Modern technology will allow CedarBridge Academy to catch up with students who skip school.

From next week, when classes resume, a computer tracking system will call parents/guardians to inform them of their children's absence.

It will state the date and class the student missed and instruct the recipient to contact the school to explain the absence.

If there is no response or the student is missing for more than one day, an advisor will follow up.

Principal Ernest Payette yesterday explained to The Royal Gazette that through the Win School (computerised school organisation) programme, a computer was able to talk to another computer which called contact numbers in the school system.

"We are putting a high priority on attendance,'' Mr. Payette said.

"Hopefully the technology we have put in place will improve parental contact.'' However, he pointed out that the school would not be relying solely on the computer system.

Staff, under a new advisor/advisee programme, will initially make contact with parents, he said.

One advisor will be assigned to no more than 12 students.

This, Mr. Payette said, will allow teachers to get to know students and their parents better.

"They (advisors) will meet with students for 20 minutes every morning,'' he said. "They will help students with everything from career planning to organisational skills.

"They will also make contact with parents more quickly.

"We believe that too will have dividends so parents don't get caught by surprise when their children are not performing well in a certain area.'' However, the computer attendance system will also be used to reduce the advisor's workload.

Mr. Payette said the computerised attendance system, advisor/advisee programme, and other incentive programmes which were still being worked out were part of "the whole process of improving attendance and students' performance''.

On one day during the 1997/98 school year -- the first for CedarBridge -- the truancy rate was as high as 40 percent.

And while the Education Ministry kept no statistics on internal truancy (a student skipping classes after arriving at school), absenteeism varied from five percent to 30 percent in the Island's middle and senior secondary schools.

With more than 1,100 students, anonymity was believed to have been a factor in the problem at CedarBridge.

But with Berkeley accepting some 96 students from middle schools this year, CedarBridge is expected to have no more than 1,000 students and more than 106 staff members.

And as part of a initiative to curb school absenteeism, the Education Ministry has offered to pay full Bermuda College tuition to CedarBridge and Berkeley Institute students who maintain a 95 percent attendance record, a strong academic record and agree to be drug tested.