Now, I seem to remember attending school most days without anyone handing out 7" singles at the gates, so I'm not sure I completely approve of this initiative, but perhaps I'm just jealous my school days fell in the wrong decade.
Anyway, organisers of an interesting schools programme in Manchester have announced the results of their initiative designed to encourage teenagers to attend more school by offering free downloads for those who score 100% attendance records, or who drastically improve their attendance. The project was led by a social enterprise company called MOTIV, and enabled by EMI and digital music types 7Digital. Music available to the good attenders included tracks from Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Gorillaz, Joss Stone, Simon Webbe, Pharrell Williams and Lily Allen.
Organisers say that during the campaign attendance figures at participating schools increased dramatically, with a record number of pupils achieving 100% attendance during the spring term - over 14,000 pupils in fact, which marks an increase of approximately 45% in school attendance figures compared to the same term the year before, and equates to an additional 52,000 learning sessions attended.
Commenting on the initiative, 7Digital boss Ben Drury told CMU: "The digital music download market has exploded over the last two years. Given its popularity amongst students of all ages, it was decided that music downloads would be a great incentive for the students of Manchester to improve their attendance levels. The success of the campaign to date is very encouraging and we are looking forward to working on similar collaborations in the future".
Rose Marley, Director of Motiv, added: "This is a great example of how a social enterprise can affect social change by acting as a conduit between the public and private sector to a mutually beneficial end. We are delighted with the overwhelming response from the pupils, parents and schools in Manchester and we are looking forward to developing future schemes from within the city."