Parents who are failing to ensure that their kids get to school and get to school on time. According to Ministry of Education figures, around 11.3% of students were chronically absent from school and term 4 last year, equating to around 93,000 young people. Chronically absent means a student attends 70% of school or less. The Associate Minister for Education spelled out what's going to happen next to parents who will not send their kids to school.
“Basically, a school will go to the Ministry of Education, say look, we've got someone who they're not a can’t, they’re a won't. We've tried. We've gone out. We've engaged with them. They're basically giving us the middle finger and saying education is not important and you've got no right to demand that my kid enrols and attends a school. And in that case I've been told by the youth aid, police, by the attendance officers, by the deputy principal, we need another sanction, another step we can take. At that point they will go to the Ministry of Education and say, look, this is a potential prosecution case. Ministry of Education will weigh it up and if it stacks up, they'll take the prosecution, ultimately go before the courts. Now you can be fined $30 bucks a day up to $300 initially. For repeat offending the fine on parents can be $3000.”
Which of course many parents won't be able to pay in that category. They're not going to be able to pay it, but the message is clear from the Government. They are quite happy to be the bad guy in getting your kids to school. And principals have said they've already noticed a difference. The expectation is that young people will attend school. Schools have to deliver statistics on the numbers of children who are turning up and they have to deliver those to the Ministry of Education – if their figures are slipping, or if there's no improvement, then action is taken by branches and agencies of the ministry to encourage children to attend school.
So is it going to help the parents who've rung in and told me they cannot get their children to school? These are the older students who cannot and will not get out of bed. That makes it a bit tricky. We have had, on the face of it, perfectly “normal parents” who are trying to do the right thing by their children and by the community who want their kids to get ahead in life, who want their kids to go to school, tell us that they cannot get their teenagers out of bed and into the classroom.
If you can say, well, if I have to pay that fine, then that's going to come out of the money for your wardrobe or the money for your school trip, or the money for your phone plan, will that help? I mean, 11% of kids who are chronically absent, that's quite a lot of children, 93,000 young people, as a lot of young Kiwis who are missing out. And they're not just missing out on learning they're missing out on the structure and the discipline of getting up and going to work.
And what if the parents and grandparents like me, who take the kids out of school for a jolly? I guess there are exceptions to every rule, but should we be fined as well? If you're willingly, wilfully disobeying the edict from the government to get your kids to school should parents and grandparents like me be fined for basically sticking the middle finger, as David Seymour said, to the attendance expectations?
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
No need to fine! Just remove the benefits you get for taking care of the child... Since you didn't take care of the child :(
School age kids have somewhere around 15 weeks a year when they are on holiday. How about taking your kids for a "jolly" then. Part of your role as a parent is to give your kids a chance at enjoying success in their adult lives by ensuring they have an education - that means getting them to school at every available opportunity. Otherwise you are a failure. You are letting your kids down. A fine might wake you up.
This is a enormous problem and for me highlights so much that has gone wrong in our society in our schooling and parenting styles.
I believe truancy is the product of a number of factors related to destructive theories and philosophies prevalent not only in homes but in our schools
This is the child -centered , constructivist belief that children know best how what, when and where to learn. Consequently not only are there ineffective teaching methods but permissive discipline prevalent in schools. Many five year olds arrive at school having never heard the word s 'don't or 'no'. They believe they can leave the classroom and wander around outside playing whenever they wish. This is something I have observed.
The entire child-centered , playway philosophy needs overturning in homes, preschools and schools .
' A guide on the side, not a sage on the stage ' is the mantra of modern education, to describe teachers' roles.
There is no longer an adult in the home nor school with guidance , correction or discipline since it may damage tender wee natures.
There are other factors I could write about like the overuse of screens in schools because the teacher hasn't the content knowledge to teach particularly the arithmetic topics so why should not a child stay home and work from their own laptop?
But discipline is a crucial topic for me. Once a psychologist told me not to use the word 'naughty' for my child's selfish and defiant behaviour . This was over-reach by her over my parental authority and my personal belief children are a mixture of desirable and undesirable behaviours as well as needing to learn right and wrong.
Punishment is not a dirty word.
When at I was at school 'Lord of the Flies' was the set text . Children with no moral compass can end up killing themselves or others . We in NZ rank 36th/36 countries for youth suicide which is 50% higher than the 35th country. Our rate of bad behaviour and bullying in classrooms is also appalling and the reason some children don't attend. Sentimental views of human nature are destroying us in many ways. Truancy is just one manifestation of them.
The state has increasingly eroded and usurped parental authority over recent decades. Initially through expanding and prioritising children's 'rights', making illegal the use of force in discipline, right through to ignoring parents' wishes by allowing children to dress and be referred to and treated as the sex opposite to their biology, and even removing children from parents who refuse to use transgender pronouns.
The 'anti-smacking' law disallows any force to be used in discipline, so as well as no smacking it is actually unlawful to physically march a child to their room for 'time out' or to force a child to let go their phone if the intention is to deprive the child of the phone for a while as a disciplinary consequence. The only people now allowed to use force as part of discipline (e.g. as ordered by a Youth Court) are agents of the state, i.e. police officers, court security, Youth Justice Facility staff etc. It's a silly situation the consequences of which we are seeing increasingly in ram raids, armed robberies, uncertified and unmuffled motorcycles being driven dangerously without helmets, phone videos of youth gang violence at schools and elsewhere, and so forth.
One of those consequences is increased truancy. What is the sole mother to do when the strapping male 14-year-old says "f off" when she orders him to go to school? Even if a father is in the household (another phenomenon actively sabotaged by our state over the decades) and he is big and strong enough to enforce a parental order on a teenager, will he risk being criminalised for his efforts?
So, the state cuts parents' authority off at the knees then punishes them for ineffective authority. Great.
Great commentary from Gaynor there - should be an item published in the wretched Herald, but it wouldn’t fit the narrative now would it?
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