Principal tackles truancy

Truancy figures showing one in five students was missing school prompted a Wanganui principal to tackle the problem head-on.

City College principal Peter Kaua said the school began taking attendance statistics because a high number of students were not turning up to class.

"In 2009 [attendance] was 80 per cent, but it could have been lower than that."

Increasing the attendance rate to its current level of 89.5 per cent had been a three-year process.

"It hasn't been easy. You have to be vigilant around truancy."

A Wairarapa school announced legal action this week against parents who failed to ensure their child attended school for two and a half years.

Greytown's Kuranui College said after considerable efforts to address "significant non-attendance issues", prosecution was the only option.

A biennial school attendance survey last year showed 29,000 students were truant from schools on any given day nationwide.

Mr Kaua said City College worked with the community, parents and formed effective relationships with students to help address truancy problems.

"I shared the statistics with them and made sure they knew - if you are in class 85 per cent of the time, your chances of succeeding go up."

And whilst he was pleased with the school's latest attendance figures, truancy was a problem the school community could not afford to let slip.

The Secondary Principals' Association warns that regular truants are more likely to become criminals.

"If they're absent for a long period, they're missing out on their education," association president Patrick Walsh said.

"They're less likely to complete level two NCEA, and therefore not get a job or lead on to an apprenticeship or work."

Truancy had wide-ranging ramifications for society and the problem needed greater focus, Mr Walsh said.

"Those students [regular truants] are the ones who go on to adulthood with a whole range of other socio-economic disadvantages, which then cost them and the taxpayer a lot of money.

"And those students are the ones who tend to get into criminal offending."

Under the Education Act schools have the power to prosecute parents if they fail to ensure children attend school regularly between the ages of 6 and 16.

Prosecutions must be approved by the Education Ministry, which can also prosecute parents if a child aged 6-16 has not been enrolled in school.

However, prosecutions are a last resort and only happen after numerous family, youth and anti-truancy agencies have been consulted.

Only four truancy prosecutions have been taken by schools this year. In 2011, there were 15 cases.

Bay of Plenty town Kawerau and South Wairarapa are the country's truancy hotspots, according to the data, with truancy rates of 10 per cent and 9.9 per cent respectively. APNZ