Serial truanting in England's schools is increasing as policies to curb absenteeism fail to tackle the minority who miss up to five weeks of lessons a year.

About 60,000 of the three million secondary school pupils accounted for half of all absenteeism from schools last year, the government disclosed on Thursday. Attendance is at record levels, with 17,000 more children attending school this year than in 2003.

Government Response: Department for Education and Skills

Stephen Twigg, schools minister, said: "Our message that 'every day in school counts' is getting across, overall school attendance is at record levels and the majority of parents are supporting schools in ensuring their child attends regularly. Schools are also treating absenteeism more rigorously, challenging questionable reasons for absence and cracking down on unnecessary term-time holidays.

"However, a stubborn minority of pupils, often with parental collusion, remain determined to jeopardise their education and their futures through persistent truancy. While the causes of truancy are complex and challenging, we will focus on this hardcore two per cent who are responsible for much of unauthorised absence.

"We will continue to support local education authorities and schools facing the greatest challenges with targeted measures that we know work in improving attendance, and expect them to set tough new targets for themselves. We will also not hesitate to support schools and local education authorities that use sanctions such as prosecution and penalty fines for those parents who are simply unwilling to get their children into school."

Party Response: Conservative

Tim Collins, shadow education secretary, said: "These figures show that despite a huge amount of public money and a great deal of hot air from ministers, truancy in British schools has sharply increased year-on-year.

"It is essential they should now stop trying to spin bad news as if it was good and instead start to tackle the underlying causes of a serious and growing problem."

Stakeholder Response: Secondary Heads Association

Dr John Dunford, SHA general secretary, said: "In recent years, schools have put an immense amount of effort into improving attendance, but the statistics for unauthorised attendance remain stubbornly around 0.7 per cent as a result of the persistent truancy of a small number of individuals who refuse to attend school and whose parents are unwilling or incapable of making them attend.

"Figures for authorised absence are, in fact, much more reliable than those for unauthorised absence, which include 'no reason given', children on holiday without permission and children who are late for school. It is clear from the attendance figures that measures to improve the situation are working, but there is no magic cure."

Stakeholder Response: NASUWT

Chris Keates, acting general secretary of NASUWT, said: "NASUWT welcomes the improvement in school attendance shown by today's figures. It is clear that the national strategies are beginning to have a positive impact. Schools and teachers are to be congratulated for the efforts they have made.

"The issue of parentally condoned absence and truancy remains a problem.

"More work has to be done to discourage those parents who condone truancy by taking their children out of school for holidays, shopping trips or to 'wait for the gasman'.

"The message has to be made clear that parents who allow their children to truant deny them access to an education and decent future. 

"It must be remembered that pupil disaffection is also a factor which contributes to persistent truancy. The current review of 14-19 education will need to address this issue."

Stakeholder Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "We are delighted to see that school attendance figures have improved, but improved attendance comes at a price. Insufficient attention is being given to ways in which to support disaffected pupils once they have returned to school.

"The curriculum is still too inflexible – and high stakes tests continue to dominate the agenda. Thus teachers are left to mop up the mess and try to deal with bad behaviour. There is no point in improving school attendance on its own. It's merely side-stepping the issue of school disaffection – not confronting it."