The latest announcement from the Coalition Government creating punitive measures for students not attending school regularly shows how out of touch it is with how schools work and why some children don’t attend, says NZEI Te Riu Roa.

The Associate Minister’s ‘crackdown on truancy’ shows a lack of awareness about the root causes of truancy in Aotearoa.

“It’s easy for the Associate Minister for Education to wave his truancy stick around but that’s not addressing the reasons behind chronic non-attendance. It won’t help parents or teachers get children into school. What helps is food, housing and health security.”

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Mark Potter said that creating new regulations and burdens for schools is ironic for a Minister who wants to deregulate everything in early childhood education.

“Teachers and principals are doing everything they can to get our children into school. Punishing parents is not what will work. You’ve got to get alongside them and understand the issues as to why a child isn’t attending, and then mitigate against the barriers they’ve got.”

Potter said the two Ministers of Education needed to clarify what was happening with teacher only days, which were an important opportunity to get staff together for the wide professional learning and development that’s needed to impact positively on children’s education.

The Ministry of Education says that Minister Stanford has not yet decided whether or not teacher only days could take place during term time, although she has already said there will be two math curriculum-focussed teacher only days in 2025. Minister Seymour earlier announced that teacher only days during term times would be prohibited.

Mark Potter says that decisions to have teacher only days are not taken lightly because schools are really aware of their communities and any impact they will have on them.

“Proposing to end teacher only days in term time shows little awareness of the work demands on teachers. They are already working on average 50 hours a week, and then spend time in the term break doing assessment or preparation for next term. Many teachers are limping to the finish line for this term tomorrow, and Minister Seymour’s off-the-cuff statements will not help.”

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