It's been a rough start to term one of the school year, after flood events, a cyclone, Covid, truancy and teachers striking disrupted time in the classroom.
Most Kiwi schools were back by the first week of February, which coincided with the clean-up following flooding in Auckland and Northland.
Ministry of Education data shows that on Tuesday February 7, attendance was at 87.7% in the Auckland education region.
"Attendance on this day may have been impacted by the severe flooding in Auckland the previous week," the ministry says.
Following January's Auckland Anniversary weekend floods, the Education Ministry ordered all the city's schools, kura, early childhood services and tertiary institutes to remain shut for on-site learning until February 7.
Some principals were blindsided after being told the instruction was issued after the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) asked the ministry to help minimise traffic on Auckland roads while vital infrastructure was repaired.
The direction was issued on January 30 but was lifted two days later.
Gabrielle strikes a blow
Later that month there was more disruption as Cyclone Gabrielle struck the North Island, causing widespread damage in many places.
According to the ministry, school closures due to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle resulted in lower attendance rates and numbers across the North Island.
The South Island escaped the ferocious storm, as Canterbury/Chatham Islands saw a high of 90.6% attendance on February 14. A low of 0.9% was seen in the Hawke’s Bay/Tairāwhiti education region, severely affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Auckland education region had the highest rate (73.1%) of students learning at home on Tuesday February 14 - 103,439 of them.
"Here in Auckland, the days off relating to weather were about staff not being able to get to school, power, internet and roads being out of commission, communities being involved in clean ups and supporting people who needed help," principal of Flanshaw Road School in Auckland and New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) past president Cherie Taylor-Patel told 1News.
Striking out days
Battling for fairer pay and working conditions saw teachers take to the streets in protest on March 16.
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers — a 50,000-strong workforce - walked off the job for a day of strike action.
It was the country's largest industrial strike action from the education sector since May 2019 and it led to the closure of most schools that day, with around 800,000 students affected.
Taylor-Patel says this term, some schools closed for a half day so teachers could attend union meetings.
"They are entitled to do this (it is a collective bargaining condition) and where the majority of teachers on a staff are in the union, it is difficult to keep a school open. In our area, the union was able to provide two options for meeting times, so some schools were able to stay open.
"With the strike day being in Term 1, this is because the collective bargaining negotiations were not settled last year."
More strike action is planned by secondary teachers this Wednesday.
Covid continues circulating
Taylor-Patel says she has heard the numbers of students getting Covid are on the rise in some secondary schools.
"And we are mindful that once Covid gets into a class/school it can spread quickly."
It comes as the latest Ministry of Health data shows there were 11,171 Covid-19 cases in the last week and 37 deaths. As of midnight Sunday, there were 211 people in hospital with the virus.
The isolation period for those who catch the virus is still seven days.
Teacher-only days
They can catch caregivers and parents by surprise, but the teacher-only days have been mandated into legislation.
"With the curriculum teacher only days being in Term 1, this is because it has been mandated in legislation that teachers implement the local histories curriculum this year," Taylor-Patel says.
"For them to do this, they need to do professional development, so they can plan and teach lessons relevant for their school and class context. It is my view that the timing of the curriculum teacher only days was made quite specific so this work would be prioritised and actioned early in the year.
"What we need is the schedule of curriculum teacher only days coming because teachers need time to understand the changes to each curriculum area, as it is reviewed and refreshed.
"Parents also need to know when these days will be happening," Taylor-Patel says.
Tinetti confronts truancy
Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti says Labour is already confronting students' non-attendance.
"Our kids need to be at school every day, unless they’re sick. That’s the bottom line," she says.
"The decline in school attendance began in 2015, but the pandemic added fuel to the fire. We need to be doing more to help schools and kura support students who are not attending or engaged in education."
Tinetti noted the recently-announced $74 million package, which she says, puts resources on the ground to support schools and students and make a difference to attendance rates this year. It would see the introduction of 82 new attendance/ truancy officers in schools.
"We know that there are many reasons why a child might not show up to school, which is why we’re also continuing our initiatives that are focused on removing barriers to education such as free period products, free healthy school lunches, school donations, preventing bullying and redesigning our curriculum."
National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford says the compounding effect of lockdowns have already disrupted learning enough.
National's education spokesperson and the Education Minister argued over the release of attendance data. (Source: 1News)
“It is really concerning that students have already seen significant interruptions to their school year. Every day at school matters and we need to focus on getting kids back into the classroom to catch up for lost learning after years of significant disruptions due to Covid-19," she told 1News.
“Just 46% of students attended school regularly in term three last year. This is not just a social failure but a future economic crisis.
“We know that kids who do not attend school regularly are five times more likely to fall behind in reading, writing and maths. We need to aim for kids to attend school every day so they can master the basics they need to succeed.”
Term one ends on Thursday 6 April.
SHARE ME