Attendance up, rate of truancy plummets
“Taking a punitive approach to the families of young people not attending school will not help the situation.”
The number of children attending school regularly is on the rise and truancy has halved, new data shows, amid a Government focus on getting kids to school.
Education Counts data released on Friday shows 53.6% of all Kiwi students attended school regularly in term four last year – up 3.5 percentage points compared to term four 2022.
The Ministry of Education classifies regular attendance as showing up to nine out of 10 half-days. Over four hours of attendance on a given day is recorded as a full-day. Between four and two hours is recorded as a half-day.
Attendance figures are still well below pre-Covid (term four of 2019) rates of 66.1% and far from the Government’s target of 80% regular attendance by 2030.
Unjustified and justified half-day absences fell from 7.3% and 7.5% respectively in term four of 2022 to 6.6% and 6.8% in term four of 2023, according to ministry data. Unjustified absences consist of holidays during term time, truancy or throwaway explanations, explained but unjustified reasons, and unknown reasons.
Truancy was the largest reason for unjustified absences in term four of 2022 at 3.4% but halved to 1.7% in term four of 2023.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said if the absenteeism situation wasn’t addressed there would be “an 80-year long shadow of people who missed out on education ... are less able to work, less able to participate in society, more likely to be on benefits”.
To reach the Government’s 80% regular attendance target, Seymour said an action plan would emphasise the importance of attending school and “use enforcement action where necessary to reduce non-attendance”.
Justified absences consist of absences falling within school policy, and short-term illness or medical reasons, which has dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 5.1%.
These absences left 86.6% total present half-days in term four 2023, having only dropped 3.3 percentage points since term four 2019.
Regular attendance in term four continued to follow a downward trend as students aged, averaging 57.2% for primary students and 44.3% for secondary students in 2023.
Otago had the highest rate of regular attendance (60.9%), followed by Central and East Auckland (59.1%), and Canterbury and the Chatham Islands (58.6%).
South and Southwest Auckland had the worst regular attendance (40.9%), slightly behind Tai Tokerau (41.4%), but well behind the Bay of Plenty, Waiariki and Hawke's Bay, Tairāwhiti (both 50.1%).
The Education Counts attendance report said research suggested there was no “safe” level of non-attendance as every half-day’s absence correlated to a reduction in the number of NCEA credits a student attained.
This remained true for an attendance reduction as slight as 100% to 99%, it said.
New Zealand Principals’ Federation president Leanne Otene said the improved regular attendance rates is “heartening” but “schools will not be satisfied with anything under 90% attendance”. “Schools want all young people to have the highest quality education they can offer and students have to be at school to learn. More locally based attendance officers, expanding the food in schools programme, addressing social housing and low incomes for families would all help attendance, Otene said. “Taking a punitive approach to the families of young people not attending school will not help the situation.”
Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said the rise in regular attendance and fall in truancy could be attributed to Labour’s initiatives and a post-Covid return to classes.
“We need to keep investing in the free lunches in schools programme, period products in schools, new warm, dry classrooms and school builds – to make schools places kids want to be. “David Seymour is doing the opposite. His government has put school builds on hold and is threatening to cut back the school lunch programme.”