Daily school attendance has improved in term 1 after repeated years of low rates. Photo: 123RF
School attendance improved dramatically in term one, weekly figures show.
On most days as many as 84 to 88 percent of children were at school, much better than the same period last year when the highs were mostly between 62 and 78 percent.
Despite the improvement, principals told RNZ they were not sure the critical "regular attendance" figure would improve much.
At Newtown School in Wellington assistant principal Hilary Lintott said illness was the biggest driver of absence though some families simply found it hard to get their children to school.
"We've been very lucky with our Covid cases this year, we haven't had many. So, very different to last year, particularly term one," Lintott said.
Many of the school's pupils attended more than 90 percent of their classes - the benchmark for regular attendance - but it was hard to pin down what characteristics were behind that attendance rate.
"That's quite a hard one to answer I think. Possibly a bit of everything. So - keen to get to school, good well-being and mental health and all of those factors so they want to be here, they're happy here, healthy," she said.
Declining regular school attendance had been the focus of a lot of political debate with both National and Labour keenly aware of the public interest.
In term one last year only 46 percent of students reached the benchmark for regular attendance.
That figure for this year's term one would not be available until July, but weekly reporting of a different measure - the percentage of children at school each day - indicated there could be an improvement.
Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said attendance had definitely improved, with a high percentage of students attending each day.
"There's the odd anomaly when you've had significant weather events and strike days and bits and pieces which you understand, but significantly in the mid to late-80s which for our population is really good," Couillault said.
"And also things like not only getting to school but getting to school on time seem to be on the improve."
Couillault said Covid-19 and the Covid isolation rules drove a lot of absences last year.
This year, the rules were more relaxed, but it was likely the virus would still prevent many students from reaching the threshold for regular attendance.
"When you're away for a week, which is what you have to do if you have to isolate for Covid, then you can't meet that regular attendance limit because you will have been away from school for a week and one week is 10 percent of a term. Pretty much if you're away for any other reason during the rest of that term you fall below that 90 percent threshold," he said.
Whangārei Intermediate principal Hayley Read said Covid was having less of an impact than last year.
"I have two staff members with Covid at the moment and likewise a number of students, but on the whole we're seeing a really positive change in the way our community is seeing school's being a safe place to come to now," Read said.
"The whole pandemic is still in our community but not at the same level as the last two to three years."
But Read said driving up regular attendance would still require a lot of work.
"We do have our truants and that's just the way it is for some of our whānau, but it's the ones that just take off a day weekly, we want to change that habit," she said.
The Ministry of Education would not speculate about any improvements in regular attendance.
It said the weekly attendance figures and the term attendance data were calculated differently.
