Why oh why are some political leaders deliberately dishonest, is a question asked by Pat Newman, President of Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association, on a regular basis.

“Why oh why do politicians continue to use out of date data to pursue their own political ends, knowing the data to be out of date, knowing their comments are nothing but a slap in the face for all the schools and communities, considering the work we have done over the last three terms in Te Tai Tokerau, to lift attendance.,” he continued.

So to be very clear, here are the exact figures of attendance for Te Tai Tokerau as of today 28th April 2023, straight from the Ministry…

“For term 1 in 2023 in Tai Tokerau we had an average of 84.5%* of students that were recorded (weekly attendance statistics) as All Presents on a daily basis (Present in school and learning offsite). This compares to 77.9% for term 4 in 2022, so an average improvement of 6.6% or approximately 2,000 students.

*Excluding late January weather event, cyclone Gabrielle and teacher strikes in mid March.”

I suppose it’s too much to ask that those who continue to quote low figures for their own political ends, will now apologize to schools and communities in Te Tai Tokerau and actually praise the results we have and are continuing to achieve!” said Pat Newman

Pat ended by saying, “I suppose it’s not as vote catching to recognize the partnership between Ministry, schools and communities that have achieved this startling turn around, but these political hopefuls, would at least get recognized for their small glimmer of honesty, if they got their facts correct for once and did apologize unreservedly for their past deliberate fudging of the truth!!”.

© Scoop Media