month without a doctor’s certificate.
Once issued, the fines are then followed by an additional €2.33 for every other attendance offence. All the penalties since 2000 add up to a total of €1,454,900.
An Education Directorate spokeswoman said one per cent of primary school children missed more than 40 days every year.
The problem seems to escalate as students get older, with 7.5 per cent of secondary school students surpassing the 40-day mark.
However, she said the situation had improved in recent years.
“There is a problem with truancy but we are constantly improving.
“We have introduced many new measures to combat this and we are seeing a positive change,” she said, adding that one such measure saw the introduction of an automatic messaging system for parents whose children do not attend.
Last year, 1,400 students missed more than 40 days of school.
This, the spokeswoman said, marked a decrease of nearly 400 students since 2011.
“We have seen year-on-year reductions in the number of students who regularly miss school. Is this enough? No. But we are making progress,” she said.
In a press conference on Thursday, however, Ms Falzon Ghio described the enforcement as toothless and called on the government to introduce measures to combat this in the upcoming revision to the Education Act.
The Education Ministry said the revision was in its consultation phase and would take into account the issues being raised.
Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government José Herrera, who is responsible for local tribunals, acknowledged the need to strengthen deterrents for irresponsible parents.
He told this newspaper he would be suggesting the introduction of criminal penalties for parents who ignore tribunal rulings.
“The current situation is that when fines are ignored this must be followed up by legal action which costs more than the fine and so is not usually done. This should change,” he said.