In the hands of a Beehive publicist, the news was headlined Attendance targets set to get Kiwi kids back in class.
On Kiwiblog, after the press statement had been turned into a report in the NZ Herald, this became Government’s says 25% of kids truant will be ok
The announcement from Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti was that the Government is taking action to turn around years of declining school attendance, with a target of at least 70 percent of children regularly attending class in 2024.
Her press statement said a new school Attendance and Engagement Strategy sets expectations and targets to turn around years of dropping attendance rates. These are:
* Increase the number of students attending school regularly from 60% in 2021 to 70% in 2024, (and 75% in 2026)
* Decrease the students who are moderately absent from 8.5% in 2021 to 6% in 2024 (and 4% in 2026)
* Decrease the number of students who are chronically absent from 7.7% in 2021 to 5% in 2024 (and 3% in 2026)
* Work is also underway to develop new targets for responding to unexplained absences, which will focus on school notification to whānau on the day of absence and further school action when unjustified absence continues.
Tinetti said:
“School attendance is a long-term challenge, and many will be surprised to know it has been gradually declining across-the-board since 2015.
“The trend has been further accelerated by COVID-19 and now sits at around 60 per cent of students who turn up 90 per cent of the time – or the equivalent of nine out of 10 days. We need to make sure that as we get through the pandemic, kids are encouraged to return to school, and their communities are supporting them to do that.”
The press statement included these attendance definitions
* Regularly (more than 90% of the time, or 9 days a fortnight)
* Moderately absent (70% – 80%, or absent 2/3 days a fortnight)
* Chronically absent (less than 70% of the time, or missing three or more days a fortnight)
The New Zealand Herald reported that a new attendance strategy was to be launched at Manurewa Intermediate School in South Auckland.
The strategy aims to see 70 per cent of school students at school regularly by 2024 and 75 per cent by 2026.
At Kiwiblog, David Farrar spluttered:
I thought this must be a typo. Surely not even this Government would say that the best they can do is aim for 70% of students attending school regularly by 2024. But no that is what they are settling for.
In 2017 there were 37,904 students attending school less than 70% of the time. In 2021 this had increased to 67,687. That’s 30,000 extra kids basically not attending school.
And there are 300,000 kids not attending regularly (more than 90%).
In Term 2 of 2021 only 44% of Māori students were attending school regularly. Think what a huge difference it could make to outcomes for Māori later in life if that attendance rate was lifted to say 90%.
This is not just a problem of say 16- and 17-year-olds not attending regularly. Only 69% of primary students attend regularly. 7% attend less than 70%. Their futures are probably pretty stuffed.
At Point of Order, we were aware that the British Government is not so relaxed about the truancy problem.
The Independent headlined a report last month Education Secretary says school attendance ‘non-negotiable’ in truancy crackdown
The report said Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi was to announce a crackdown on truancy as part of a new Schools Bill, after he said children attending classes is “non-negotiable”.
The Education Secretary would order schools across England to produce plans for addressing absenteeism as they return to more regular operations following the end of pandemic lockdowns, according to The Telegraph.
“If children are routinely absent from school, it is going to do incalculable harm to their life chances. Having a strict approach, where attendance is simply non-negotiable, will help schools to deal with absenteeism when it arises.”
The Telegraph reported the bill would also issue new central guidance on the best approach to fining parents whose children skip school.
Councils were to be told the blanket approach of automatic fines being triggered by absenteeism should be replaced with a case-by-case approach.
One consequence seems to have been almost immediate, because this week we spotted a report in the Evening Standard headlined Crackdown on truancy leads to more fines
The report referred to new data which suggested parents were being hit with an increasing number of fines for truancy as schools tried to crack down on the number of children skipping school.
Fines were largely set aside in recent years because of the disruption caused by Covid-19. But an investigation by the BBC has found penalties have returned. Just over 71,000 fines totalling £3.7 million have already been given out to parents this academic year, up until Easter.
There has been growing concern about absence rates since it was revealed that almost 1.8 million children regularly missed school in the first term of this academic year.
Fines were used by some schools as a last resort to encourage parents with persistently absent children to send them to school.
5 comments:
Perhaps the drastically falling attendance rates has something to do with the crap taught in schools these days.
Schools have become very PC and I know from what my kids tell me regularly (one now at senior high and the other just left), there is a huge amount of non-productive, non-teaching time.
Probably to allow the teachers to slip out for their latte or have another staff meeting to decide what they WON'T be teaching next week.
They are also very fond of teacher only days, supposedly to better plan, but the standard fails to improve so not sure of the point of these.
No surprise though, since our schools and universities are one of the bastions of woke ideology.
Maybe a lot of kids have wised up and decided they're wasting their time going to school. May as well cut to the chase and join a gang!
When the Associate Minister of Education admits that her government is willing to accept 30% truancy from school pupils that is an admission of failure, by this labour cult, yet once more.
Attendance at school should be non-negotiable.
For students skipping school there should be consequences, and for parents responsible for students allowing, or encouraging them to skip school there should also be penalties, in the form of fines which increase with repeat offending.
There are in fact legal responsibilities concerning school attendance. If these resposibilities were strictly adhered to there would probably be a whole lot better educated kids and less crime.
This story of low expectations shows how useless this government, this minister and this associate minister truly are!
Schools have become a place of low expectations as well and the performance of New Zealand schools and education generally is falling even further behind.
In many New Zealand schools the parents could wield more power and demand that improvements to teaching performance and curriculum be made.
Tomorrow's schools actually gave parents more power and they should exercise it instead of letting teacher unions take over.
Dee M - your consistent words of wisdom are an oasis in a very parched desert. When your kids have been kicked out of their nest (just like sparrows do) New Zealand politics needs you!
How do we get more men back into school teaching? Role models that many kids need but don't have.
here is a quick solution to the truancy issue...
currently, principals' pay (basic and decile-based) is driven by roll size. so, there is an incentive to add students, but nothing to ensure attendance. i suggest increasing the pay per student and adding a penalty for any attendance below 90% to maintain the same outcome. then principals will ensure that those who enrol will attend or avoid students if they are likely to be truant (thus shifting the onus to parental responsibility).
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