Education shortened after girl failed to attend (6)
I believe the answer is:
missed
'failed to attend' is the definition.
'education shortened after girl' is the wordplay.
'education shortened' becomes 'ed' (abbreviation for education**).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'girl' becomes 'miss' (I've seen this before).
'ed' put after 'miss' is 'MISSED'.
(Other definitions for missed that I've seen before include "Failed to hit target" , "came too late" , "Skipped" , "Didn't catch" , "Failed to perceive" .)