In the blue corner
New Zealand is facing huge challenges, such as a cost of living crisis where the basic everyday essentials are harder to afford, and an increase in crime, with ram raids and gang violence appearing in the news on a regular basis.
But another issue is silently occurring and we might not see the full impact from it for a few years – which is that our young Kiwis are not achieving in school.
In fact it’s worse than that, some aren’t even showing up. In term 2 of 2021, 40% of children were not attending school regularly – a 10% increase since 2015.
The Government can ban fizzy drinks in schools and it can replace coal boilers, but if children aren’t showing up to school and not getting an education, then New Zealand will be worse off.
Attendance at school and student achievement are directly linked, and our achievement standards are slipping as a result of poor attendance.
A 2020 Unicef report found that only 64.6% of 15-year-olds in New Zealand have basic proficiency in reading and maths, turning that around, a staggering 35.4% – over a third of 15-year-olds – struggle to read and write. This is a grim picture of the plummeting education standards in New Zealand.
The evidence is clear – we have a major literacy and numeracy problem on our hands. Unfortunately, we won’t see the consequences of this until it’s too late, which is why we need to act now.
New Zealand has declined on the international rankings in maths, English and science andwe will never be able to improve if we don’t make headway on our growing truancy crisis.
Parents certainly have a role to play, and there needs to be an effort from them to ensure that their child is attending school regularly and getting the most out of it.
The Ministry of Education also needs to come to the party to understand why the decline in attendance and performance is occurring.
The ministry should have schools publish their attendance weekly so that there is proper scrutiny on each school and work can be done to fix the problem.
We also need to invest in our teachers and take time to develop their skills so that we can provide aworld-class education and our students can compete with those around the world.
Our kids deserve the best, and education is the greatest opportunity provided to all New Zealanders to reach their potential, regardless of background, because it is the foundation of our nation’s future prosperity.