11 September 2002

Government Sitting On Thumbs Over Student Transciency

“The two-fold increase in reportings of truant children to the NETS service vindicate strong recommendations from the Education and Science select committee on this issue,” says New Zealand First Education spokesperson, Brian Donnelly.

“In its review into the teaching of reading, the committee identified transciency – children moving from school to school who are often truant in the process – as being a major factor in our long tail of literacy failure.

“The committee recommended urgent policy work be developed to combat this problem. The Government in its response agreed to do this.

“Nothing has happened and the results are shown by the statistics. Those reported to NETS are not children who are simply bunking school, they are children not enrolled at any school.

“The Minister has procrastinated for too long on this issue. We don’t want more reports. We need some action,” said Mr Donnelly.

ENDS

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