SO, ACCORDING to the Daily Echo’s comment of March 22, “Fines for holiday truants should be higher”. How about abolishing them altogether as seems to be the opinion of the vast majority of your online readers?

As far as I’m aware England appears to be the only country which deems it necessary to fine parents for taking their children out of school.

On holiday recently I met a couple from Canada who were travelling around South East Asia with their children for six months. When I told them that we cannot do that in the UK otherwise we were fined, they couldn’t believe it. “So the UK knows what’s best for your children and they dictate how you bring them up?” was their observation. They agree with the school that their children will continue with their education while travelling and don’t see an issue with it, easy in the modern world with the internet!

You state in your article that it is difficult to legislate against travel agents hoisting prices in school holidays, but if parents were allowed to take their children out of school in staggered periods, their would be no “peak time” and therefore travel agents wouldn’t have any benefit in raising prices at school holiday periods – simple.

Why is it acceptable for schools to take children on a skiing holiday, for instance, at an inflated price but yet if a parent takes a child out of school for the same week and at the same resort they are fined? Explain that to me.

Education is not only about the subjects taught in school, there is far more to be learnt from travelling the world and seeing and experiencing other cultures.

Frank Adams

Southampton