There has been a staggering rise in truancy in Essex secondary schools in the past five years, with a steady rise in primary schools rates.

While local education authorities have promised crackdowns on parents failing to send their children to school, it has emerged unauthorised absences at Essex high schools has jumped from 12,745 in 2002 to 20,685 in 2006.

During the same period, the truancy rate rose in primary schools from 12,680 in 2002 to 14,122 in 2006.

These figures do not include data for Southend or Thurrock education authorities.

Tracey Chapman, the county's executive councillor for children and families, said: "In comparison with the national picture for pupils with unauthorised absence, Essex is 1 per cent lower than the average for England for secondary schools and 2 per cent lower than the average for England for primary schools.

"Essex County Council takes school absence very seriously.

"Headteachers remain vigilant and no longer authorise absences for no good reason. This is partly why the figures have increased in the last five years, as absences are not tolerated and are correctly recorded as unauthorised."

Mrs Chapman added this could mean parents taking their children out of school for a holiday would be counted as an unauthorised absence, as headteachers were keen to discourage this trend.

Essex County Council's education welfare service is confident it is taking the right approach to combat the problem. This is done in partnership with parents or carers, pupils, schools and other agencies.

A spokesman for the service said: "We provide support and advice to schools regarding their attendance policies, practice and strategies.

"Education welfare officers complete individual agreements with every school in Essex at the beginning of each school year.

"These agreements provide a tool for discussion on suitable strategies for schools to use and identify the most beneficial use of education welfare officer's time to assist schools to improve school attendance and achieve their attendance targets."

Legal intervention is used by the authority if necessary, including education supervision orders as well as prosecution of parents.

Attendance checks and truancy sweeps are undertaken in partnership with schools and the police, who are able to issue fixed penalty notices in some cases.

There is no doubt the reasons for the sharp rise will have differing causes across the county, but a Basildon parish councillor is convinced the problems of just one school have added hugely to current Essex figures.

David McPherson Davis, Ramsden Crays parish councillor, claimed truancy rates at Crays Hill School were not a problem until an influx of Irish travellers moved into the area four years ago.

He said: "The school had a capacity for 210 pupils and was full up at the time, then fairly rapidly we had travellers set up in Crays Hill and they started going to the school.

"Teachers had to spend a lot of time with them and didn't have much time left for non-travellers' children, so they left.

"Now the school has a capacity of just 100 children and the traveller children's attendance is abysmal."

In Southend, truancy figures appear to be falling thanks to a tough-love policy, with 1.62 per cent of pupils bunking off school in the last academic year. This fell from 1.79 per cent the previous year.

Linda King, head of inclusion at Southend Council, said: "We are very keen to prosecute parents who are implicated in keeping their children at home and we have had some very successful cases to push that message."

However, one pupil believes the answer is simply empowering pupils by giving them some say in what they do in school.

Sam Barge, 15, is one of four Castle Point representatives on the Young Essex Assembly. He said: "Truancy is quite a big deal, but the way it should be handled is not by punishing parents. It is the children who should be punished.

"The problem is about motivation. Kids are not being motivated in schools."