David Seymour says strikes in the final week of Term 3 prompted many to begin their holidays early. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is blaming teacher strikes for a drop in school attendance in the final week of Term 3.
In a statement, he said the term was tracking towards 52.7 percent regular attendance - up 1 percentage point on the previous year's term's 51.7 - but lower attendance in the final week of term brought the rate down to 50.3.
Regular attendance measures the percentage of students who have attended more than 90 percent of the term's half-days.
"Strikes in the final week of term likely played a significant role in this disappointing finish. Even though students are not marked absent on strike days, we saw a clear drop-off in attendance, with the disruption of a mid-week day off prompting many to begin their holidays early," he said.
"Almost 20,000 students were not regular attendees in Term 3, because they knocked off early. That is unacceptable."
He also acknowledged, however, the term had the highest rate of sickness-related absence since 2022.
"Students missed 7.2 percent of the term due to medical-related reasons in Term 3 2025. More than any other reason. This was the highest rate of medical-related absence in any term since Term 2 2022, when nationwide attendance was only 39.9 percent."
A drop-off in attendance is also typical for the final day of the term, as well as most Fridays.
Rates remain below pre-Covid levels, with the 2019 regular attendance rate being 59.5 percent. Attendance dropped in 2022, down to 45.8 percent.
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