Four-year plan to tackle ‘complex’ truancy issue

Ragne Maxwell calls them the Covid generation – teenagers whose futures have been blighted by the pandemic, working parttime to support their families and studying when they can.

Many of them were on track to gain university entrance.

‘‘[They are] filling shelves till midnight, then drifting in at about 11 or 12 trying to do a few hours work before they’ve got to get back to start their shift at four, or they’re starting their shift at two in the afternoon and they’re leaving [school] early,’’ the Porirua College principal explains.

‘‘We are in real danger of having a Covid generation whose education was impacted on because they have extreme bad luck to be in education – particularly in secondary education and most especially in senior secondary education – through these Covid years.’’

School absenteeism was an issue before the pandemic, but has worsened – particularly for students whose families face precarious economic conditions. Their communities were at risk of further entrenched intergenerational alienation from education, Maxwell said, as a result of the pandemic’s wrecking-ball impact on the most deprived.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday committed an extra $40 million for a new regional response fund to help schools tackle absenteeism and get students back into learning over the next four years, part of an $88m funding package to keep young people engaged in school. It was the first pre-budget announcement ahead of the main event on May 19.

The Ministry of Education will use the money to come up with local initiatives to help re-engage students, many of which had dropped off the school roll for Covid-related reasons. It will work with schools, communities, as well as hapū and iwi.

Hipkins also announced $18.4m for its Positive Behaviour for Learning scheme. It will add 14 new school-wide practitioners to the scheme, at a cost of $11.2m, as well as boost the Check & Connect: Te Hononga and Te Mana Tikitiki programme, which targets Māori and Pacific learners at risk of disengaging from education, by $7.7m.

He added $7.8m to address cost pressures in the incredible years programmes, $6m to boost attendance service capacity, and $15.5m to scale up Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu

support for at-risk young people to reengage in school, supporting about 2500 at-risk students annually.

Hipkins acknowledged truancy was a ‘‘complex problem’’.

‘‘It isn’t something we will be able to wave a magic wand and turn around overnight,’’ he said.

Maxwell welcomed the funding and said the need was now critical, with attendance the biggest issue facing educators. Many year 13s graduating in 2020 were committed to getting their NCEA credits, but the next year’s intake – struggling in their second year of pandemic disruptions – didn’t return to school. It had serious repercussions as the three years when seniors were studying towards NCEA were vital and ‘‘lives to a certain extent get set though those crucial years’’.

‘‘This is our third year of serious disruption to education and learning for students and there is an urgent need for schools to have support in getting students back involved with education,’’ she said.

‘‘We are in real danger of having a Covid generation.’’ Ragne Maxwell