Every day in England pupils play truant. The greatest concern is for the 7% of pupils who account for a third of all absences in secondary schools - they are also the most likely to struggle at school, fail their exams and drop out at 16.

Schools are increasingly keen to prevent absenteeism under pressure from Ofsted inspectors, who mark them down for high rates of truancy, and in recognition that truancy is one of the biggest barriers to pupils' learning.

Under Labour, the toolbox for tackling truancy has expanded with carrots, such as gifts for attendance, and sticks, including the right to prosecute parents, to encourage pupils to turn up.

Both systems are controversial. Between 2002 and 2006, 72 parents were imprisoned in England and Wales for failing to tackle their child's chronic truancy.

During the same period, truancy rates increased. Ofsted backs the use of incentives, including offering plasma Tvs, games consoles, iPods and laptops to pupils as a reward for not having missed a lesson for a year. However, independent research by Cambridge University questions whether this has a real impact, or simply rewards kids who would have turned up anyway.

Ministers insist truancy figures look worse in recent years because schools have been told to crack down and mark as "unauthorised" children missing from school because their parents have taken them on holiday.

Increasingly, schools are recognising that to stop pupils turning off school you need to give them a reason to be there: better classes, better teachers and a sense that learning is a worthwhile pursuit.

America
George Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform has seen states across America piloting new ways of tackling truancy. Many include the use of dedicated truancy officers within the  police force who have powers of arrest to escort children back to school. Maricopa County in Arizona has adopted laws which penalise older pupils for truanting, including confiscating their driving licences for a period. Attendance is also a condition of pupils moving up a year.

The programme, known as Court Unified Truancy Suppression (CUTS), can summon students to a court, usually held in the school. At the hearing a juvenile probation officer, the student, their parents and a teacher are brought together to identify the problem behind the truancy.

The student can be ordered to take truancy education classes, serve community service hours, and receive tutoring or counselling. CUTS has had powerful results, reducing truancy significantly in the past two years. Critics claim it criminalises children.

Scotland
On any given day an average of 7% of Scottish schoolchildren are missing from their classes. The unlikely solution many councils have found is in singer and political activist Sir Bob Geldof's Groupcall Messenger registration system, which sends a text message to parents if their child is absent. It's used in around 1,000 UK schools - others have adopted different versions of the technology.

In Scotland more than half of authorities have adopted it. In Dumfries & Galloway truancyrates fell by 27% in 2006-7, in Dundee by 20%, Highland by 13% and West Lothian by 7%.

Last year ministers also made urgent requests to parents to stop taking their children out of school for holidays. In 2006- 2007, one in five pupils missed classes to go on holiday; only one quarter of such absences were authorised.

Some authorities reacted by arranging cheap holiday deals for families during holiday times to stop them taking their child out of school to save money.

Australia
The principle of sanctioning parents for their child's truancy is at its most controversial with the policy of withholding benefit payments. It's been tried in parts of America and Denmark but is proving most divisive in Australia where it is being launched to tackle truancy specifically in the Aboriginal communities.

Under the plans being launched next year, payments could be suspended for up to 13 weeks but would be repaid in full once school attendance improved. It's being piloted in eight communities.

Amnesty has attacked the plans, saying it's wrong to enact these so-called 'welfare quarantines' without addressing the underlying causes of indigenous disadvantage - decades of oppression.

Research by teaching unions suggests that coaching, support and incentives for the child and their family would be of greater benefit than the sanction of docking the family welfare cheque. The row has triggered a campaign for the government to adopt a less penalistic approach, advocating incentives such as free school-meal programmes, elder-in residence programmes, more Aboriginal teachers and better subject matter. Critics argue that the eye-catching system is not proven to work.

Polly Curtis is the Guardian's Education Editor