Pat Newman: Te Tai Tokerau Principals' Association spokesperson on David Seymour's school attendance crackdown

There's harsh criticism of Associate Education Minister David Seymour's push for prosecution of parents of continued truants.

Seymour says parents could be fined in the most extreme cases as part of Government requirements for Stepped Attendance Response plans in schools by 2026.

He's also insisting term-time teacher-only days need authorisation from the Education Minister.

Northland Principal Pat Newman says this is a completely political move.

"The cold, hard reality is that it's been tried, it's been on the books, it hasn't worked. That's why it's not used."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. A big crackdown today on truancy. Teacher only
days will no longer be allowed during term time and
parents will be prosecuted for continued absence of their kids.
Pat Newman is the spokesperson for that. I talk at
our Principles Association apat HI.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
How are you good? Thank you?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is a good move, right.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh brilliant. If you want to put something and it
doesn't work but sounds good politically, what do you think
is not going to work? The whole concept that finding
people is going to get kids into schools? I mean,
the cold hard reality is that it's been tried, it's
been on the box, it hasn't worked. That's why it's

(00:41):
not used. And by apping the penalty, that's not really
going to work a heck of a lot either, because
if you haven't got it, you can't pay it, So
the fine means nothing, unless, of course he's going to
make NAFA prison big enough and then put parents in
there at Jaalen if they don't have their kids at
school and they can't afford to pay the fine.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
What about the teacher only days only being during term time?
Are you okay with that?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Some people are referring to certain gentlemen as being an
educational megalomaniac. I of course would never say that, but
some people are because he hasn't got that authority. As indeed,
the authority, the authority the minister has is to say
you don't have to do your two hundred days, which

(01:32):
is the primary school one, that you can have a
teacher only day. He can say that, all right. However,
if a school starts at a different time or anything
like that, we have days up our sleeve. We can
take those whenever we want to, and he has not
the authority to say no to that. Changes.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Are you talking about the fact that you have a
flexible start time, let's say at the start of the
year or whatever, and you might use those days as
teacher only days.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, well, we might do stuff and have kids for
a trip in the holidays, or we could spend a
special course in the holidays and do five hours a
day on mathematics, and that would in the holiday what
was some term holiday time, and that would classificue a
school being open.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
So how it's been explained to me is that the
Act actually says that these teacher only days actually should
be taken during the break time, and if they're going
to be taken during the term time, it is with
the sign off of the Ministry of Education.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Is that correct? Yes, that is education. That is the way. Sorry,
that is correct, And I'm not arguing that. What I
am arguing is that we are only required by law
to be open for two hundred school days. So therefore
if we have stuff done in the holidays, then we
can actually not do the two hundred, or we can

(02:48):
do extra teacher any days.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. You've got power
of your own. What do you make of taking the
money out of the teacher training for trial and putting
it into maths.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Of all of the things that this government is intending
to do, this is probably the most appalling and deplorable
actions I have ever heard and ever come out. And
I never thought i'd hear at the New Zealand. And
I've got to think about other countries like the Inuits

(03:22):
in Canada, where the same sort of stuff has been done.
I look here as appalling. I don't know whether the
Minister Seymour thinks at all that the teacher has to
do is to be able to pronounce the child's name. Correctly,
and that's all that matters. Every bit of research, every

(03:42):
bit of educational knowledge that I have, and I think
it might be a bit more than mister Seymour's, and
even the current ministers says that what they have done
is educationally and morally wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Pat, thank you for your time. Pat Newman, spokesperson, Principles Association.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
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