Mayors push back on minister’s request
Mayors nationwide have come back at Associate Education Minister David Seymour after he called on local leaders to drive up school attendance.
Seymour cited attendance rates as a foundation for community and national success.
“I’m calling on mayors to be champions for education in their regions. When students go to school, communities are stronger and better prepared for generations to come,” he said.
Local leaders say education is not council business
But mayors like Ashburton mayor Neil Brown say they already have enough on their plates. School attendance is not a core role or focus of the council, but “being leaders for the community is”, he said.
“Keeping children in education has better outcomes,” he said. “If we can help with that in a small way, then that’s okay, but it won’t be a high priority [for council].
“If a prod from a mayor, councillors, or a member of the community gets them going to school and learning, that’s a positive.”
What Seymour is asking for
David Seymour wrote to all mayors nationwide, urging them to use the Government’s new daily school attendance dashboard. He also encouraged local councils to:
• Check out the dashboard and how your region compares with other parts of New Zealand. Encourage others in your community to engage with this dashboard
• Lead a conversation with your community around how they can support schools to improve attendance. Even small steps like encouraging local businesses to be aware that school-aged children should be at school during school hours are helpful
• Amplify the message that school is helping our young people achieve better outcomes
• Let the Government know what’s working, or not working, in your community, to get young people in school
“Attending school is the first step towards achieving positive educational outcomes. Positive educational outcomes lead to better health, higher incomes, better job stability and greater participation within communities. These are opportunities that every student deserves,” Seymour said.
A clash of requests
Conflicting Government messaging
Local Government NZ president and Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton said David Seymour’s request was confusing, as the Government had asked councils to get back to basics.
“It’s a clash of requests,” he said. “Being told to just focus on the roads and water is a completely different message than ‘please also pick up this thing a minister wants, and this other thing a minister might want’.”
Councillors see deeper issues
Broughton cares about school attendance and agreed it’s important for councils to engage with schools, but said education is a core role of central Government.
Selwyn District councillor Sophie McInnes said Seymour’s request was “distraction politics”.
She said that when the Ministry of Education is cutting attendance services (truancy officers) and Seymour “makes a cheery suggestion that local government and businesses could step up instead, he’s actively avoiding every single real issue that impacts whether a child gets to school each day.”
Managing attendance
A web of causes
The issues underpinning declining school attendance rates are complex. Mental health issues are increasingly common among students and can lead to school avoidance. Family and systemic challenges like poverty, housing instability, and caregiving responsibilities also play a role, as do negative school experiences such as bullying or feeling unwelcome.
Further, many students struggle to find relevance in the curriculum, leading to disengagement, and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routines and normalised irregular attendance for some. These issues are often interconnected, making solutions both urgent and multifaceted.
Real-time attendance data
Average attendance across the first week of Term 2 was 87.1% according to the Government’s new attendance data collection process.
“The daily school attendance dashboard kicked off this year. It facilitates the daily recording and publication of student attendance, meaning data for Week 1 of Term 2 already available,” he said.
“It’s pretty clear that areas hit worst by the stormy weather had significant drop-offs towards the end of the week. For example, Canterbury and Chatham Islands recorded 90.2% on the first two days of term but dropped to 76.9% on Thursday when the storm hit. I expect attendance to increase again with better forecasts next week.”
Minister: Local leadership still matters
“The dashboard provides region-specific data and insights. Over the school holidays, I wrote to all mayors across New Zealand urging them to check out their region’s statistics so they can help raise awareness and spark local action.
“My letter didn’t ask them to spend money, or hire more bureaucrats, or make more rules. All it asked was for community leaders to play a positive role, encouraging young people to get to school.
“My goal is that all of us take ownership of the attendance problem, because in the long term, all of us will pay for it if children aren’t educated and prepared for the 21st century.”
