Associate Minister’s School Attendance Statement Perplexing

A statement about school attendance and when schools are open or closed for instruction, is a little perplexing, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

“Without a doubt, we need to do all we can to improve school attendance rates and ensuring that every child and young person in Aotearoa New Zealand has the opportunity of a quality school education. However, the issues that have led to our decreasing rates of school attendance are complex and often have a lot to do with wider social issues.

“Poverty, homelessness, housing insecurity, unemployment, mental health, addiction, and family violence issues all have a significant effect on school attendance, and I doubt any of the current government’s policies will help improve any of these issues. And punitive measures have been proven time and again not to work. “

Chris Abercrombie said schools took school attendance very seriously, they knew their communities and what worked for them. “Providing resources that would help schools to manage their school attendance issues, rather than pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into unnecessary charter schools, would be a good place to start if the government was serious about improving school attendance.”

He said he was not sure what problem the Associate Minister was trying to solve in terms of the regulations about when schools were open and closed for instruction.

“All schools have to be open for instruction a required number of half-days a year. Any days closed for instruction do not change this.”

“Schools often hold parent-teacher interviews or other whānau-related activities and events during the day and then make up the time later in the year - this is what self-governance and flexibility is all about. So, the Associate Minister’s assertion that schools have to ask the Education Minister’s permission, seems heavy-handed.”

Chris Abercrombie said Mr Seymour’s statement about teacher only days only being allowed to be held in term time with the Minister’s permission, was technically incorrect. “The Ministry’s own information about the regulations change is that schools need the Minister’s permission only if they want to close the school for instruction.”

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