Parents who fail to ensure their children attend school could face £50 fines or risk being jailed under plans unveiled by the education secretary today.

The move comes as the government moves to clamp down on truancy as part of its bid to tackle anti-social behaviour on Britain's streets.

According to ministers, many low level street crimes are carried out by children who should be in the classroom.

They believe that parents must ensure that their children attend school and will give head teachers new powers to impose fines on those who don't.

Charles Clarke said that 80 per cent of truancy is committed with the full knowledge of parents.

Recent truancy sweeps on shopping centres have also found many persistent truants to be in the company of their parents.

Speaking ahead of a speech to the Social Market Foundation, Clarke said he wanted to convey the message that "discipline begins at home".

But he acknowledged that there were legitimate reasons for children missing school on some occasions.

"The overwhelming majority want to get this right and our job is to help them and we are not talking about sanctions," said Clarke.

"But there do remain parents who are not prepared to acknowledge their responsibility and then I think penal sanctions are appropriate."

The new fines will come in the form of fixed penalty notices - which will be issued by either the police or education welfare officers.

Parents who dispute the fines will be able to appeal against them in court, Clarke said.

But he warned that parents who fail to pay fines will be jailed.

"You may recall the case quite recently of a parent who ended up in jail because at the end of the day she would not acknowledge her responsibility,'' he told the Today programme.

"But what is necessary and what we are addressing in this package is a much faster package of going through the courts because one of the problems is that these things go on and on and on and no one knows where they stand. And we think you need a fast system to deal with it."

Clarke added that parents could still take their children out of school for up to 10 days a year providing they had the permission of the head teacher.