Hipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8325. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Is she satisfied the Government has fulfilled its 2008 commitment to tackle truancy; if so why is the truancy rate now higher than it has ever been?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Yes I am satisfied that our Government is continuing to work hard on tackling truancy. As I have said in this House before one unjustified absence is one too many. We want kids to be in school and learning. The attendance survey for 2014 indicates a slight increase in the truancy rate over the past 2 years but the total absence rate has been decreasing since 2009. This is compared with a 41 percent increase in the rate of unexplained absences under the previous Labour Government which was so complacent that it measured truancy only every 2 years.Chris Hipkins: Did the National Government promise in 2008 to give schools an additional $4 million a year to “crack down on truants”; if so how much of that money have schools received?Hon HEKIA PARATA: What the Government has done has been to more than double that amount of money and put $9.7 million into an integrated Attendance Service to support schools with tackling this. That is in addition to the operational grant that schools also have at their discretion to tackle truancy.Chris Hipkins: Did the National Government promise in 2008 to “Help schools out by providing additional funding ($4 million a year) to ensure they can fight truancy on the frontline.”; if so how much additional money have schools received to combat truancy since 2008?Hon HEKIA PARATA: To be clear in my answer to this the decision we have taken was to double the amount of spending on truancy to $9.7 million instead of the $4 million and to provide it in an integrated Attendance Service for chronic and persistent truancy while occasional—Dr David Clark: Answer the question.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —truancy is dealt with by the school. I am answering the question if that member would care to listen. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order!Dr David Clark: I’m listening very carefully. I didn’t hear an answer.Mr SPEAKER: Well you can listen without interjecting as well.Chris Hipkins: Did the National Government promise in 2008 to crack down on parents of persistent truants by increasing prosecutions; if so why are fewer parents being prosecuted now than there were under the previous Government?Hon HEKIA PARATA: The numbers of prosecutions are not the measuring stick we use; it is retention in schools. You do not prosecute people if there are not people to prosecute. Fourteen prosecutions have occurred for persistent chronic truancy. Funding of $75000 has been made available to schools that are pursuing their own prosecutions. In the meantime we have put $145 million into Positive Behaviour for Learning which is aimed at attracting engaging and keeping kids at schools. We have funded 960 more trades academy places to engage kids and keep them at school. Truancy is not simply a school responsibility; it is the responsibility of parents family and whānau as well as of the children themselves.Chris Hipkins: Does the Attendance in New Zealand Schools 2014 survey result show that one in every 78 students regularly bunked school in 2013 a 30 percent increase on the number the year before?Hon HEKIA PARATA: What I can tell you is that there has been an overall increase of 0.7 percent. Yes young people do bunk school and it is in our interests as well as schools’ to try to—David Shearer: It’s failed. Just face it you’ve failed.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —provide engaging programmes to keep kids at school. But as I have said—no no. We have not failed. We have seen achievement going up 23 percent for Māori in the time that we have been in Government. We have seen the participation of kids at early childhood education increase while we have been in Government. We have seen an overall increase of 13 percent. That is not failure in those young people’s vocabulary nor in ours.Chris Hipkins: Is she concerned that a recent Programme for International Student Assessment study found New Zealand stood out for having one of the strongest links between skipping school and maths achievement with those students who skipped school one or two times before their exams being up to 2 years behind those who did not skip a day; if so why is her Government breaking its promise to increase the amount of support to tackle truancy?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Yes I am concerned about that. To the second part of the question how is providing $9.7 million instead of $4 million a decrease?