National MP Erica Stanford has branded outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins "the worst Education Minister we have ever had" amid ongoing debate over New Zealand's flailing school attendance rates.
New statistics for term two of this year, which ran from April 24 to June 30, found just 47 percent of students met the criteria for regular attendance.
While this was up 7.2 percent from term two in 2022, Stanford - National's education spokesperson - argued the data was incomparable as last year's poor attendance rates were due to a documented spike in COVID-19 cases.
"Last year was a massive anomaly, and mostly driven by sickness when we had a big COVID-19 spike, so it's not fair to compare it to last year," Stanford told AM's Ryan Bridge on Friday during the show's regular political panel.
"You really want to look back to 2017-2019, before COVID, and look at term two data then - we were up around or above 60 percent, I think, in 2017."
Hipkins served as Education Minister from 2017 until January of this year: he gave up the portfolio when he succeeded former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who announced her resignation on January 19. Jan Tinetti subsequently took over from Hipkins.
"It is very disappointing, and this is the legacy that Chris Hipkins as Education Minister has left. He will go down in history, I guarantee you, [based] on the data and statistics, as the worst Education Minister we have ever had," Stanford declared.
"Those statistics are grim. Those children have very little chance over time of gaining good qualifications and going on to live the life they want.
"It's a problem we need to get on top of and this Government has ignored it for five years... we've got a lot of work to do to right this after six years of lack of delivery."
Labour has funnelled $160 million into boosting student turnout rates in the last year, which has seen an uplift of around 10 percent in regular attendance - defined as being at school more than 90 percent of the year.
As of term one, 2023, 59.9 percent of students had met the criteria for regular attendance: this was an increase on the figures recorded in term four of 2022, which sat at 50.6 percent. However, it was still a noticeable downfall from pre-pandemic data, with attendance sitting at 66.1 percent in term four of 2019.
Speaking to Newshub Nation in September, Tinetti claimed Labour has put in an "evidence-based, strategic plan that has been really well received by the sector". Funded services have included the implementation of additional attendance officers around schools.
Outgoing Police Minister Ginny Andersen echoed this on Friday, telling Bridge attendance rates have improved under the Labour Government's efforts - but acknowledged there was more work to be done.
"We would really like to have a cross-government set of targets because it's great to kick this around as a political football, but the real ones missing out are the young people learning, so we want to make sure we're doing everything we possibly can to increase those attendance rates," Andersen said.
"What we are saying is, 'Yes, they have improved, but we've got more work to do'. Part of that is having the conversation that schools have got a duty to make sure they're chasing up, but so do the parents... parents take their kids on school holidays during the term because it's cheaper.
"As a parent, I'm guilty of doing that, and we should not be doing that - we should be prioritising our children's attendance at school."
Earlier this year, independent economist Cameron Bagrie raised alarm bells over the country's declining attendance rates after a rocky start to the year, with teachers' strikes and weather disruptions seeing schools close regularly.
"As a parent, [I'm] somewhat angry in regard to where the system has got to and really worried about where the New Zealand economy is going to be in 20 to 30 years," Bagrie told AM at the time.
"There's a big gap between the top and the bottom and it's really that bottom lot we need to do a hell of a lot of work on."
The Government has also faced pressure to address the downward trend in students' achievement in maths and literacy.
