Truancy, industry and the school curriculum

The significance of truancy - This chapter discusses truancy from school as a focusing device for analysing the consequences, educational, social and economic of the nationalisation of the education system. In the opening sections, an attempt is made to define truancy and to indicate the scale of the problem. In sections 5 and 6, an explanation of truancy is advanced in terms of the effects that a nationalised education industry has on curricular and economic decision-making. In section 7, the problem of truancy is analysed on a comparative basis drawing on differences between education in liberal society and education in collectivist society. Finally, tentative suggestions are advanced with a view to the partial denationalisation of the education industry.