10. Question No. 10—EducationCAMILLA BELICH (Labour) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 10—Education10. CAMILLA BELICH (Labour) to the Minister of Education: What resources is the Government putting into schools so they can meet attendance and engagement targets?Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): We know how important it is for young people to be at school and engaged in their learning which is why this Government is putting in every effort to making sure they are. Earlier this week I announced a $74 million package which targets resources on the ground to support schools and students to make a difference in improving the full range of school attendance rates. This funding will establish 82 new attendance officer roles to work with students who have low or declining attendance rates and further support the Attendance Service to ensure they are going to school every day unless they are sick.Camilla Belich: How will these attendance officers get children re-engaged with education?Hon JAN TINETTI: These attendance officers will be based at the chalkface because that is where change will occur. They will work with students who have low or declining attendance rates. They will also work alongside parents and schools to turn around attendance rates. They'll do this by identifying and addressing the barriers to those kids attending and engaging in education. This Government understands turning this ship around will require input from the whole community including parents but we are laser focused on making sure our kids are not just turning up to school but that they are engaged in their learning.Camilla Belich: How will this announcement support students who are chronically absent or not enrolled?Hon JAN TINETTI: The 82 attendance officers announced this week will work with students who have irregular or moderate absence. This is in addition to the work existing attendance officers do with the chronic absent or non-enrolled students who are referred to the Attendance Service where this Government has also significantly increased capacity. Our new funding will provide cost pressure and volume increase to bolster these services and support a further 1300 chronically absent students and referrals of 1500 non-enrolled young people.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Can she explain how it is precisely 82 attendance officers that are required to get 95000 chronically absent kids back to school when she did not know earlier this week how many attendance officers there were at all in the first place?Hon JAN TINETTI: That member has misinterpreted the data and has not taken the data into account at all. If that member had read that data correctly he would understand that the absence rates are split into justified absence and non-justified absence. Justified absence also occurs in the chronically absent young people so therefore there are many of those young people who were chronically absent who had absolute justified attendance. I suggest that the member goes back and has another look at that data and understands it but I also suggest that that member listens to the answer to the next question because it might help his understanding of the data.Camilla Belich: How will the package referred to improve the quality of the attendance data collected by schools?Hon JAN TINETTI: Accurate and timely attendance data enables schools to identify patterns of behaviour and to intervene quickly where attendance patterns change. As a former teacher and principal of 27 years I know from experience there are flaws in the way data is currently collected and interpreted especially by those outside of the sector. That is why as part of our new package experts will be assigned to work directly with schools and communities to improve the quality understanding and use of the attendance data.Chris Bishop: Point of order Mr Speaker. There was a revealing moment in one of the supplementary answers then to my colleague Paul Goldsmith. The Minister said that the member should listen to the answer to the next question indicating that she knew precisely what was going to be asked of her by the member asking the original primary. This is meant to be question time not an example of prepared statements being read out by the Minister. Hon Grant Robertson: Speaking to the point of order I'm aware that the member who raised the point of order has some experience in particularly the preparation of questions and answers in this House and often I would wonder just how Gerry Brownlee was so eloquent. I think the member might find that the way in which questions are constructed by the Government has been pretty consistent over a long period of time.