There are calls for teachers' pay to be significantly lifted amid increasing concern over New Zealand's falling attendance and achievement rates.
Students have had a rocky start to the year with teachers' strikes and weather disruptions seeing schools close regularly.
It comes after years of COVID-19 disruptions with attendance rates falling from 66.1 percent in term 4 of 2019 to just 50.6 percent in term 4 of 2022.
As different political parties float different solutions, an education expert thinks a big pay boost for teachers could be the answer.
Education advocate Sir Ian Taylor told AM's Ryan Bridge on Monday while the figures are "terrible" they need to be put in perspective.
"There's a school in Northland I visited four or five weeks ago where they have run a campaign with their kids which is a Facebook campaign that says, 'School is Cool'. Their attendance rate has risen above 80 percent, so I think one of the big things that is missing is our Ministry and politicians need to start talking to our schools and the teachers at the cliff face," Sir Ian said.
He said he's spoken to thousands of teachers in the past few months who are working extremely hard to improve things.
When asked whether New Zealand is at the point where teachers' salaries need to be lifted by 30, 40, or even 50 percent to help attract people into the industry, Sir Ian said yes.
"We aren't at that point today, we were at that point years and years ago. When I first became a father, my two boys now are 34 and 36, I remember asking myself, 'Why is it that I pay my accountants and my lawyers more money than the most important people in the country as far as my kids are concerned?'.
"Now I've got moko, I've got a grandson who starts school in a month and that gap has gotten bigger, not smaller. So I would be out marching with the teachers. I trust our teachers, they are the most important profession in the country and I think we need to recognise that."
It was a view shared by independent economist Cameron Bagrie who told Bridge earlier in the show the Government needs to come up with a long-term plan to address teachers' inadequate pay.
"My personal view is that teachers are massively underpaid and there needs to be a five to 10-year plan to address that. But there is a flip side to that, with higher pay must come deeper accountability, IE measurement of teacher results."
Meanwhile education publisher and advocate Dame Wendy Pye, who joined AM alongside Sir Ian, said getting kids engaged with learning is the key.
"The Ministry needs to embrace other people as well. The Ministry believes they have all answers for all content and every decision for schools. And really that's not the answer, we need to work as partners to develop… I really believe we do have such incredible resources and we need to develop something really interesting for kids," Pye said.
"The most important thing is children learning to read at the first years of learning because if they have the right attitude when they come to school in those first days they will really change."
Education has been a talking point ahead of the election with the National Party regularly criticising the Labour Government about falling attendance rates.
Recently National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford lashed out at the Government's announcement it was delaying a requirement for schools to be teaching some refreshed NCEA subjects by one year to put the immediate focus on maths and literacy.
The announcement came after feedback from teachers' and principals' groups as well as the NCEA Professional Advisory Group that schools could struggle to properly implement the planned changes on the current timeline.
The announcement also came as the Government faced pressure to address the downward trend in students' achievement in maths and literacy, which Education Minister Jan Tinetti has already said she is "not happy with".
"We'll prioritise mathematics, English, te reo Māori and pāngarau areas of the curriculum, by deferring the requirement for schools to implement the other areas by one year," Tinetti said.
"The refresh and redesign of the curriculum will continue on existing timeframes and be available to all schools from 2026 but teaching it won't be compulsory until 2027."
But Stanford called the announcement a "panicked response from Labour as they finally wake up to how serious New Zealand's declining education standards are".
"The Government’s pilot of this assessment showed that 90 percent of students in decile one schools would have failed, and therefore could not obtain any NCEA qualification. Labour has neglected the very students that need a great education to change their lives.
"Overall, more than half of New Zealand students involved in the pilot were unable to pass a foundational writing test the OECD says is necessary to succeed in further learning, life, and work.
"It is clear the Minister and her predecessor had no clue the pilot results would be this bad."
