11. Question No. 11—EducationRYAN HAMILTON (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 11—Education11. RYAN HAMILTON (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of Education: Has she seen any reports on student attendance?Hon ERICA STANFORD (Minister of Education): I have. Today the Ministry of Education released the term 3 attendance data—on schedule. This data shows that our attendance rates remain low with just 45.9 percent of students attending school regularly. The data also revealed that there has been zero improvement in regular attendance rates from term 3 last year when regular attendance was 46 percent a figure which I find incredibly disappointing. Ryan Hamilton: Why is regular attendance important?ERICA STANFORD: In short a wise man once said To succeed in education you need to show up. Attendance and achievement go hand in hand." and missing school leads to lower achievement. Regular school attendance is also connected to current and future outcomes like student wellbeing future employment and income levels. We have a moral social and economic imperative to deliver better results than were achieved over the last six years. Ryan Hamilton: Has she seen any other reports on attendance?ERICA STANFORD: Yes I have. A report by the Education Review Office shows only 41 percent of parents are comfortable with their child missing a week or more of school a term. This equates to missing a year of school by the time they are 16. We need a change of direction to restore the habit of attending school regularly. Our coalition agreement with ACT commits to addressing low attendance by prioritising data reporting and enforcement action.Ryan Hamilton: Is attendance a priority for this Government?ERICA STANFORD: Yes it most certainly is. Students need to be in the classroom learning the basics and on a pathway towards educational success. We will continue to ensure the right supports are in place to help families get their children to school. We will continue to work with schools to understand the local drivers of absenteeism and how they can be addressed and we will be clear about our expectations. This Government will be sending a clear message that there is a moral and legal obligation for children to attend school. Parent attitude counts and together parents schools and the Government have a role to play in turning around these abysmal results.Hon Jan Tinetti: How will the Minister ensure that learners stay away from school when they are indeed sick as has been the focus over the last few years—as confirmed in the Ministry of Education's own report that states that "short-term illness/medical absences … continued to be the main driver of non-attendance in term 3 2023. The level of illness is associated with the continued incidence of COVID-19 and winter illnesses."ERICA STANFORD: Well two things there—and one of those is the fact that I have already asked the ministry to look into this level of sickness because it is interesting that the countries we compare ourselves to have far far higher rates of attendance and it would be interesting to find out why it is that New Zealand has such a high level of sickness and whether or not that is being used as an excuse. The other important thing to look at is the fact that the unjustified absences since 2017 have increased markedly. We have to have a change of direction and send a very clear message to parents that it is not OK to keep your children home from school.David Seymour: Does the Minister intend to make it her practice to become an Olympic-level expert in obfuscating and justifying poor performance—as we saw in the previous question—or does this Government have a plan to actually improve attendance?SPEAKER: No I think we'll let that one slide.Hon Chris Bishop: Point of order Mr Speaker. I was just going to seek leave for the Labour Party to have an additional supplementary question to ask about school attendance.SPEAKER: Well the Labour Party may well seek leave themselves but the member can't do it on their behalf—and he also knows that that's quite disorderly to undertake that. I think he's being unduly influenced by a bench colleague."