Naplan scores suffer as too many students skip classes Monique McMahon with her daughter Matilda, 10, and Milla Jeffries, 10 / Pic: Justin Lloyd Source: News Limited RAMPANT absenteeism is crippling the academic performance of thousands of school students and contributing to Australia's slide down the international education rankings. Parents and educators are so concerned about the levels of school absenteeism they have called for a whole of community campaign to ensure children attend class on every day of term. Schools have revealed they are not only grappling with hardened young truants - they are increasingly complaining that some parents encourage their children to skip class to go shopping, attend a birthday party or take an early holiday. About 33,000 teenagers are absent from school every day in NSW, according to NSW Education Department data that shows attendance rates can be as low as 70 per cent. While a proportion has a genuine reason for missing class, many others offer excuses such as staying up too late watching TV, attending family events or reluctance to participate in school sports days. The day before the end of term earlier this year one government high school in Sydney's western suburbs reported 142 unexplained absences by students. Parents at a primary school on the northern beaches received a letter from the principal telling them to stop removing their children for an early holiday. A major study of 415,000 school students conducted over five years to 2012, "Student Attendance and Educational Outcomes: Every Day Counts," has linked increasing rates of absenteeism with declining scores in national literacy and numeracy tests. The study conducted for the Federal Government by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Western Australia warns: "Parents need to be aware that when their child misses school it can have an ongoing impact on their learning. Even small amounts of unauthorised absence from school were associated with substantial falls in average Naplan (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) test scores. Poor attendance is a long fuse with a big bang. President of the Australian Primary Principals' Association Norm Hart said it was extremely important research. "It is absolutely critical that we address this matter - kids are away from school too much and the community is too lenient and too forgiving," he said. They (the Telethon Institute) have found a direct link between student absenteeism and Naplan scores. Mr Hart said schools were competing with trips to Disneyland, Dreamworld and hockey finals for the time of students and parents and sometimes the school was last in the line instead of first. It's a worry, we have a target to be in the top five countries in the world (for education) but if you want to lift the performance of students then they have to be at school every day. This is an issue for the whole of Australia to maximise the benefits schools offer. Teacher quality is pretty high and in most cases Australian education stands up to any scrutiny and comparison. New analysis released by the Australian Council for Educational Research shows the achievement levels of Australian students fell during the period from 2000 to 2012 while other nations improved. The reading and mathematics levels of Australian 15-year-olds declined with NSW students among those who went backwards. Spokeswoman for the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations Rachael Sowden said some children were disengaged from learning and needed a lot of support to help them attend classes. "It is important that kids go to school every single day and that they are doing meaningful and engaged learning," Ms Sowden said. Schools and parents need to know that school is for the full year - it needs to be a partnership between parents, students and schools. Ms Sowden urged people in the community to call the local school if they saw children at a shopping centre during class time. "If there is community buy-in on this then there is more likely to be a solution," she said. Some schools offer prizes for good attendance and one even advertised its air conditioning to attract children who were kept at home on hot days. Surry Hills mum Monique McMahon said she made sure her daughter, Matilda, 10, went to school as often as possible. "We're pretty tough on her because it's pretty important," Ms McMahon said. If she has a little cough we get her to school. In saying that, we do give her a day off if she is worn out because they do get worked hard. Lethbridge Park mum in Sydney's west Naomi Hammond said attendance at her daughter's public primary school had improved since students were given the incentive of winning a backpack, a scooter or a $50 gift voucher. "If students are away for seven days or more in a term (without good reason) they don't qualify for a badge and the kids really want to get those badges," she said. I have a lot of friends whose kids wake up late and don't go (to school) - I go off at them and tell them it's their job to get their kids to school. I'm not going to be the one blamed for failure at school because I don't make her (daughter Janaya) go. Last year the NSW Department of Education and Communities began 423 prosecutions over continual non-attendance of students at school. Parents or carers can be fined up to $11,000 for allowing or helping their children to stay away. The department says students can be absent for a variety of reasons, including illness, medical appointments, family events such as funerals, and other cultural commitments. Only a small percentage are absent without their parents' knowing, the department says, but principals complain that it's now commonplace for students to miss classes for reasons "unheard of 20 years ago."