{"id":377654,"date":"2026-04-13T17:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/377654\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:41:10","slug":"many-student-absences-preventable-says-education-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/377654\/","title":{"rendered":"Many student absences \u2018preventable\u2019, says Education Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

\nThe government\u2019s \u2018\u2018aspirational\u2019\u2019 attendance targets are proving to be a challenge for local schools.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ LDR \/ North Canterbury News\n<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education says many school absences are ”preventable” and attendance levels need to improve.<\/p>\n

Responding to comments from Rangiora High School principal<\/a> Bruce Kearney, the ministry said illness is ”a legitimate and unavoidable reason for absence”.<\/p>\n

But the ministry’s operational standards and support group manager Helen Hurst said while attendance levels had lifted<\/a>, more work needed to be done.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Kearney recently said most schools would need to boost attendance by at least five percent a year to meet the government’s ”aspirational” target of 80 percent of students attending school 90 percent of the time (regular attendance) by 2030.<\/p>\n

It prompted him to ask: ”Do we want kids at school if they are unwell?”<\/p>\n

Kearney said the biggest barrier to attendance was illness and schools were bracing themselves for the winter ills in terms two and three.<\/p>\n

His concerns were echoed by board of trustees presiding member Simon Green, who said while attendance matters, it is ”only one piece of the puzzle”.<\/p>\n

Hurst said while attendance took a hit during winter months due to illness, there were other causes of student absence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

”While illness contributes to many absences, national data and Education Review Office findings show it does not fully explain current attendance levels.<\/p>\n

”Many absences are preventable. Improving attendance is a system-wide effort and progress depends on collaboration between schools, wh\u0101nau, communities, government agencies and health services.”<\/p>\n

She said attendance targets were based on ”strong evidence” that regular attendance was critical to students’ learning, wellbeing and long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n

”The good news is that regular attendance rates are improving.<\/p>\n

”We’ve seen steady increases over the last few years, when each term is compared to the same term the previous year.”<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand provided guidance for parents and caregivers on when children should be kept at home and when medical advice should be sought.<\/p>\n

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government\u2019s \u2018\u2018aspirational\u2019\u2019 attendance targets are proving to be a challenge for local schools. Photo: Supplied \/ LDR…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-377654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}