The WA Education Minister has criticised parents who take their children out of school for cheap holidays and unacceptable reasons

WA Education Minister Liz Constable says school principals are reporting a drop in attendance because of cheap flights overseas and fly-in fly-out parents who want to spend time with family.

The figures for student attendance show rates at schools have failed to improve, despite a government campaign to increase them.

"I am talking about students right across the board. One day off when they don't have a legitimate reason is not acceptable; children are required to go to school."

Doctor Constable says some families, particularly those with parents who are fly-in-fly-out workers, organise holidays during the school term.

Cheaper airfares are almost always during the school term and parents are seeing the value in a family trip despite having to take their children out of school to go.

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The Executive Director of the Association of Independent Schools of WA, Valerie Gould, says parents need to weigh the benefit and detriment for children before taking them out of school.

"You can actually learn quite an awful lot while you're travelling if you're taken out of school and taken to places of different cultures," Ms Gould said.

"It's the parent who has to decide, what's the most important thing for my child?"

Ms Gould agrees that a lot of non-attendance is a result of pressures on families to spend time with their children.

She says parents need to determine the educational value of the trip compared to the education they would miss being at school.

"If it's going to be a learning experience there's a strong argument that you'll learn a lot.

"But it's the holiday just to play in the pool for a week in Bali because it's cheaper to do it in Bali than it is here; one has to question whether they're learning a lot."

WA school attendance drops because of Bali and FIFO - ABC Perth - Australian Broadcasting Corporation