So thirty thousand students a day are not at school. Sounds worrying. I guess 100% attendance is the aultimate goal.
But let’s look at that 30,000 figure. It represents 4% of the total number of students in compulsory education.
If a child is away for 4% of the school year that means they are absent an average of less than two days a term.
I don’t recall when Anne Tolley said she got the figures she’s quoting, but if it was last year we need to remember there was a swine flu scare and the Ministry of Health was asking parents to keep kids home if they had a sniffle.
When I was a Principal, teachers had to mark in the attendance register whether a student’s absence was justified or unjustified.
Justified meant the child was usually sick or at a bereavement. Unjustified meant they were truant.
I’d be interested in whether she’s done any analysis of justified vs unjustified absences. She needs to realise kids do get sick at times and some non-attendance is expected.
We had a dedicated volunteer chasing up non attendance everyday by ringing parents and writing letters if their attendance fell below our school attendance expectation. Our volunteer coped a heap of abuse from parents, normally the well- to- do- folk who thought we were being over aggressive in chasing up the non-attenders.
What was our attendance expectation? We expected students to be at school 96% of the time. We allowed a 4% absence rate – exactly the rate the Minister is talking about now.
One hundred percent attendance is desirable, but it appears Anne Tolley is trying to over-egg the situation, and my guess is she’s doing it to divert attention from her National Standards shambles.
Agreed.
Even one kid not going to school is a problem. You can bet that they will be the same kids who are turning up in court in a few years. If the resource ends up getting these kids to school that’s a good thing.
Kelvin, I would expect that the results she is talking about is the feb survey all schools do each year for a set week looking at how many kids are at school on any particular day. From that, she should know how many are justified or otherwise – I agree that we should know if that is 30,000 in total or 30k unjustified?
Of course, a great deal of those children are likely to be unjustified for a number of reasons – what is more impt is to figure out which ones are not justified and at what level of schooling they are at and then look at proper solutions to the issue.
Her blanket statements about truancy with no data analysis is just wrong and designed to shake up the public – more teacher and labour bashing on a subject she knows nothing about.
And the sad thing is – that data does not even take into account those kids who are not even enrolled. But I guess if we fine parents heaps of money they don’t have, that will encourage them to engage with education…not.
@G Ext – oh dear, that ‘money’ she is talking about is not what will make the difference – the variables are quite complex, and what we need to be looking at is a whole series of interventions and support structures for families so that kids don’t disengage and that so that schools can appropriately target the right resources.
Its not just an education issue – or a social issue – its a commmunity issue. (and the solutions need to be targeted for the appropriate audience – primary, secondary, intermediate, abuse, drugs, emotional disfunction/mental health, housing, childcare, social welfare etc…if it was easy and something that fining parents would solve, then the problem would have been solved years ago)
They’ll be handing out truancy tickets!
… 
How did we get stuck with this? 
@G.E. Then perhaps we could get some of these same kids to grow up and be able to read when they hit the blogs?
Tolley is the fly in the bowl of milk, she paddles furiously, but only goes round in round.
Keep her paddling guys , till she sinks, due to her own contradictions and lies
Are you saying Jeremy and Gnat Exterminator that you were there every single day at every period, throughout you entire schooling? Never had the chicken pox or maybe had it in the holidays? Never had to attend a funeral?
Maybe you are saying that yes you did have days off and now your one of the people that can’t read online blogs?
Yes children do have to go to school, but they do get sick. The question is, are the numbers from students that are justified or is it unjustified time off.
We do have to do something with unjustified time off but I don’t know if giving the parents a fine is going to help at all.
A Mother
750,000 children (based on 30,000 being 4%). How many days do allow a year for an average child to be off school? 4? 8? – I’ll take 5. Call a basic school year 200 days (4 terms of ten weeks give or take for world cup years). 5 days is 2.5% of 200 days. So 750,000 x 2.5% = 18,750. Looks bad at 30,000 to me.
The funniest thing i have heard was that they were going to put money to create a text system to contact parents of possible truants. The system has been up and running for over a year.
There have alwasys been truants / waggers, its just now with teh new electronic tracking systems that labour put in place the actual figures are now obvious.
Some of our primary school truants are off school at home looking after siblings, and NOT because their parents are at the pub or gambling but because they are both working to support the family.
The idea that we can magically put bums back on seats without addressing deeper issues is facile (my word de week)
@Tracey – exactly! This issue is complex and a couple of sound bites from a minister who wouldn’t know what these issues were if they bit her on the backside, won’t fix it.
Just once – don’t care now which govt – but just once, if we could actually find some real solutions that were long term and aimed to address the problem, without worrying that the next govt will come along and smash it because it is not sexy enough, or its social policy, or just because the other side put it in, then maybe, just maybe, we might be able to address some of these issues.
But govt depts working in their little silos, without working together (and I guess, this is where Whanau Ora has some merit re cross and inter agency work) wasting money on silly little short term projects that have no vision and no hope of making a real tangible difference long term – are just a waste.
And this goes for throwing money at a truancy issue to fine parents – where do these people come from. Its like throwing a shoe at a wild cat ’singing’ at night time – you might hit it, and it might shut up – bit of a gamble – all these ‘mights’.
sorry – rant over.
Paul
BRAVO
Sadly we the public are just pumped and primed to want what they want for us. Crime is an absolute example of this. ALL parties know that what we are doing isn’t working, tougher sentences wont reduce crime, but they keep toughening up the sentences, adding prison officers, adding prison wing, adding probation officers … all to supervise criminals at enormous cost. SOMEONE has to have the guts to tell the truth in a way which will be believed. I am stunned at how easily the SST has grown into a media expert, when they really are not.
@ Paul And this goes for throwing money at a truancy issue to fine parents – where do these people come from. Its like throwing a shoe at a wild cat ’singing’ at night time – you might hit it, and it might shut up – bit of a gamble – all these ‘mights’.
“You might also loose you shoe and the cat will still be singing”
This is just typicle. You make it sound like these large numbers of truants have only come about since the last election and change of Govt. You may have tried but failed as well.