School attendance lifts slightly: 'Small but encouraging improvement'

6:54 am on 19 June 2024

John Gerritsen, Education correspondent

School attendence is up on last year, but still well below the pre-Covid years Photo: 123RF

Provisional data shows 62 percent of children attended school regularly in the first 10 weeks of the school year.

The figure is slightly better than the same time last year - when the regular attendance rate was 60 percent - but well behind the pre-pandemic rate of 73 percent in term one in 2019.

The government published the provisional figure ahead of the release of the full term one attendance data on Thursday.

Regular attendance was defined as attending more than 90 percent of classes.

The rate was declining prior to the pandemic, but hit an all time low of 40 percent in term two 2022, which schools blamed on widespread winter illness and changing attitudes to attendance driven by Covid-related lockdowns and home learning.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the term one figure was a step in the right direction.

"This is a small but encouraging improvement, and these are the best term one figures for regular attendance since 2019," he said.

Seymour said the release of the full figures on Thursday was much earlier than the previous government practice.

He said school attendance was a problem ultimately owned by all New Zealanders.

Figures for previous years show regular attendance rates were highest in the first and fourth terms of the year.

The government wants 80 percent of children attending regularly by 2030 and has launched a campaign and more regular data reporting.

Earlier this year it began reporting daily attendance figures that showed what percentage of children were at school each day.

The daily figures showed on average 85 percent of children were present each day during the first term this year and in the first seven weeks of the current term - term two - daily attendance averaged almost 84 percent.

The Education Ministry has advised schools that a daily attendance rate of about 94 percent was required to ensure 80 percent of students were attending regularly.

Earlier this month schools warned that winter illnesses were affecting attendance.