New Zealand’s Department of Education has launched a plan to get young people back into the classroom with more Attendance Officers in schools and more support for the Attendance Service.
Minister for Education, Jan Tinetti said the plan was a “back to basics on attendance”.
“This package puts resources on the ground to support schools and students and make a difference to attendance rates this year,” Ms Tinetti said.
“It will also make sure we have better data that is less likely to be misconstrued, and helps us to focus our efforts in the right place.”
She said the new Attendance Officers would work with students who had low or declining attendance rates, ensuring they were going to school every day unless they were sick.
“They will work alongside parents and schools to turn around attendance rates,” Ms Tinetti said.
“The Attendance Service already works with students who are chronically absent, or not enrolled at all, and this will help it to support 3,000 more young people.”
The Minister said the decline in school attendance began in 2015, but the pandemic had exacerbated the issue.
“We need to be doing more to help schools and kura (State Schools where Māori is taught) support students who are not attending or engaged in education,” she said.
Ms Tinetti said the package built on initiatives announced last year, consisting of the Regional Response Fund and direct investment into programs that helped young people engage in learning, as well as the ongoing work through the Attendance Strategy and attendance campaigns launched last year.
“This is a complex issue that will require the whole community, including parents, to fix, but the Government is committed to doing everything it can turn attendance and engagement in school around,” she said.
Wellington, 21 November 2023
