August 20, 2025 • 10 mins
More students are attending school regularly.
Figures released today show 58.4% of students regularly attended school in Term 2 - the highest since 2021.
It's a drop from Term 1 where 66% of students showed up regularly, but this is partially explained by winter illness.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says messaging from the government has changed to remind parents school is important.
However no prosecutions have been launched against parents of truant kids.
Seymour told Kerre Woodham 15 prosecutions were explored but later dropped.
He says it's clear the threat of prosecution is changing parents' behaviour.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be Here's.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The good news. More students are turning up to school
than they were before the pandemic. Associate Education Minister David
Seymour says fifty eight point four percent of students attended
school regularly in term, two five percent more than last
year and the first time that any term's attendance has
been higher than the same term pre COVID. Every region
(00:35):
has recorded an increase in attendance, with Taranaki, Honganui and
Mnuwatu seeing the biggest improvement. Association Associate Education Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour joins me. Now, good morning
to you, Good morning, Curry. Nice to have some good news.
What's working? How are we getting these kids back well?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think first of all, it's a change in attitudes
during the COVID period where we're told at great volume
that health is the only thing that matters. You've got
to stay home and save lives and education you can
just kind of wait for that was never true. Children
get one opportunity to set themselves up with knowledge for
(01:18):
the rest of their lives, so simply the fact that
we are now telling everybody you know, health is important,
but actually education matters too. We issued new health guidance.
We now publish the data every single day. We've introduced
a new scheme, which we call the STAR, the Step
(01:38):
to Attendance Response Scheme. So at the start of next year,
every school will have an attendance Action plan that says
if a child is at ninety percent, that's fine. If
they're eighty to ninety, there's steps you got to take.
If they're seventy to eighty, there's steps you got to
take that are more severe. The Ministry of Education has
been open for business with prosecutions. They've considered fifteen potential prosecutions.
(02:03):
They haven't taken any to court yet, but very clear
that that's now an option that's on the table again.
I think that's changing a bit of behavior, and so
we're seeing improvements every term. Every term since we've been
in government, the attendance has been better than the same
term last the year before. But to keep that going,
(02:26):
we're going to need to do a lot more, and
in the next year you're going to see a significant
increase in the spending on attendance services. Another twenty million
a year there. We're also upgrading the Ministry of Education's
IT system so it's easier to track attendance at schools.
And then finally we're also putting together information sharing agreements
(02:49):
because often attendance offices will spend a lot of time
trying to find students when another government department, say Housing
New Zealand, will actually know where they are. So everything
right across the board. We have a massive effort throughout
the government to make sure that children are getting to
(03:10):
school because the number one indicator of how much knowledge
you're going to get from school, apart from everything else,
is just what percentage of the time are you actually there.
That's going to tell you more than anything else.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So school lunches didn't get kids into school, what has
is it an expectation that they be there? Is it
as simple as that that parents are expected to get
their kids to school?
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Were You're right? I mean, school lunches never were and
still aren't in attendance And that was yeah, and that
was known before the election. We said that, We've said
about making it more affordable for the tax payer, and
I think we're getting good results. You'll notice it's not
on radio and New Zealand every day anymore because there's
no bad news for them. But when it comes to
(03:58):
what's working, you know, part of it is just messaging
and I guess moral persuasion that this is important rather
than telling the country that you know, school's not that important,
stay home, safe lives. That's true, but there's no question
that the resources that are going in the data we're
making available the return to being open to prosecutions of
(04:22):
parents who are not parents that are can't. You know,
if you genuinely got problems and you can't send children
to school, then you know there are reasons for that.
But if you're a won't then having the ability to
prosecute I think is very powerful. And also putting in
place attendance action plans that are being prepared in schools
at the moment. They'll all be in place under law
(04:44):
at the start of next year. All of these things
have led to a greater effort to get children to school.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Bless me, Associate Education Minister for I have sinned. I
took the two grandchildren to Fiji for a week in
term time. But I think it.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Will be we've actually heard about this.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think it will be the last time because they
were both concerned about the green circle to have the
green circle without any read in the green circle. Red
circles indicate days away.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, and look, I think the schools have actually responded
really well. So it's come from government, but it's actually
being actioned by schools who are giving good information and
really putting emphasis on this. Yet you hear this about
schools that are doing rewards for students that have in
act perfect attendance record throughout a term, so actually celebrating
(05:35):
the positive as well. But then people will say, look,
you know that there are educative things you can do
outside of school, and I agree with that. You often
if you have a parent who says, look, we've been
saving for years, we're taking our children to Japan. Can
you seriously tell us that in two weeks of school
(05:56):
they're going to learn more than this once in a
lifetime trip. And you can understand people taking that position,
but I just make the point that you could take
a week off at the end of term two, a
week off at the start of term three, and you
could still make ninety percent attendance for the terms. So
you know, it's true that there are things that people
(06:16):
would like to do, and often they are valuable, but
you should still be able to make it ninety percent
of the time, which is defined as regular attendance. I
just also make the point, you know, schools are actually
only open about one hundred and eighty five days a year,
So there's another one hundred and eighty days a year
if you count school holidays, weekends, public holidays to do
(06:37):
everything else in your life. And when you put it
that way, you start to say, Okay, well, you know,
free education. There's some challenges, there's changes that we're making
to curriculum, NCA and so on, but by and large,
we've got a pretty good education system. It's free. You
just have to show up and they'll give you an education.
It's very valuable for your life.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
That is true. A number of Texters have said, and
I was thinking the same thing. I absolutely support ninety
percent minimum attendance at school. What are your expectations around
teacher attendance now that the kids are going to school?
Says another we should try to get the teachers to school,
which you know, I suppose is only natural. But a
teacher wrote to me yesterday after I was a bit
(07:18):
cross with them for taking the day off to strike,
but they said that they only can negotiate their pay
on a three year cycle. The last government pushed it
out so much that they were eighteen months into that
cycle before they got a pay increase, And so the
cycle begins again and they want more pay. They say,
(07:39):
because he's in the maths and stats department. There are
nineteen staffs staff in the maths department, only fifty percent
of them have a maths or stats degree. They can't
attract people with maths and stats knowledge to become teachers.
They earn so much more outside of teaching.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, I mean a couple of things about that. I mean,
first of all, that there's kind of a bit of
a setup for the discretushon where you're either four teachers
and your value teachers or you're not. I think a
more balanced way to look at it is, Yes, that
there's a tough negotiation going on. I think everyone knows that.
I don't think it was helpful for the unions to
(08:21):
call a strike without consulting their members just six days
into the negotiations. Do it in the middle of the
week when many students are starting to turn their mind
to exams. And someone put it to me, maybe they
could have taken a strike day during a teacher only day.
So there's certainly a bit of frustration there. But on
(08:42):
the other hand, we do value teachers. We have put
up teacher pay. The government's done that fourteen and a
half percent increase in the last three years. Sixty percent
of teachers now earn over one hundred thousand dollars. This
is not a bad place to be. Then you come
to things like STEM and special schools. For what it's worth.
(09:06):
I've always said, and this is not the necessarily the
position the government's taking in this negotiation, but I've always
said that the principle should have more flexibility because they
will know which areas are hard for them to staff,
and they should be able to pay more to teachers
that they believe their school needs are harder to get
and or adding more value in a whole lot of
(09:27):
different ways. And then people say, oh, you know, you
can't do that. You don't know who the good of
course you do. Every other workplace in New Zealand does this.
I'm sure news talks. They'd be pays people according to
how hard they are to guess and what sort of
value they're seen is adding and if you doubt that,
the same debate happened when rugby went professional, people said, oh,
(09:49):
you can't pay the players because you know the first
five won't pass to the second five if he thinks
that that guy's going to get paid more. I mean,
that's just laughable. I've had professional rugby for thirty years
and people figure it out. So I actually think that
some more flexibility probably would help with attracting those science, technology,
engineering maths teachers that everyone I think agrees that we
(10:12):
need more of as we go into a more scientific century.
But you know, for now, the government is trying to
balance its budget, do what it can for teachers, being
aware of the pay they've already recently received, and make
sure that the schools are open and children are getting
back there.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, you're doing your bit, so congratulations. It is good
to have some good news.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That is.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
David Semour, our Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Education Minister,
fifty eight point four percent of students attended school regularly
in term two, five percent more than last year. Isn't
it shocking that fewer than sixty percent of kids turning
up for school? Is good news? But there we go.
Let's take the gains where we find them.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
For more from Kerry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news talks it'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be Here's.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The good news. More students are turning up to school
than they were before the pandemic. Associate Education Minister David
Seymour says fifty eight point four percent of students attended
school regularly in term, two five percent more than last
year and the first time that any term's attendance has
been higher than the same term pre COVID. Every region
(00:35):
has recorded an increase in attendance, with Taranaki, Honganui and
Mnuwatu seeing the biggest improvement. Association Associate Education Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour joins me. Now, good morning
to you, Good morning, Curry. Nice to have some good news.
What's working? How are we getting these kids back well?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think first of all, it's a change in attitudes
during the COVID period where we're told at great volume
that health is the only thing that matters. You've got
to stay home and save lives and education you can
just kind of wait for that was never true. Children
get one opportunity to set themselves up with knowledge for
(01:18):
the rest of their lives, so simply the fact that
we are now telling everybody you know, health is important,
but actually education matters too. We issued new health guidance.
We now publish the data every single day. We've introduced
a new scheme, which we call the STAR, the Step
(01:38):
to Attendance Response Scheme. So at the start of next year,
every school will have an attendance Action plan that says
if a child is at ninety percent, that's fine. If
they're eighty to ninety, there's steps you got to take.
If they're seventy to eighty, there's steps you got to
take that are more severe. The Ministry of Education has
been open for business with prosecutions. They've considered fifteen potential prosecutions.
(02:03):
They haven't taken any to court yet, but very clear
that that's now an option that's on the table again.
I think that's changing a bit of behavior, and so
we're seeing improvements every term. Every term since we've been
in government, the attendance has been better than the same
term last the year before. But to keep that going,
(02:26):
we're going to need to do a lot more, and
in the next year you're going to see a significant
increase in the spending on attendance services. Another twenty million
a year there. We're also upgrading the Ministry of Education's
IT system so it's easier to track attendance at schools.
And then finally we're also putting together information sharing agreements
(02:49):
because often attendance offices will spend a lot of time
trying to find students when another government department, say Housing
New Zealand, will actually know where they are. So everything
right across the board. We have a massive effort throughout
the government to make sure that children are getting to
(03:10):
school because the number one indicator of how much knowledge
you're going to get from school, apart from everything else,
is just what percentage of the time are you actually there.
That's going to tell you more than anything else.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So school lunches didn't get kids into school, what has
is it an expectation that they be there? Is it
as simple as that that parents are expected to get
their kids to school?
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Were You're right? I mean, school lunches never were and
still aren't in attendance And that was yeah, and that
was known before the election. We said that, We've said
about making it more affordable for the tax payer, and
I think we're getting good results. You'll notice it's not
on radio and New Zealand every day anymore because there's
no bad news for them. But when it comes to
(03:58):
what's working, you know, part of it is just messaging
and I guess moral persuasion that this is important rather
than telling the country that you know, school's not that important,
stay home, safe lives. That's true, but there's no question
that the resources that are going in the data we're
making available the return to being open to prosecutions of
(04:22):
parents who are not parents that are can't. You know,
if you genuinely got problems and you can't send children
to school, then you know there are reasons for that.
But if you're a won't then having the ability to
prosecute I think is very powerful. And also putting in
place attendance action plans that are being prepared in schools
at the moment. They'll all be in place under law
(04:44):
at the start of next year. All of these things
have led to a greater effort to get children to school.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Bless me, Associate Education Minister for I have sinned. I
took the two grandchildren to Fiji for a week in
term time. But I think it.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Will be we've actually heard about this.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think it will be the last time because they
were both concerned about the green circle to have the
green circle without any read in the green circle. Red
circles indicate days away.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, and look, I think the schools have actually responded
really well. So it's come from government, but it's actually
being actioned by schools who are giving good information and
really putting emphasis on this. Yet you hear this about
schools that are doing rewards for students that have in
act perfect attendance record throughout a term, so actually celebrating
(05:35):
the positive as well. But then people will say, look,
you know that there are educative things you can do
outside of school, and I agree with that. You often
if you have a parent who says, look, we've been
saving for years, we're taking our children to Japan. Can
you seriously tell us that in two weeks of school
(05:56):
they're going to learn more than this once in a
lifetime trip. And you can understand people taking that position,
but I just make the point that you could take
a week off at the end of term two, a
week off at the start of term three, and you
could still make ninety percent attendance for the terms. So
you know, it's true that there are things that people
(06:16):
would like to do, and often they are valuable, but
you should still be able to make it ninety percent
of the time, which is defined as regular attendance. I
just also make the point, you know, schools are actually
only open about one hundred and eighty five days a year,
So there's another one hundred and eighty days a year
if you count school holidays, weekends, public holidays to do
(06:37):
everything else in your life. And when you put it
that way, you start to say, Okay, well, you know,
free education. There's some challenges, there's changes that we're making
to curriculum, NCA and so on, but by and large,
we've got a pretty good education system. It's free. You
just have to show up and they'll give you an education.
It's very valuable for your life.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
That is true. A number of Texters have said, and
I was thinking the same thing. I absolutely support ninety
percent minimum attendance at school. What are your expectations around
teacher attendance now that the kids are going to school?
Says another we should try to get the teachers to school,
which you know, I suppose is only natural. But a
teacher wrote to me yesterday after I was a bit
(07:18):
cross with them for taking the day off to strike,
but they said that they only can negotiate their pay
on a three year cycle. The last government pushed it
out so much that they were eighteen months into that
cycle before they got a pay increase, And so the
cycle begins again and they want more pay. They say,
(07:39):
because he's in the maths and stats department. There are
nineteen staffs staff in the maths department, only fifty percent
of them have a maths or stats degree. They can't
attract people with maths and stats knowledge to become teachers.
They earn so much more outside of teaching.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, I mean a couple of things about that. I mean,
first of all, that there's kind of a bit of
a setup for the discretushon where you're either four teachers
and your value teachers or you're not. I think a
more balanced way to look at it is, Yes, that
there's a tough negotiation going on. I think everyone knows that.
I don't think it was helpful for the unions to
(08:21):
call a strike without consulting their members just six days
into the negotiations. Do it in the middle of the
week when many students are starting to turn their mind
to exams. And someone put it to me, maybe they
could have taken a strike day during a teacher only day.
So there's certainly a bit of frustration there. But on
(08:42):
the other hand, we do value teachers. We have put
up teacher pay. The government's done that fourteen and a
half percent increase in the last three years. Sixty percent
of teachers now earn over one hundred thousand dollars. This
is not a bad place to be. Then you come
to things like STEM and special schools. For what it's worth.
(09:06):
I've always said, and this is not the necessarily the
position the government's taking in this negotiation, but I've always
said that the principle should have more flexibility because they
will know which areas are hard for them to staff,
and they should be able to pay more to teachers
that they believe their school needs are harder to get
and or adding more value in a whole lot of
(09:27):
different ways. And then people say, oh, you know, you
can't do that. You don't know who the good of
course you do. Every other workplace in New Zealand does this.
I'm sure news talks. They'd be pays people according to
how hard they are to guess and what sort of
value they're seen is adding and if you doubt that,
the same debate happened when rugby went professional, people said, oh,
(09:49):
you can't pay the players because you know the first
five won't pass to the second five if he thinks
that that guy's going to get paid more. I mean,
that's just laughable. I've had professional rugby for thirty years
and people figure it out. So I actually think that
some more flexibility probably would help with attracting those science, technology,
engineering maths teachers that everyone I think agrees that we
(10:12):
need more of as we go into a more scientific century.
But you know, for now, the government is trying to
balance its budget, do what it can for teachers, being
aware of the pay they've already recently received, and make
sure that the schools are open and children are getting
back there.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, you're doing your bit, so congratulations. It is good
to have some good news.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That is.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
David Semour, our Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Education Minister,
fifty eight point four percent of students attended school regularly
in term two, five percent more than last year. Isn't
it shocking that fewer than sixty percent of kids turning
up for school? Is good news? But there we go.
Let's take the gains where we find them.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
For more from Kerry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
news talks it'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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