“There’s more than 300,000 children in that category not attending regularly. The scale of the problem is colossal.” Goldsmith pointed to the fact there was just one prosecution of a parent for truancy in the last year and suggested the country was creating “a culture of excuses” that focused too much on trying to make schools attractive to students, rather than on the consequences of non-attendance. Stuff Hundreds of thousands of school-aged children have attendance rates below 90 per cent. “Do we have a culture of excuses for children not being at school? Like somehow it is the school's fault for not being exciting enough?” Goldsmith asked.