An Ōamaru-based truancy expert has mixed feelings about the Government’s attempts to address the problem.

Dr Delia Baskerville, who completed a PhD on truancy at Wellington's Victoria University, says the key to solving the issue is by properly understanding it.

She is also in the process of producing a play on the topic in Ōamaru, called Mattering, using the stories of truants she interviewed for her doctorate.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour delivered the Government’s “attendance action plan” early in April.

New Zealand school attendance rates are low by national and international standards. Regular attendance, defined as being in school more than 90% of the time, has declined from 69.5% in Term 2, 2015, to 45.9% in Term 3, 2023, Mr Seymour says. It hit 39.9% in Term 2, of 2022.

England’s attendance rates in 2022 were 75.8%, the USA was 70.3%, Australia was 49.9%.

The statistics do not differentiate between justified absence or unjustified absences, so a child who is sick for five school days (the recommended isolation time for a dose of Covid) is already teetering on the edge of being below the 90% benchmark for a 50-school day term.

The Government’s target is to ensure 80% of pupils are present for more than 90% of term time by 2030. 

The Spinoff reports that in term three, last year, short-term illness and medical reasons were the largest contributor to absence in every week, and the proportion of time lost to illness has almost doubled in the last 10 years.

Changes starting next week, as part of the attendance action plan, include weekly publishing of attendance data and a communications campaign to improve awareness of the importance of students attending school.

Public health guidance has been released to help schools and parents to decide if a student is well enough to attend school, and expectations around attendance have been “clarified” to school boards.

“If the truancy crisis isn’t addressed there will be an 80-year long shadow of people who missed out on education when they were young, are less able to work, less able to participate in society, more likely to be on benefits. That's how serious this is,” Mr Seymour says.

“This Government is making reporting and enforcement action to reduce non-attendance and truancy a high priority . . . A key focus is getting a better understanding of the drivers of non-attendance through data. The more we define the problems the more effectively interventions can be targeted.”

Dr Baskerville is pleased the Government is giving some attention to the issue of truancy, and is “really thrilled to hear that change in the narrative that it is a complex problem”.

“They're acknowledging the complexities now that they weren't doing, you know, at the time when I started talking to radio and newspapers, I kept hitting the point that it's complex, it's complex,” she says.

“It's great to hear that narrative's changed, and it's good to hear that we recognise there are contributing factors that are home-based, school-based, individual-based, and society-based.”

She agrees truancy can have severe long-term ramifications.

However, Dr Baskerville is concerned decisions are being made by “a set of very very privileged people”.

“These people don’t have insights into lived experiences of people struggling at the lower echelon of our society, and this is what breaks my heart.”

Dr Baskerville’s interest in truancy came about early in her professional career, as a teacher at Hagley Community College.

She became concerned about how it affected a child’s wellbeing and future prospects, which led to her furthering her studies.

She says the current Government blaming the previous Government for school attendance issues is unhelpful and won’t fix the problem.

“I don't think you can compare the trauma of all the incidents that happened to us as a country under the previous government . . . We have big things to look at and I don't think that's helpful dialogue.”

Mr Seymour announced more proposals to be brought to cabinet at a later date which included "making attendance a strategic priority for school boards so they have clear expectations to focus on minimising disruption to students".

The acknowledgement it will require a community effort is good to see, Dr Baskerville says, although involving boards of trustees, given the potential disparities in knowledge between boards, is something she questions.

“It's dependent on the nature of the skills, knowledge and understanding of those people in the community, and you know sometimes we don't have finance ministers and accountants necessarily living in those poor areas and offering to be on those boards of trustees.”

She also questions the “congruence between the narratives and the actions” of the coalition Government. 

“Axing 500 Ministry of Education staff doesn't seem to have congruence with the priorities they're setting. Making decisions that impact negatively, make it harder for those at the grassroots to do the job that's expected to maintain order," she says.

“You know, in the narrative that I'm reading and watching and viewing, there is definitely a focus on the financial. 

“We need to really look at our game and look at the people. These are hard times, we need to manage them well or else the damage is long-term, you know?”

Dr Baskerville is keen to contribute her knowledge in any way she can, to assist in finding the solutions to truancy.

“It would be great if we could all work together to find the answer.” 

Other proposals announced by Mr Seymour to be presented to cabinet at a later date include:

• Mandating daily reporting of attendance data by Term 1, next year.
• Developing a Traffic Light System to set out the requirements and expectations for parents, schools, and the ministry at different stages of a student’s attendance, with clear obligations for when a student is not attending.
• Using improved data and analysis to distinguish the drivers of non-attendance and targeting interventions, particularly for the chronic non-attenders or students that are now not enrolled.