
© Off-GuardianMore than 1,000 schools in disadvantaged areas have an entire class-worth of pupils missing as MPs call on the government to take action.
Not all children in England will return to school as the new term starts. Around 93,000 pupils have simply vanished and fallen off school registers since the COVID pandemic began.
These are England's so-called "ghost children", a phrase coined by chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon, who says he has been pushing for the government to take action for two years now.
"How we can allow as a country (nearly) 100,000 children to vanish off the school rolls completely and not treat it as a priority is beyond me," he said.
In addition, last year more than 100,000 children missed at least 50% of the autumn term - and there are concerns there will be even more this year.
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