Web-based school enrolment system going live in Auckland

A new electronic enrolment system is going live in 124 Auckland schools from next week and will be rolled out across a further 339 secondary and intermediate schools nationwide over the next month, Education Minister Steve Maharey has said.

Mr Maharey said the web-based ENROL system would make it easier for schools and the Ministry of Education to keep track of students and ensure they did not "fall through the cracks".

The system is designed to improve the information that goes with students from school to school, and to help ensure they stay in the system until they are 16.

"The new system will quickly alert us to students who are not enrolled, so we can get them back to school as soon as possible," Mr Maharey said.

"Where a student doesn't re-enrol after 20 days, a notification will be sent to the Non-Enrolment Truancy Service to follow up."

Mr Maharey said that as many as 4000 students a year left one school and failed to enrol in the next.

The current paper-based system was too slow to identify them, and imposed a high administrative burden on schools.

"For the first time, we will be able to accurately measure issues like student transience and ensure students and schools get extra support where it's needed," Mr Maharey said.

Another benefit was that it would reduce the high number of inaccurate notifications that resulted from the current system.

In 2005 there were about 8000 non-enrolments notified to the ministry and in nearly half of those cases the students were already enrolled in another school or had legally left school.

Mr Maharey said that from next year, when the new system was rolled out in primary schools, a National Student Number would be introduced.

ENROL has been piloted in a number of schools over the last 10 months. Funding of $4.8 million was provided in last year's budget and it will be in all schools by the end of 2007.

- NZPA