‘Send your children to school with coughs and colds’ parents are being told this week, as the government (again) attempts to tackle rising pupil absenteeism with a new campaign.

Families, it says, still following Covid-19 rules and who struggle to assess whether their children are well enough to come to school are partly to blame for the astronomical numbers now skipping school.

Are they really?

With so many working families under pressure to juggle work and childcare I struggle to believe England’s growing problem with empty seats in classrooms is being driven in any way by parents who can’t decide if their offspring can attend with a runny nose.

What should perhaps give education ministers greater food for thought is the results of a YouGov poll, commissioned by the Centre for Social Justice, which has found that 28% of parents feel the pandemic has shown them it’s not essential for children to be in school every day.

The problem with lockdown is not so much that adults can’t accurately assess whether their child is well enough for school but more to do with an assessment of school itself. And many are making a judgement, that a few days of school can be skipped, for example, if the price to fly to Spain is cheaper or the theme park queues are better in term time.

Problems lie elsewhere too.

The number of secondary school pupils regularly absent has doubled in the last decade in England, from 567,000 in 2010 to 894,444 in 2021.

Persistent absenteeism is rife among teens – where lockdown has shown those that have never relished the thought of a school day that ducking-out is more comfortable.

It’s a sad fact that many students find school a hostile and unfriendly place to be. And while a Covid pandemic is no longer sweeping the corridors, a mental health one among youngsters may well be.

And rather than kick the can into the laps of parents, education minister Gillian Keegan would do well to look at what can be done, and what is needed in terms of resources, to properly support teachers and families in getting these children back behind a desk.

When I was at school families were given up to 10 working days of authorised absence. Albeit – it must be said – this was firmly discouraged when close to exams.

In the years that followed, and as the policy was peeled back, families were told terrible things would happen to children, and their results, if they didn’t show up for every single day. Even commitments like medical appointments or extra curricular activities, that took pupils away for a brief spell, also ceased to be easily authorised as leaders came under pressure to be clear that learning is king.

And of course it is, and should be.

But after many months of isolation, a long slew of teacher strikes and add to that, additional days off for the Jubilee, Queen’s funeral and King’s Coronation - and absence from school isn’t treated with the same shock and horror it once was.

Perhaps giving families back those 10 authorised days – or even five – would enable education leaders to exert an element of control over some people’s apathetic approach to education? A pledge maybe, to authorise a week off, if a child’s overall attendance remains above 95% say?

At the very least it would draw a clear line between those skipping school for a holiday and those absent for more important reasons such as bullying, a lack of SEN provision or struggles with the unrelenting pressure.

Last year, a record 399,000 parents were handed a penalty notice by councils, so there’s little to suggest the threat of prosecution is working.

It’s going to need something radical for the Department for Education to be able to steer this one back on course.

Because what we’re witnessing now is a huge cultural shift, that will require more than an edict from politicians - declaring parents are to blame - in order to change direction.