Fining parents for taking children on holiday in term-time will be impossible to impose, according to education chiefs.

The Government wants to see families fined up to £100 if they take cheaper breaks in term-time to avoid inflated prices charged by travel companies during school holidays.

Teachers in Oxfordshire fear the legislation may affect the county's high number of ethnic minority families if they take longer breaks to visit relatives abroad.

The fines, to be issued by headteachers, are intended as an alternative to prosecution for parents of persistent truants.

Tony Crabbe, the county council's executive member for schools, said: "It is important children are in school in term-time but this will be almost impossible to enforce."

Mark Forder, Oxfordshire secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said: "One or two weeks' holiday can have educational value.

"It's when families come from the Indian sub-continent and families go away for a long period of time, which happens in Oxford, there can be a problem.

"This is the Government trying to bolt something sensational on to a system which is already there."

Clive Hallett, Oxfordshire representative for the National Association of Headteachers, and headteacher of Wheatley Primary School, said: "Taking children away in June or July when it's cheaper than in the school holidays won't affect the attendance figures and isn't a huge problem," he said.

"The biggest problems we have is with parents taking children away during the SATS examination time."

In November the Oxford Mail reported how unauthorised absences in Oxfordshire fell from 1.4 per cent in 2001 to the national average of 1.1 per cent this year.

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