“We’re really throwing everything at this. But let’s be honest, 65.9% of students attending regularly, means 34.1% of students did not attend regularly last term and that’s why we’ve got to keep pushing on this.
“I can’t stress it enough. At the end of the day, our society’s success will depend on how much knowledge we pass from one generation to the next.”
Concerning data is still making headway, with around 11.3% chronically absent from school in term 4 last year, equating to around 93,000 young people. Chronically absent means a student attends 70% of school or less.
He said it showed they were “coming out of the low” and was impressed with the figures before the $140 million injection from this year’s Budget could come into effect.
Last month, Seymour said there would “almost certainly” be prosecutions against parents of absent students this year as the Government intensifies its crackdown on school truancy.
Fines range from $30 for every day the student is absent, up to $300 for the first offence, and up to $3000 for a second or subsequent infringement.
He categorically shut down penalties for families facing poverty, illness and other barriers, saying the purpose of the scheme was not to add to “people’s woes”.
Instead, the scheme would focus on parents and caregivers who “won’t” send their children to school rather than “can’t”.
“We are going to put in place consequences for the worst offenders, not people who can’t get their kids to school, but people who won’t.”
In terms of prosecutions, this would equate to a “very small minority” of the parents of truant kids, he said.
Seymour will be acting Prime Minister while Christopher Luxon flies to China to meet with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress standing committee.
Luxon then travels to Europe to attend the Nato summit.
