THE number of pupils regularly absent from school has risen in Essex primary and secondary schools.

Figures released by the Department for Education show the number of persistent absentees from the county’s schools has gone up 2.3 per cent, to 6,950.

The number of offenders at county council-controlled secondary schools has grown from 3,892 in the 2008/09 school year, to 4,460 in the autumn term of this year, an increase of 0.4 per cent.

Primary schools have also seen an increase, with 2,490 pupils persistently missing school in the autumn term of 2009.

That is 1.4 per cent higher than figures for the 2008/09 school year.

The secondary school figure puts absenteeism in county council controlled secondary schools higher than the average for the East of England, with only Norfolk and Peterborough having more.

The figure is below the national average of 5.7 per cent.

State-funded secondary schools, such as academies and technology colleges, fair no better with 0.2 per cent more pupils than the region’s average regularly missing classes.

Persistent absentees are defined as those who have missed 20 per cent of classes, whether authorised or not.

Across England, the most commonly reported reason for absence was illness, which accounted for 3.83 per cent of half days. The second most commonly reported reason for absence was family holiday, which included agreed and non- agreed family holiday.

This worked out to around 2.5 million school days in England in the autumn term, of which a quarter of these days were not authorised by the school.

No one from Essex County Council was available for comment.