TRUANCY rates in Burnley and Pendle are almost twice the county average with almost 1 in 10 youngsters failing to show up for class.

Schools in the two boroughs have the worst truancy records in East Lancashire, with Burnley first and Pendle second.

Latest figures show that absenteeism in Burnley schools was almost nine per cent for the autumn term last year - compared to just 5.61 per cent in the county as a whole.

And the figures for the spring term were even higher with more than 10 per cent of pupils skipping school in Burnley compared to 6.7 per cent in Lancashire overall.

The figures also show that in Pendle truancy rates were eight per cent for the autumn term 2006 and almost nine per cent for the spring term and in Rossendale six per cent for autumn and seven per cent for spring.

The figures cover the first year of re-launched secondary schools under Burnley and Pendle's £250million building schools for the future programme.

But the truancy figures could not be compared to the previous year to establish whether the new schools had an impact as education authority Lancashire County Council said the 2005 figures were unavailable.

The leader of Burnley Council Gordon Birtwistle said he was shocked by the stats.

He said it showed that more resources needed to be invested at tackling the problem.

Coun Birtwistle said: "As a borough council we don't have any control over truancy but my concern is that if these youngsters are not in school then they are not being educated and are damaging their prospects.

"We need county hall to invest more at trying to reduce these rates, which are too high."

Bosses at county hall issued a press release praising the overall county figures.

Coun Vali Patel, cabinet member for schools, said: "I am very pleased that overall Lancashire is improving and that we are doing well compared to national and regional statistics, and I thank all those who have contributed in achieving this. We still have areas for improvement and targets to meet and we will continue to put our best efforts into reducing all absence."

When the Lancashire Telegraph approached Marcus Johnstone, the councillor in charge of children's welfare for the council, to ask about the Burnley and Pendle figures he said he had not seen the stats and declined to comment.

The Government has urged parents to avoid taking their children on holiday during term time, after new research showed that more than 5.4 million school days were lost due to holidays during the Autumn 2006 and Spring 2007 terms.

Nationally overall absence rates fell by 0.19 to 7.26 per cent in secondary schools during autumn 2006 compared to autumn 2005.

Research from the Department for Children, Schools and Families shows that half of all children found on truancy sweeps are with an adult. Among the excuses given by parents were: visiting relatives and friends, buying school uniform and shoes, and birthday celebrations.