Some say there should be greater insight into student absences. Photo / Thinkstock
Some say there should be greater insight into student absences. Photo / Thinkstock
OPINION
My high school teachers would be among the first to agree I was not the most attentive student in class - if I even showed up in the first place.
In my days at Rotorua Girls’ High School, I’d bunked class so frequently, I was eventually put on adaily report and was forced to get signatures from each teacher of each class to say I was physically there.
But these wagging stints were more a result of me being a naughty and wilful teen than something more serious such as anxiety or other mental health issues.
So it was with great interest I read Emma Houpt’s story on former Ōtumoetai College student Cameron Paratene, who is calling for attendance codes to be recorded in greater detail.
The codes indicate why a student is not in class. For example, if a student is absent for short-term illness or medical reasons, they’re marked as a Code M.
Students absent because of mental health issues such as anxiety are also coded M.
Paratene, who said he skipped school some days due to anxiety, said the attendance codes did not give insight into the “actual reason” students were missing school such as mental health.
Because of this, a student unable to attend school because of mental health reasons were either being marked absent or parents were asking for their child to be recorded as truant.
I feel for these students. It seems unfair they would be put in the same box as someone, like my teenage self, deliberately skipping class for things considered to be more fun.
Ōtumoetai principal Russell Gordon says that while there is no hard evidence that mental health is an issue at his school, he knows students are experiencing this.
It should not be underestimated how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted children’s mental health either, he says.
Tauranga teenager Cameron Paratene. Photo / Emma Houpt
To think of what high school students have been forced to navigate in the past few years - lockdowns, at-home learning, disruptions to exams, school closures - it’s of no surprise to me some are struggling with mental health.
This is backed up by the Ministry of Education’s Sean Teddy, who says that now, more than ever, students face challenges with their mental and emotional wellbeing.
In January, we reported concerns for displaced children living in Rotorua’s emergency housing, who were facing changes to their transportation service helping to keep them in school.
The school vans were considered “so much more than transport”, helping to improve attendance and provide emotional stability for children in emergency housing. But the seven vans were scaled back to just two.
As resilient as we all like to think we Kiwis are in the face of Covid-19 stress and restrictions, let alone the more recent weather and natural disasters, we must remember that at heart, we’re human.
I applaud Paratene’s efforts.
Greater detail about a student’s absence can only be a good thing and could potentially lead to greater understanding and support for students needing it.
Our rangatahi are our future leaders, bosses, doctors, and police.
Getting better insights into their mental wellbeing seems like a no-brainer to me.
