Is the ‘truancy crisis’ really a crisis? We ask students

Only 60% of students went to school regularly in Term 1 of this year. But while it’s easy to blame Covid-19, New Zealand’s school attendance has been falling since 2015 - before all of this kicked off.

Re: News spoke with some high school students about this and found some students do not see New Zealand’s low attendance as a crisis because students can work from home. 

“I feel like now that Covid-19 has happened, people think they can do work at home because they assign work for home now,” one student said.

However, the headmaster at St Peter's College in Auckland James Bentley says students do not see what teachers see.

“Students only see what is happening in their school, and their school might be fine, their social group might be fine. But the stats across the country do not lie. There’s no question, it's absolutely a crisis.

“Our academic performance, as a country, is declining,” Bentley says. “Unfortunately, there's going to be ramifications on that in the future when we have an uneducated workforce.”

Keep an eye on Re: News in the weeks before the election - we’ll wrap up the key education policies each party will announce. 

And check out our other election coverage:

On trans rights, here’s stats on the situation, and what young voters think. 

On cost of living, here’s stats on the situation, and what young voters think.

On climate change, here’s stats on the situation, and what young voters think.

On dental health, here’s stats on the situation, and what young voters think.

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