[Osem]

..and would you be allowed to do that Maggie? What would you do if your child refused to get out of bed?

This is a real problem. I have no sympathy for defective parents who can't be bothered to send their children to school but I have great sympathy for those who've done their very best and for whatever reason find that their children refuse to either go to or stay in school. Penalising them when they have no way of forcing their children to do the right thing seems very unfair. Perhaps if our schools did a bit more than prepare our children to sit exams and the curriculum was more interesting/relevant to their lives (especially in those areas where truancy levels are very high), more of our children would want to go to school.