Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Education

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that attendance improvements over the first two weeks of term three show that when the government takes education seriously, so do New Zealanders.

“Almost every aspect of someone's adult life will be defined by the education they receive as a child. If we want better social outcomes, we need more students attending school and a curriculum that delivers,” says Mr Seymour.

“It has been a promising start to term three with attendance up from the last two weeks of term two, with an overall attendance rate of 83.9 per cent. The best day was the first Tuesday of the term with 86.2 per cent attendance overall.

“Attendance on Fridays remains a particular problem, being frequently lower than any other day of the week. I encourage parents to think of the long-term impact of letting students skip Fridays, both in missed education and in setting good habits for future employment.

“The best region for attendance was Auckland Central and East, with an average of 86.9 per cent and less drop-off on Fridays than other regions.

“This is still short of the Government’s target of ensuring 80 per cent of students are present for more than 90 per cent of the term by 2030. To achieve this, I’m saying to schools that they need to aspire to reach an average daily attendance rate above 94 per cent.

“High-quality attendance data is helping students, parents, and school communities identify absence, talk about the importance of school attendance, and measure positive change over time.

“The Government is also making significant improvements to literacy and maths curriculum. The combination of a more effective curriculum and getting students into the classroom to learn it will be what sets up a prosperous future for New Zealand.”

The Government’s Attendance Action Plan will continue to be rolled out throughout 2024, with announcements about a traffic light system later in the year.

“If the truancy crisis isn’t addressed there will be an 80-year long shadow of people who missed out on education when they were young, are less able to work, less able to participate in society, more likely to be on benefits. That's how serious this is,” says Mr Seymour.

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