The Bermuda Union of Teachers has thrown its full support behind Government's plans to introduce truancy officers.

"We fully support the introduction of attendance officers,'' BUT president Michael Charles said after Government's Throne Speech revealed that the Education Act will be amended to, among other things, allow attendance officers to deal with truancy.

The issue has been a burning one for years in the public school system.

In fact, while former Education Minister Tim Smith stated that the problem was serious but not "chronic'', he revealed that he was considering a "truancy sweep'' shortly after taking over the Education Ministry.

"I will be meeting with the Minister of Public Safety and principals,'' he said in May. "We will discuss sweeps, perhaps first in Hamilton, on students who should be in school. If agreed to, there is no reason why it should not be implemented in September.'' He also announced in June that the Education Ministry, as part of an initiative to curb school absenteeism, will pay full Bermuda College tuition to CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute students who maintain a 95-percent attendance record, a strong academic record, and agree to be drug tested.

The new governing Progressive Labour Party has not yet commented on this, but it has maintained that the way to tackle the truancy problem is by having the Education Department keep accurate records and re-introducing truancy officers.

In May Premier Jennifer Smith, then Shadow Education Minister, pointed out that the PLP had moved an amendment during the debate of the 1996 Education Act to define "attendance officer'' as a "person employed for the express purpose of assuring the attendance of children of compulsory school age''.

"Government didn't agree that truancy was a problem and the amendment was defeated,'' Ms Smith recalled.

She also noted that the PLP had disagreed when the United Bermuda Party deleted the post of truant officer.

While the practice of appointing guidance counsellors and principals as "attendance officers'' may ensure that a record of non-attendance was kept, she said it was not an effective deterrent to truancy.

CedarBridge -- which one day during the 1997/98 school year recorded a truancy rate as high as 40 percent -- in September began using a computer tracking system to notify parents/guardians of their children's absence. The Win School (computerised school organisation) programme was set up to state the date and class the student missed and instruct the parent/guardian to contact the school to explain the absence. If there was no response or the student is missing for more than one day, an advisor will follow up.

CedarBridge principal Ernest Payette could not be reached for comment on how the system is working.

But on Friday Mr. Charles said he believed having attendance officers to track truancy was the way to go.

UNIONS UNS