A hard core of more than 40,000 children are missing at least two days of school every week, with a further 300,000 children at risk of falling into similar levels of truancy, figures show.

The latest government data indicate a rising number of pupils playing truant and being allowed to skip school, with a persistent band of 44,000 truants attending school for fewer than three days a week.

The figures, for the autumn term last year, show another 300,000 missed more than 14 days – equal to one day a week. That was 16,000 more than the previous year.

Teachers’ leaders blamed the trend on “deep-rooted social problems” which schools could not tackle on their own.

Political opponents used the figures to claim that the Government’s tactic of fining the parents of truants was failing to address the problem.

Overall, pupils missed an average of almost four days of school in the autumn term last year, compared with 3.74 over the same period in 2006. Authorised absence rose from 5.04 days to 5.32 over the same period.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: “Parents have a duty to ensure that their children attend school, but this increase in persistent truancy shows that the Government’s strategy to tackle this problem is failing.

“A community-wide approach involving parents, police and local welfare officers would be much more effective than the current top-down measures pursued by ministers.”

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said legal sanctions against parents were not a “coherent strategy for truancy”. She added: “There are no magic solutions to tackling core truancy. Schools do their best to deal with persistent truancy, but they cannot, on their own, address deep-rooted social problems which lead to truancy.

Some of the figures showed an improvement. The number of pupils classed as “persistent absentees” – missing more than six weeks in one term – fell by 4,000 between the autumn terms of 2006 and 2007. However, this means that there are still nearly 44,000 pupils failing to turn up for almost half of lessons.

About 11 per cent of unauthorised absence was caused by family holidays taken in term time that were not preagreed with the school. In some cases this could be because of ethnic minority families taking extended summer holidays in their home country, and not returning in time for the start of the autumn term.

The Government said severe illnesses sweeping through schools in December last year had a noticeable impact on the figures. A spokesman said: “This accounts for the rise in overall absence and would contribute to the rise in those ‘in danger of becoming persistent truants’.”

Kevin Brennan, the Schools Minister, said: “We want to offer all the support we can to vulnerable children – for example, young carers, children with special educational needs and victims of bullying.

“However, there’s no excuse for parents who turn a blind eye, or schools that accept weak reasons for absence.

“It is no surprise,” he added, “that the ‘unauthorised absence’ figure goes up because schools are taking a tougher stance on weak excuses that may once have been authorised.”

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