12. Question No. 12—Education (School Operations)ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Associate Minister of Education (School Operations)Question No. 12—Education (School Operations)12. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Associate Minister of Education (School Operations): What percentage of students attended school regularly in term 1 of 2022 and what actions if any has she taken since seeing this data to urgently reduce truancy? Hon JAN TINETTI (Associate Minister of Education (School Operations)): Term 1 data for 2022 shows that nationally 46.1 percent of students met the criteria for regular attendance which is attending school 90 percent of the time or nine days out of a fortnight. This is a decrease from term 1 data from 2021 which showed 66.8 percent of students attending regularly and it is reflective of the current COVID-19 outbreak that is affecting the country nationwide and of parents keeping their kids home from school. The Government has a razor-sharp focus on supporting schools and communities to work with their students to encourage regular attendance at school. The actions we have taken and continue to implement every day include rolling out the 13 actions in the Attendance and Engagement Strategy for tackling the decade-long decline in regular attendance and engagement in schools supported by the $88 million of targeted funding on the ground. We are redesigning the Attendance Service to bring it closer to the schools and communities that it serves. These contracts are being developed as we speak and will be complete by December. Erica Stanford: How can she say that this is COVID-driven when the data shows that only half of the increase in non-attendance between term 4 last year and term 1 is driven by sickness and children isolating at home are marked as attending? Hon JAN TINETTI: I have warned the member before not to cherry-pick at the data to make a political point. She is comparing oranges and apples. I would like to turn out—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order!Hon JAN TINETTI: I would like to point out that term 2 is our flagship data for attendance reporting. We have a longitudinal series of data that digitally dates back to 2011 and prior to that for term 2. Terms 1 3 and 4 data is still short only beginning in 2019 and heavily impacted by COVID which is why I say that comparing term 4 to term 1 makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and those of us with that knowledge understand that. Erica Stanford: Is the Minister saying that we should be disregarding the term 1 data showing that 102000 children are now chronically truant from school up from 68000 in term 4? Hon JAN TINETTI: What I am saying is to be careful about making those comparisons. What I will say to that member is that if she wants—[Multiple members interject]SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume her seat. If the members want this question to continue they will be quiet. Hon JAN TINETTI: What I will say to that member is that if she wants to disregard the concerns that many parents have around the seriousness of COVID-19 or the compounding factors that families are experiencing which are contributing to the lack of regular school attendance then she is going to see that situation worsen. That is something that I am not prepared to do. Hon Chris Hipkins: Can the Minister confirm that the level of chronic absence in New Zealand schools began to increase significantly around the time that the Attendance Service was fixed by the last National Government? Hon JAN TINETTI: Yes I can confirm that. In 2015 the then National Government took that service and took it further away from schools which meant that the chronic absences in this country skyrocketed. That is something that this Government will not tolerate any longer. Erica Stanford: Can the Minister tell this House how many truancy officers are employed now compared to under the old system? Hon JAN TINETTI: That is data that I do not have right in front of me at this time. If that member wanted that specific—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! I indicated to members that if they wanted this question to continue they would be quiet but they clearly don't. Hon Chris Hipkins: Supplementary question Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: No no—the question's finished. Hon Chris Hipkins: No it isn't. SPEAKER: The question has finished. That concludes oral questions. Chris Bishop: Point of order Mr Speaker. I think we still have one supplementary question remaining. SPEAKER: The member might have. Erica Stanford: Supplementary question. SPEAKER: No the member will resume her seat. I made it very clear to members that if they weren't quiet the question would be finished. They weren't; it was. Chris Bishop: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Well I hope the member's not going to argue with me because he's running a real risk of leaving the House.