Alwyn Poole: Forced Absenteeism in our Schools and the Impact on Learning and Families

Administrator
Dec 1, 2022
2 min read

The attendance data that Associate Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, stated was the most important in terms of policy impact was the Term 2 data this year.

Regular attendance measures the percentage of students who have attended more than 90 percent of the term.

Results for regular attendance in term two were:

All deciles were well down on previous years.

There were approximately 128,000 students “chronically” absent in that they missed 30% or more school days.

Going to school either matters or it doesn’t. Schools, teachers and the Ministry of Education say that it does, and outcome/attendance data certainly supports that view. You would think then it would be all hands- on- deck to maximise students coming to school in these fractured times.

So, I have been somewhat stunned to hear from a range of families where schools have taken 12 or more teacher only days (TODs) this year. All children are marked present for these days which is, in effect, forced absenteeism. The TODs are also rarely coordinated so a working parent, with three children at different schools, could have had up to 36 days to revamp their lives for. I am hearing of working people who have used up all of their annual leave through the impact of TODs. Some schools retort that “they are not a baby-sitting service”. No one expects them to be – just that when schools are “open” and during term time children should be able to go and be well taught.

Add to that the full-on round of paid union meetings at present ...

Is it any wonder that so many children/families are seeing school as an option - not an imperative?

Alwyn Poole Innovative Education Consultants

19 Comments

charlie.baycroft

Dec 02, 2022

IMO, most of us are inherently lazy like our hunter gather ancestors were. When they did not have to hunt, gather, fight or flee, they sat around talking, singing, playing games, telling stories and also slept quite a lot. Most peole work because they have to in order to survive and raise thier families as responsible and productive independent adults. Education is a process by which children are offerred the knowledge and skills that will need to use if they want to be responsible, independent and productive adults. Most kids do not understand that because they are kids and also because no-one tells them, Kids would naturally prefer to talk, sing, dance, tell stories, play games and sleep instead of doing the work…

charlie.baycroft

Dec 02, 2022

Replying to

"Useful to someone else" is what it's all about. Reciprocity is a very human characteristic. Our species has survived and thrived because we are naturally inclined to help one another for our mutual benefit and survival. Productive work is providing desired goods and services for other people that are willing to pay for them with the procedes of their productive work. Business is transactions between willing buyers and sellers of foods and services. Work and business are basically about helping other people and being helped by them in return. Serving others is also selfish because it also provides us with what we want and need. Maybe children ought to be taught that education is necessary and beneficial for them because it will enable them to be "useful…

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charlie.baycroft

Dec 03, 2022

Replying to

The only way to correctly assess whether something has been achieved or not is to "examine" it. The only way to know if knowledge or skills have been acquired is examinations in which those who have aquired it pass on to the next phase and those who have not fail and have to try harder. The real problem with examinations was that it also assesses the competence of the teachers and administrators of the system and threatens their security. It suits the people in the system better to pretend that everyone was successful but it is not rational. lowering the standards is easier than helping children achieve them. The goal ought to be excellence but has become mediocrity because that is easier to achieve. Most…