The practice would reduce quickly at primary level if such absence affected the chance of getting a secondary school place. After all, if parents are prepared to go to church weekly for a place at a faith school, a couple of missed holidays would be nothing in comparison.
yes, let's broaden the scope of some of the worst parts of our education system. More hoops for parents! yay!
but I do think that decision taken to establish a world leading education system should have been openly debated
there are some countries that regularly rank well ahead of the UK in the PISA rankings. My former country (US) is not one of them, but Canada is, and in both the US and Canada don't take this iron fist approach to attendance.