Nick Ferrari blames 'lazy, irresponsible parents' for rising absenteeism in schools
9 January 2024, 11:02
Nick tells parents of absent school children 'to pick up a book.'
Nick Ferrari believes the rising absenteeism of children in schools has less to do with their emotional wellbeing, but rather is down to ignorant parents who need to 'pick up a thing called a book.'
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Nick Ferrari at Breakfast delivered this monologue after Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said that one in five young people are ''persistently absent from school'' and that ''the scale of this is terrifying.''
She warned Nick Ferrari that this detriment of children's education and is ''damaging their life chances.''
Nick asked: ''Are you honestly telling me that north of 1.5 million have all got issues like that?''
''No they haven't. I'll tell you what they have got. They've got lazy, irresponsible parents who don't know the value of education...
''...Who need to just stop and think, and possibly pick up a book if they've ever even seen one in their life and read about how, in other parts of the world, parents are crying out for some kind of education, something that we take completely for granted here.''
It comes after a new report was released by The Centre for Social Justice stating that certain parents do not believe their children need to be attending school full-time.
Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Bridget Phillipson
Labour has since made a pledge to directly tackle the crisis before any rival policy announcements the government may issue this week.
Bridget Phillipson told LBC: ''It's for the government to step in and provide extra help in the areas where they [parents] are struggling, and that's what I'll be setting out later today as part of Labour's plan.''
Challenging this, Nick continued: ''Alright, we might need to work with one or two parents, but no one, no parent worth his, her or their soul should need to be told or encouraged to take your child to school.''
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