31 October 2007

Getting students back to school faster with ENROL

A computerised tracking system is speeding up the ability of schools to identify students not enrolled at school, and is cutting down the time they spend out of school, says Acting Education Minister Parekura Horomia.

ENROL is a central electronic enrolment register that alerts schools and truancy services if a student under 16 is not enrolled for longer than 20 days. It’s designed to highlight students that have left one school, and not enrolled at another, to stop them dropping out of education, for example students that leave intermediate school but don’t enrol at a secondary school.

Parekura Horomia says an initial evaluation of ENROL has found it significantly increases the ability and speed that schools can identify students not enrolled, so they can be returned to school as quickly as possible.

“This is the first time schools have given their feedback on the system, and this early evaluation is very encouraging. The system is being fully rolled out to all schools this year, after starting in secondary, intermediate and composite schools last year.

“The feedback shows the system is starting to improve the process of getting students back to school, and I acknowledge the time and effort school staff have invested in becoming familiar with the new system to make it work for their school.”

The initial evaluation shows that:
- non-enrolments are being reported 20 per cent faster
- the average time taken to resolve each case is 17 per cent faster
- the number of notifications for non-enrolled students has more than doubled for schools using ENROL
- 56 per cent of schools say it provides better information.

Parekura Horomia says ENROL is just one of a range of initiatives by the Labour-led government to keep more students actively engaged at school and learning for longer.

Other initiatives include the District Truancy Service, tightening up Early Leaving Exemptions to keep students at school longer, and programmes to prepare students for careers beyond school, like Youth Apprentices and the Gateway programme.

More information can be found at www.minedu.govt.nz

ENDS

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