School attendance

One big factor that effect outcomes is attendance--or lack of attendance-The questions to ask is how big is the problem, how does this effect students, what cause the current problem and how can it be solved this


How missing school affects performance

  • According to Education Review Office (ERO), attendance is “directly related to how well learners achieve”. The more they attend, the higher their achievement (including more credits in New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) NCEA). (Evidence ERO)

  • ERO states there is no safe level of non-attendance. Even missing just two days a term is linked to lower achievement. (Evidence ERO)

  • The relationship is illustrated by the graph in the report showing: as the attendance rate (horizontal axis) declines, so do NCEA Level 1 credits earned (vertical axis). (Evidence ERO)

  • For example, an older commentary noted that in NZ, if a child attends only ~70% rather than ~80% of school in Year 11, the probability of achieving NCEA Level 1 drops by more than 10 percentage points. (NZ Initiative)

  • In the 2023/24 annual report of ERO, they link low attendance with poorer academic outcomes: e.g., achievement declines equivalent to about “two years in education in mathematics, 18 months in science and one year in reading”. (ERO)

So: missing school isn’t just a day off — it accumulates and has  a measurable negative impacts on learning, qualifications and later life outcomes, more so in Maths than other subject, Maths is progressive and if learning gaps are created, and not filled it becomes bigger and eventually grand canyons,. To compensate for this students disengage because they cant do the next work due to lack of prior knowledge, disrupt the class in order to create learning gaps for other students and hide his/her own gaps, withdraw and play electronic games or listen to musioc, truant class, shift blame and acuse the teacher, say  maths is boring

How big is the attendance / absence problem in NZ

  • In Term 2 of 2024, about 10 % of all students (≈ 80,569 students) were “chronically absent” — i.e., attending less than about 70 % of a term. (Evidence ERO)

  • For senior secondary students (Years 11-13), the chronic absence rate was about 15 % in Term 2, 2024 (≈ 23,712 students) in that age group. (Evidence ERO)

  • Regular attendance (defined as attending more than 90% of the term) has been low and declining. In Term 1 of 2025, 65.9 % of students attended regularly (an increase from prior years). (The Beehive)

  • In Term 2 of 2024, only ~53.2 % of students were classified as regularly attending (primary ~56.8%, secondary ~46.7%) in that term. (The Beehive)

  • Absenteeism in general: In 2022 the average absenteeism rate was ~19.5% (i.e., about one in five students absent on a typical day) based on reporting (which covered ~83% of enrolments). (The Facts)

  • At Tamaki the attendance is below 50%. The school seior managementteam did a huge ointervention plan to combat this. More on this later

 What are the main reasons students don’t go to school

The research identifies several drivers of non­attendance (especially chronic absence). Some of the key ones:


  • Health issues: In Term 1 2025, short-term illness/medical absences were the main driver — accounting for 4.6% of absent time. (RNZ)

  • Student attitudes: For example, learners who don’t think going to school every day is important are 23 percentage points less likely to attend regularly compared with those who do think it’s important. (Evidence ERO)

  • Parent attitudes: ~41% of parents are comfortable with their child missing a week or more of school in a term. Students whose parents are comfortable with that are much more likely to have irregular attendance (61% vs 27%). (Evidence ERO)

  • Bullying, school climate, participation: Students say issues such as not being able to participate in school activities, not liking teachers or classmates, or feeling disconnected make attendance less likely. (Evidence ERO)

  • Socio-economic and housing factors: Chronic absence is higher in lower socio-economic communities, and for students living in social housing. (Evidence ERO)

  • For chronically absent students specifically:

    • ~55% reported mental health issues as a reason. (Evidence ERO)

    • ~27% reported physical health issues. (Evidence ERO)

    • ~25% said they “wanted to leave school” as a reason. (Evidence ERO)

In summary: Health (both physical & mental), attitudes (student and parent), school experience (how engaging/connected), and living conditions are major reasons.

Covid has a huge impact on the stay away numbers. Attendance before and after Covid was dramatic and now even adults demand to work from home instead of going to the office.

Single moms with big sons are unable to control and send their children to school.

Cultural differences where some cultures keep the older children at home to babysit and look after the yoiung sibling, funerals and weddings theat \l;ast for two weeks, constant visting family on the islands during school term for extended periods

 Key takeaways

  • Attendance matters: missing school, even a few days per term, has measurable negative effects on achievement.

  • In NZ, a significant portion of students are missing school at levels that are concerning: 10% chronically absent, less than ~60–70% regularly attending (depending on term).

  • The main reasons are varied, but health issues (especially illness), student/parent attitudes, and school environment feature strongly.

  • There is a strong equity dimension: Māori and Pacific students, and those in more deprived communities, face higher absence rates. (Evidence ERO)

  • Fixing the problem

  • Number one-It is the parents responsibbility to send their children to school
  • The student themselves must be motivatested to come to school. 
  • Goverment consequences-fines/ jail sentences for parents who fail to be good parents
  • Consequences-students need to repeat a year if attendance is below 80% t or did not achieve the required pass mark to to fill in gaps in their learning 
  • A truancy officer is the fist start.
  • Create a friendly and inviting environment at school
  • Engaging lessons to motivate the students to come to school
  • Parent phone home to encourage parents to send students students to school---Is this in our job description???????
  • Good record keeping of attendance to find pattens and problems and to evuate the problem. Not create different codes and  mark students present for off site learning for working at home mondays to camouflage poor attendance statistics-this is creative bookkeeping that only mask and hides the problem
  • Give chocolates and recognition for great attendance
  • Not rewarding student(Selwyn College)who gave students an excellent attendance awards on their report if a students have not missed more than 30 school days a year. This encourage students to take 30 days of before there is a downgrade on their rapport
The challenge -Get students to school, then get them in class and then get them to work. presence of mind and engagement at learning is the final goal

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