David Seymour urges students to skip climate strike to avoid absence penalties

• David Seymour is urging parents and teachers to tell students not to attend today’s climate strike
• Seymour says striking counts towards students’ 15-day absence allowance and learning science is more important
• He confirmed students attending the strike would be marked with an ‘unjustified absence’

The Government is urging parents and teachers to tell students not to attend today’s climate strike because it will count towards their new 15-day allowance for absences.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says learning about science is more important than striking and it could have waited.

In announcing the new truancy policy yesterday, Seymour said it would be mandatory for schools from 2026.

The protest organised by School Strike 4 Climate NZ (SS4C) is set to take place in seven cities nationwide.

Seymour told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking he would urge teachers to mark students as having an “unjustified absence” if they attended today’s climate strike.

David Seymour announced the Stepped Attendance Response scheme policy on Thursday. Photo / Alyse Wright

“I know some schools in the past have tried to say going on this school strike for climate is somehow a useful academic exercise.”

He said this “worried him” because students needed to be in class to learn the science that “would improve their living standards”.

He confirmed if students attended a strike, it would count towards the 15-day allowance for absences.

On the new policy announced yesterday, Seymour said students, teachers the Government and the school played a part in accountability.

“Ultimately, we just get the data.”

He urged schools to “take this seriously”.

The strikes will take place in Christchurch starting at 1pm, Auckland starting at 3pm, Otago at noon, Gisborne at 1pm, Whanganui at noon, New Plymouth at 1.45pm and Wellington at noon.

School Strike 4 Climate protesters marching down Lambton Quay in Wellington in April. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Yesterday, SS4C spokesperson Kereama Allen told the Herald it motivated students more to strike.

“I would say that this just goes to show that this Government does not care about rangatahi’s (young people) voice in Aotearoa New Zealand. It shows that they have no intention to listen to us.

“Now is a crucial time to strike because if we want results with this new Government, we need to push as hard as possible to better our future.”

Seymour announced a new policy yesterday — the Stepped Attendance Response scheme or Star — which would be mandatory for all schools from the beginning of the 2026 school year.

He said it would place obligations on the school and parents to ensure their children were attending classes regularly.

Seymour provided examples of how the scheme could work:

• Five days absent: The school gets in touch with the parents/guardians to determine the reasons for absence and to set expectations.
• 10 days absent: The school leadership meets with the parents/guardian and the student to identify barriers to attendance and develop plans to address this.
• 15 days or more absent: Escalating the response to the ministry and steps to initiate prosecution of parents could be considered as a valid intervention.

Based on Seymour’s Star template, students who missed more than 15 days of school were of “serious concern” and the Ministry of Education would identify schools that had a significant proportion of schools had this level and offer additional support.

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