2 days ago
School attendance better for term one than same time last year
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The number of children attending school regularly rose to 66 percent in term one.
That's up from 61 percent for the same term last year.
Regular attendance has been rising after reaching record lows in 2022.
That year the term one figure was 46.5 percent, dropping to 40 percent in term two - the term that traditionally has the worst attendance rates.
In 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, term one regular attendance was 73 percent.
The government
wants 80 percent of children attending regularly by 2030
.
"Short-term illness/ medical absences continued to be the main driver of non-attendance, accounting for 4.6 percent of absent time in Term 1 2025," a ministry report on the figures said.
"Absence recorded as truancy or unknown reason accounted for 1.8 percent of absent time. Total time absent in Term 1 2025 was 9.7 percent of time in the term."
The report said regular attendance improved for all ethnicities reaching 51 for Māori, 55 percent for Pacific students, 74 percent for Asian students, and 69 for European/Pākehā.
It said regular attendance was lowest in Tai Tokerau at 54 percent, followed by South and South-West Auckland on 58 percent.
"Tāmaki Herenga Manawa (Central and East Auckland) region had the highest percentage of students attending regularly in Term 1 2025 (72.3 percent), followed by Otago, Southland at 70.2 percent, and Tāmaki Herenga Tāngata (North and West Auckland) region at 70.0 percent."
