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School Attendance Falls Short Of Targets During December Slump
John Gerritsen, Education Correspondent
Daily school attendance slumped badly in the few schools that remained open beyond mid-December last year.
Schools can choose their opening and closing dates within a range set by the Education Ministry, and ministry figures showed about half remained open for the final possible week of term four, 15-19 December.
The figures showed 2386 schools usually provided daily attendance data, but by Monday, 15 December, just 1325 schools were open and provided data showing 81 percent of their 361,954 students were present.
By Wednesday that week, the number of schools providing figures had dropped to 763, with just 63 percent of their students present, and by Friday, 19 December, the final possible day of term 4, 131 schools were open with 59 percent attendance.
The figures indicated that school-time lost to unjustified absences was about five percent for most days of 2025 term four, but in the week of 15-19 December, the unjustified absence figure ranged from 11-28 percent.
Truancy accounted for about half of those absences, but the percentage of school-time lost to holidays during the term soared to a range of 3-5 percent, well above the normal figure of less than one percent.
Last year, the Education Review Office reported that term-time holidays were the biggest attendance problem facing schools.
The government wanted 80 percent of students attending more than 90 percent of their classes - the benchmark for regular attendance.
To reach that goal, daily attendance needed to reach and remain at 94 percent, but the highest point reached in term four was 90 percent, with 88-89 percent recorded often and average daily attendance of 85 percent, similar to term three.
This year, schools must use a new attendance system and the Education Ministry has new contracts with attendance services.
Schools can begin term one between Monday, 26 January and Monday, 9 February, and finish term four no later than Friday, 18 December.
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