New Zealand school principals alarmed about absenteeism
New Zealand school principals are alarming about the fact that students are falling off the rolls as a wave of absenteeism follows the disruption of Covid-19.
Schools in Auckland and parts of the North Island were shut down for weeks or months as the country went into lock down in 2021. Since then, principals say a worrying number of students have not made it back to school or are not attending regularly. Vulnerable students are falling through the gaps and disappearing despite schools visiting homes and contacting families and neighbours to find them.
Shirley Maihi, principal of Finlayson Park school in Manurewa, south Auckland, said that 42 children had already taken off the roll completely because they had been away for more than 20 days that s in term one. We still have 22 that we are trying to trace back from when we got it. She said that as well as the children who had disappeared completely off rolls, a large chunk of children were attending only two or three days a week.
A ministry inquiry into the issue in March found a disturbing increase in the proportion of students who are chronically absent, which is defined as students who don't attend more than 70% of the school year. Between 2016 and 2022, the proportion of chronically absent pupils doubled to 9%. The proportion of students attending school fell more than four percentage points in 2021 to 59.7%, with the decline most pronounced among schools in poorer neighbourhoods and among M ori and Pacific students. The report concluded that some children are forced out of school and into work to support their families.
The difficulty is understanding exactly why they are away, said Cherie Taylor-Patel, president of the New Zealand Principals Federation. They could be away because of Covid, but they could be away because of sickness and winter illnesses. They could be away because they are out of the habit of coming to school. She said that when schools switched to online learning during Covid shutdowns, poorer students were hugely disadvantaged. The idea that all students could access Zoom, safe or quiet environments, laptops, or adult assistance was completely different from the reality of what they can expect to happen when they go home, she said. It is incredibly inequitable. She said that schools now face the challenge of bringing back students who disengaged.
Maihi said that many families are facing a lot of problems because of the rising cost of living, inflation and petrol prices, and in some cases school attendance is falling down the priority list. This year, clothing for the winter is a huge issue. She said we had never had that before. The parents are under duress, under stress from trying to meet the rent, trying to meet the food costs, and they are not seeing that the fight to get the children to school is worthwhile for them. The government inquiry concluded that Covid 19 has worsened existing inequities in school attendance and 40% of students with poor attendance had not done so before Covid 19. The government pledged $40 million to address problems with school attendance in the latest budget.
Taylor-Patel said that they had a group of families dealing with generational and situational poverty issues. If you haven't got a house and you're transient, it is very difficult to make getting into school every day a priority. If you are worried about food and money every day, school gets into the too-hard basket.