Source: Radio New Zealand
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the data showed attendance rates continuing to rise under the coalition. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New data shows 68.6 percent of students attending school regularly for term 1 this year, the highest figure for term 1 since 2020.
However, that figure is still four points below the 2019 pre-Covid figures of 72.8 percent.
Regular attendance is when a student attends 90 percent of half days in a term.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the data showed attendance rates continuing to rise under the coalition.
“This data shows attendance rates continue to rise under this government. We are focussed on fixing what matters, and few things are as important as school attendance,” he said.
“Kiwi students are showing up to school more, and parents are pushing them to attend. Those students and parents should be proud.”
Central and East Auckland had the highest regular attendance rates at 75.5 percent, followed by North and West Auckland at 73.5 and Otago/Southland at 72.6 percent.
Seymour said with every school now required to have an attendance management plan with escalating responses for declining attendance, frontline attendance services were now more accountable and data-driven.
Term 1 regular attendance figures:
- 2019: 73.1 percent
- 2020: 67.9 percent
- 2021: 66.3 percent
- 2022: 46.5 percent
- 2023: 59.0 percent
- 2024: 61.4 percent
- 2025: 65.9 percent
- 2026: 68.6 percent
Methods were changed in term 1 last year, to use a “more efficient and modern system”, changing how the statistical calculations were made and reported.
The new approach was retroactively applied to data from previous years, the most noticeable change being a lift in regular attendance for Term 1 2020 from 50.5 percent to 67.9 percent.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
