Letters to the editor: School attendance issue unforgivable

Figures indicate that only 64 per cent of students are attending schools regularly, writes one reader. Photo / File

The Ministry of Education has made some extraordinary statements relating to recently released school attendance figures in NZ schools .

These figures indicate that only 64 per cent of students are attending schools regularly. Really? Thirty-six per cent of NZ children not attending schools regularly?

The ministry's remarkable response is it will now monitor such figures more specifically. The issue of non-attendance in schools has been a concern for at least 20 years.

The responsibility for monitoring and taking appropriate action has been with the ministry for those 20 years. To fail to have a considered approach to address such startling evidence, so relevant to student success in life, is unbelievable.

To allow the situation to steadily grow over years is unforgivable.

A simple question then: How many parents have been prosecuted for failing to meet their parental responsibilities regarding school attendance? In the past year? In the past five years? In the past 10 years?

The educational sector has lost confidence in a ministry that is, in my view, unsuited to deliver educational outcomes of consequence for all children in NZ. If you can't administer a system to get children to attend school, you are unlikely to be able to restructure a system that is massively failing up to 20 per cent of our students in literacy, numeracy and science.

Jim McTamney
Tauranga

Wonderful mix

The towns and cities of this country have a wonderful mix of European and Māori names which reflect both the Māori and European history and development of the country.

One wonders, in that case, why are there some people who seem intent on changing the European place names to Māori ?

The call for Greerton to have a name change is a case in point.

S Porter
Welcome Bay

Failed planning

The traffic bottlenecks on State Highway 2 and the Wairoa Bridge are another example of failed planning.

While 11,000 vehicles per day use the four-lane Tauranga Eastern Link, more than 25,000 vehicles per day approach the two-lane Wairoa Bridge and thousands more join from Te Puna Station Rd.

The cycleway remains unfinished and was never designed for cycle commuting.

The Ōmokoroa and Katikati buses will no longer stop in the rural areas despite more bus services and more stops being added to urban areas.

There is no unlimited high-speed internet in the rural areas and no plans to improve this and cellphone coverage remains patchy.

David Riley
Whakamarama

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