More than 130,000 elementary and junior high school students were truant for 30 or more school days during the 1999-2000 academic year, according to an Education Ministry survey released Friday.
A total of 130,208 students missed school without permission between April 1999 and March this year, up about 2,500, or 2 percent, from the previous academic year and the most since the statistics were first taken in the 1991-1992 year.
The rate of increase in the number of absentees slowed significantly, however, from the more than 10 percent rises posted in the three consecutive years starting with the 1996-1997 year.