Government will pay full Bermuda College tuition for all public secondary school students who maintain a 95 percent attendance record.

Education Minister Tim Smith revealed this yesterday as a part new initiatives to curb school absenteeism.

Backing away from an original proposal to have Police carry out a "truancy sweep'', Mr. Smith told members of the media his Ministry will take a "carrot and stick'' approach to the problem, beginning this September.

Each student at CedarBridge Academy (where the problem is believed to be most serious) and at Berkeley Institute who achieves a "B'' average, agrees to be drug tested, and maintains a 95-percent attendance record will have their full tuition of $2,300-a-year, if accepted at the college, paid by the Education Ministry.

Details about the drug testing aspect of the clause have yet to be worked out with the National Drug Commission.

The Ministry will also employ a "dedicated person'' at CedarBridge, starting in September, to record and follow up "systematically and promptly'' any cases of absenteeism.

Other initiatives to begin in September include: A smaller ratio of students to teacher at CedarBridge, allowing for "greater familiarity and checks on students' whereabouts''; A new advisor/advisee programme which will see 12 students assigned to each teacher, allowing teachers to get to know the child and the child's parents; The Ministry of Education receiving regular attendance registers which will point out incidents of internal truancy; The Ministry and schools carrying out random attendance checks during individual lessons and education officials checking school records; and The Ministry promoting the use of computerised attendance monitoring systems at each school.

While confirming that the Ministry had no statistics on internal truancy (a student skipping classes after arriving at school), Mr. Smith said absenteeism whether justified or not has varied from as low as five percent to 30 percent in middle and senior secondary schools.

In fact, he noted, recently truancy was as high as 40 percent one day at CedarBridge.

"At CedarBridge, because of its newness, anonymity has played a factor in contributing to truancy,'' Mr. Smith said. "The child is new; the teacher is new and not familiar with students.

"This, of course, will change as time moves on and familiarity sets in.'' Non-attendance tended to be higher around end-of-year exam time, Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher added.

But as of September, any parent whose child commits "persistent truancy'' will face fines of up to $200 a day under Section 42 of the 1996 Education Act.

"I am fully prepared to enforce this,'' Mr. Smith said.

But he noted that the Ministry will first "encourage them (parents)'' to understand that a child not attending school is unsettling to the child, unsettling to the school, and unsettling to the education system.

Education cracks down on truants "A child who is not at school is not acquiring new knowledge,'' he noted. "A child not at school hinders his/her educational progress. A child not at school is missing opportunities. A child not at school is missing out on new friendships. A child not at school is not learning new skills ...'' And both the president of the National PTA, Anthony Steede, and CedarBridge's PTA president Patricia Basden agreed.

Pointing out that parents of students at the school appreciated the initiatives, Mrs. Basden said: "Everyone has a role to play in addressing the problem of truancy. We are very concerned.'' "We have been working with the Education Ministry for the last three years in looking seriously at this problem and these initiatives,'' Mr. Steede noted.

"Hopefully this will bring parents and students to the point where they realise education is paramount.'' He added that while he was happy with the Ministry's efforts, he believed the penalty for parents should be increased.