Subj : Warning Government's truancy plan won't be effective
To   : All
From : News Person
Date : Wed Apr 10 2024 11:43 am

The Government's plan to tackle truancy won't be effective, according to Te
Whanau O Waipareira's Jole Thomson, who works with families to get children
to school.

Yesterday the Government announced an action plan to lift student attendance
rates, with Associate Education Minister David Seymour proposing a traffic
light system for truant students among other measures.

New Zealand's regular attendance rates, defined as students being in school
over 90% of the time, declined from 69.5% in Term 2 2015 to 39.9% in Term 2
2022.

The most recent results from Term 3 last year put New Zealand's rates at
45.9%.

Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Thomson said the issue of truancy isn't
new and it's been going on for generations.

She said it's been exacerbated by a number of different factors like mental
health, extreme poverty and lack of safe housing.

"Truancy is a symptom of a wider social problem that we're experiencing,
particularly in Tamaki Makaurau and across the country.

"What we're seeing is an increase in extreme poverty with no light at the end
of the tunnel."

Thomson said the announcement is concerning and there needs to be a
multifaceted approach, not just one driven by one data set.

"We need to do some real work on addressing extreme poverty, the housing
crisis, the bullying in schools, making schools a more welcoming place for
our tamariki to be able to go and learn and be in a place where they're free
of judgement and where they can be their best selves and excel."

She said the barriers of education need to be mitigated, by putting in place
enough support systems to help children attend school daily.

Also speaking to Breakfast this morning, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he
agrees New Zealand has an attendance problem.

"My concern is that the Government is only focusing on one headline target
which is the number of kids who are attending school 90% of the time.

"But actually there's a whole cohort of kids who are attending 80-90% of the
time, getting them to attend by an extra one or two days per term will mean
that they hit the target.

"The group of kids that we need to really worry about though are the kids who
are regularly not showing up."

He said those students are a much smaller group, but that's who the
Government need to focus its energy on.

"The Government will be able to hit their 80 or 90% target that they've set
without even touching that group, but that is the group that I worry about,
that's the group of kids who are getting into trouble, who really have no
future if we don't get them back to school."

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Windows/64)
 * Origin: S.W.A.T.S BBS Telnet swatsbbs.ddns.net:2323 (63:10/102)

.