Based on my experience the first problem there is that many teachers are incapable of providing guidance or enforcing discipline. And that's assuming the teacher still cares, which isn't guaranteed either.
And with teachers having to deal with bad pay and crazy parents thinking it's the teacher's job to raise their kid that's not surprising.
Kids not going to school is a symptom, and it's not going to be solved with attempts to make school more attractive without actually changing anything.
Even the teachers that care are no longer (in many cases) backed up by the school and (more importantly) the parents.
Everyone in my high school didn't really care too much about taking a detention (it was annoying) but would work pretty studiously to avoid anything being sent home to the parents.
Kids not going to school is a symptom, and it's not going to be solved with attempts to make school more attractive without actually changing anything.