CHILDREN should be let off their homework as a reward for going to school regularly, according to Government advice aimed at cutting truancy.

Teachers have been told they should offer incentives to pupils to encourage good attendance.

These could include running a class quiz or giving pupils a day off their homework, according to the suggestions on Government's Teachernet website.

The idea was criticised as unworkable last night by one of the region's most prominent educationalists.

The website's advice to teachers says: "Consider offering incentives for good attendance.

"These might be computer time, a class quiz or contest, a homework-free day and so on - whatever is close to the desires of your particular class."

But Eamonn Farrar, "education tsar" for Darlington - a town with some of the worst truancy figures in the country - said: "The idea of rewarding children for staying away from school is bizarre and it doesn't work.

"It simply promotes inequality and bad feeling and makes it more difficult to engage pupils.

"Children respond to the normal class rewards, including praise from people they respect.

"They would find it hilarious to get out of homework for missing lessons, and goodness knows what message it would send to the children who attend school and work hard."

Mr Farrar, known for his no-nonsense approach, was recently appointed chief executive of the country's first schools federation, in which the failing Eastbourne Comprehensive, in Darlington, was linked with the highly successful Hurworth School.

Now acting headteacher at Eastbourne, he acts as an advisor to the Department for Education and Skills.

The website advice follows research that found that 70,000 children were skipping school every day, despite ministers spending £1bn on schemes to improve classroom discipline and truancy rates.

The site qualifies the advice by saying incentives should be used sparingly and be balanced with sanctions for poor attenders.

And it cites examples of good practice of education authorities which are attempting to tackle truancy.

These include Hartlepool LEA, which runs year eight attendance conferences, where groups of ten to 15 pupils take part in interactive sessions through discussion, role play and follow-up work.

Attendance is collated for the two six-week periods prior to, and following, the conference as a method of evaluating success.

Newcastle LEA is also praised for introducing a 100 per cent attendance club.

A variety of rewards and incentives have been introduced for pupils achieving 100 per cent attendance.

The project is thought to be responsible for improvements in attendance across all age ranges, with increases in the numbers of pupils achieving 100 per cent attendance.

Government ministers have set a national target to cut truancy rates by ten per cent, but the level of unauthorised absence in England's schools has remained about the same for several years.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said the incentives suggestion could be counter-productive.

He said: "If you have got somebody who isn't attending school, and you say if you attend school you won't have to do your homework, I don't know quite what that signals."

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "Incentive schemes should only be used to promote good attendance and be balanced with tough sanctions for truants.

"We trust teachers' professional judgement in using measures to promote good attendance sensibly."