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\nDavid Seymour says strikes in the final week of Term 3 prompted many to begin their holidays early.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is blaming teacher strikes for a drop in school attendance in the final week of Term 3.<\/p>\n
In a statement, he said the term was tracking towards 52.7 percent regular attendance – up 1 percentage point on the previous year’s term’s 51.7 – but lower attendance in the final week of term brought the rate down to 50.3.<\/p>\n
Regular attendance measures the percentage of students who have attended more than 90 percent of the term’s half-days.<\/p>\n
“Strikes in the final week of term<\/a> likely played a significant role in this disappointing finish<\/a>. Even though students are not marked absent on strike days, we saw a clear drop-off in attendance, with the disruption of a mid-week day off prompting many to begin their holidays early,” he said.<\/p>\n “Almost 20,000 students were not regular attendees in Term 3, because they knocked off early. That is unacceptable.”<\/p>\n He also acknowledged, however, the term had the highest rate of sickness-related absence since 2022.<\/p>\n “Students missed 7.2 percent of the term due to medical-related reasons in Term 3 2025. More than any other reason. This was the highest rate of medical-related absence in any term since Term 2 2022, when nationwide attendance was only 39.9 percent.”<\/p>\n A drop-off in attendance is also typical for the final day of the term, as well as most Fridays.<\/p>\n Rates remain below pre-Covid levels, with the 2019 regular attendance rate being 59.5 percent. Attendance dropped in 2022, down to 45.8 percent.<\/p>\n