The government has announced targets for a dramatic improvement in school attendance.
School students watch Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti's school attendance announcement. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
It wants 70 percent of children attending school regularly, meaning they miss no more than one day per fortnight, by 2024 and 75 percent by 2026.
In term two last year 60 percent of children attended regularly and Ministry of Education figures covering the past decade showed term two attendance had never exceeded 70 percent.
Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said it was vital children attended school and got the education they needed to set themselves up for life.
"School attendance is a long term challenge and many will be surprised to know it has been gradually declining across-the-board since 2015," she said.
"The trend has been further accelerated by Covid-19 and now sits at around 60 percent of students who turn up 90 percent of the time - or the equivalent of nine out of 10 days. We need to make sure that as we get through the pandemic, kids are encouraged to return to school and their communities are supporting them to do that."
Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
The government's plan provided the basis for a national campaign and would build on the $88 million attendance package in last month's Budget, Tinetti said.
The Ministry of Education would develop a campaign to highlight families' responsibility to get children to school.
It would also urge schools to make attendance a priority, review the responses to chronic absence and redesign the attendance service responsible for getting truants back to school.
The initiative would build on programmes that schools had already tried and tested, Tinetti said.
"Examples of best practice include an Auckland school that turned attendance around from 35 percent to 91 percent, with a 'Kids Back to School' campaign. School work and food packs were delivered for those in isolation, and a liaison person checked in regularly with follow up from teachers. This strong partnership with the community fostered trust which encouraged whānau to send their tamariki back to school."