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The Government spent $1 million on a campaign thought to have been aimed at boosting school attendance, which it now says was not designed to increase attendance rates.
The Every School Day is a Big Day campaign was launched by Education Minister Jan Tinetti in August last year, aimed at “supporting” school attendance.
“This Government has laser-sharp vision on the issue of improving attendance at school and that is why we are taking action,” Tinetti said in a press release at the time.
“The campaign supports practical measures to encourage attendance already under way by schools around the country.”
But despite this, documents related to the campaign and released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show it was “not expected to have a direct, quantifiable impact on attendance rates in itself”.
The Ministry of Education said schools across the country already have a range of activities under way around improving attendance “so it would be difficult to have a quantifiable measure related to the impact of the campaign only”, the documents said.
“No data has been collected on attendance rates in relation to this campaign.”
Tinetti has defended the campaign and said its purpose was to “raise public awareness about the school attendance - that every school day is important”.
“The purpose of the campaign was to engage with the broader community about the importance of school attendance as the first step.”
Education Minister Jan Tinetti. Photo / Mark Mitchell
She said Covid-19 had a negative impact on school attendance, and the Ministry of Education needed to promote a “positive message about getting students back to school”.
Tinetti said improving school attendance is ongoing and multi-faceted.
“Engaging with the broader community, for example, parents, employers, was a necessary part of the solution. As such this campaign is only one of the many tools we are using to address attendance rates.”
She also noted that school attendance is improving.
The latest data shows in term one this year, 59.5 per cent of students were regularly attending school.
National’s Education spokeswoman Erica Stanford said the campaign was an example of a Government which is more focused on making announcements than achieving tangible outcomes.
“This clearly points to a minister who was massively under pressure with issues of non-attendance and needed some kind of campaign to show she was doing something.”
But Stanford claimed that, quietly in the background, the campaign itself was never designed to improve school attendance at all.
According to the documents, the $1m budget was to “help parents, whanau, ākonga [students] and communities understand the importance of regular attendance and engagement at school”.
The document goes on to state the campaign would enable one consistent story to be repeatedly heard, as well as promote and “enhance awareness of regular attendance as an issue at a regional and local levels”.
Newstalk ZB asked for a breakdown of how the $1m for the Every School Day is a Big Day campaign, and a spokesperson for Tinetti said that would be considered as an OIA request - due back in 20 days or more.
But, replying to written questions from the National Party, Tinetti’s office provided a breakdown of the budget:
National Reseach, including baseline surveys, focus groups and two impact assessment reports - $225,100
Creative Development and Production - $294,900
Media Planning and Buying - $480,000
Tinetti’s office has confirmed all of the $1m has been spent.
“This is entirely in keeping with what we have seen under Jan Tinetti’s reign as Education Minister - trying to clean up the mess [former Education Minister] Chris Hipkins made, especially with attendance.”
