Some key details:
- One in 10 students (10 percent) were chronically absent in Term 2, 2024, double the level of 2015
- Students who are chronically absent are four times as likely to have a recent history of offending
- 55% of students chronically absent do not achieve NCEA Level 2 and 92% do not achieve UE
- Only 43 percent of parents and whānau with a child who is chronically absent have met with school staff about their child’s attendance.
- One in five school leaders (18 percent) only refer students after more than 21 consecutive days absent
- Only 22 schools make up 10 percent of the total chronic absence nationally, so under 1% of schools make up 10% of chronic absences.
- Students in schools in lower socio-economic areas are six times more likely to be chronically absent but there are 95 schools in low socio-economic communities with less than a 10 percent rate of chronic absence (so it is a factor, not an excuse)
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Note that lockdowns only occurred in 2020 and 2021. However in hindsight the decision to close schools was a very bad one, as it normalised non-attendance.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
5 comments:
It really is a tragedy that our education system has let this happen over the years. It is creating a generation of New Zealanders who are basically destined to be failures.
I recall (yes, last century !) at Raumati Primary School "truancy" was something we only read about in American stories. We had zero truancy. If a pupil was absent for nay reason, they were required to bring a note from parent explaining why.
To be honest - we all enjoyed school so much that the notion of not attending, which meant missing all your classmates/friends, was just alien to us.
How times have changed !
Seymour has a plan, but it will not kick in until 2026. We simply don't have the luxury of that much time to get the kids back to school. We need to send a short, sharp message by prosecuting the non-compliant parents or guardians now and sanctioning the schools involved. The Education Act contains the authority to act. Why is no-one prepared to do it?
So, lockdowns weren’t a great idea eh? You don’t say.
As I write in other blogs , I do consider other viewpoints beside my own ideas which are focused on our chronically failing standards of achievement particularly in the basics.
Parents do care about their children's non attendance but our schools are definitely not centers of learning. Rather indoctrination into socialism. This was the stated intention of Progressive Education right from the start.
The methods of teaching couldn't be worse-unbelievably bad . Progressive education just doesn't care at all about achievement since academic success was never its aim.
As I have stated elsewhere a child who fails in eg reading or spelling or arithmetic looses motivation to continue learning. School is a place of horrible degradation, humiliation and hopelessness since everyone in the class knows you haven't succeeded in reading. Similarly in arithmetic. With the wrong teaching methods you just can't succeed despite trying hard. You give up trying and develop school anxiety, psychosomatic disorders and more.
Then there are the children who are badly bullied , a problem rife in NZ schools or are distressed by the chaos in the classroom from bad behaviour. Also high achieving children can find school un challenging and boring because they expect to be taught 'stuff' but aren't. Yes there are those who have worked out you can do most of your school work on a Chrome book at home then play games. Of course prevalent child -centered philosophy at school and in homes has determined children should make their decision about what they learn and where ,so children can feel permitted to dictate to their parents about staying home. After all, they get their own way in all other areas of life.
We actually have an enormous problem but reducing it to just negligent parents is not the whole picture.
Yes Gaynor, you are right; poor parenting is certainly not the whole picture. The education system run by "progressive' elements have a lot to answer for. As does the current leader of the opposition when he was Minister of Education, along with whole Education Ministry during the last Labour led govt
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