FROM time to time, I write this column knowing that it will raise howls of protest from some constituents. This is one such week and the subject is taking children on holiday during term-time.

Lesson 1 of elementary economics looks at the price/demand curve. This explains when demand is high, prices rise to meet that demand, thus reducing demand to match that which is available. The opposite is also true. This is why we have deeply discounted sales after the Christmas buying binge. And this is why prices of holidays go up dramatically during the time of peak demand, and down when demand is lower. Demand for holidays is driven almost exclusively by school holidays.

A debate is raging about taking children out of school to go on holiday, to take advantage of cheap packages. I could not be more strongly against this.

Firstly, in a class of 28 pupils, if every child took just two weeks a year of term time holidays, then there would always be at least one pupil absent from class. Add unexpected absences – sickness, unusual family events and the rare case of service personnel on a short R+R from a deployment – and it is entirely possible that there will always be at least two children absent.

Secondly, teachers work incredibly hard to devise a programme of class structures designed to engage pupils and to deliver the curriculum. It is based on continuous attendance and should a child miss a part of it, the teacher and the classroom assistant will give time to bring that child back up to speed with the rest of the class.

The longer the absence, of course, the more time needed to bring the child up to speed. Clearly, continuous absences mean continuous time bringing pupils up to speed, to the detriment of the rest of the class.

The third reason is more subtle. Our society absolutely recognises the value of education. We spend £53 billion education from our departmental budget of £330 million. It is vital to our wider economy and absolutely crucial to the life chances of an individual child.

Taking a child out of school not only deprives that child of its education, it slows up the whole system for their classmates. An education is one of the greatest gifts we can give the next generation.