You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald from News Talk ZB.

You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald from News Talk ZB.

Well done to the government. Well done to the government for making all the right noises this morning about dealing with truancy. Associate Education Minister David Seymour. He has announced that it's going to spend one hundred and forty million bucks over the next four years, with one aim getting more kids to turn up at school regularly. Now we will wait and see, let's wait and see. But for now the Associate Minister doesn't seem to be banging the drum about finding parents whose kids don't go to school. But we'll see leopard and their spots and all of that. But you know, at first blush it's looking good. But I'm wanted to see some more creative approaches than what's been talked about up until now to deal with truancy. And I've got a couple of ideas which I'll get to. So one hundred and forty million bucks all up, most of it over four years, and most of it one hundred and twenty three million dollars is going to go into setting up what the government's calling an attendance service. Sounds like the old truancy service to me was it even called the truancy Service. But that's the kind of thing it's going to be. Maybe what I'm hoping though, is that the government is going to be prepared for this new service to be a bit creative on it and not go down the old route or stick and no carrot. In fact, I'm hoping that the government's going to be prepared for the no stick, because I don't think punishing parents, for example, is a solution to truancy. So I've got two things I would do if I was running this new outfit, which might sound a sound like a weird way of going about it, and if I'm honest, these ideas they generally go against how I've thought about school, my approach to school for the whole time i've been a parent. But here goes. If I was in charge of this new agency, I would start by looking around the world to see what has worked already, and I would try to get schools on board with something that they trialed at a school in the UK that actually got some results starting the school day later. This was at a high school in northam Tinnesite, and what they did is they gave eight hundred high school students a late start. They didn't start until ten in the morning. I guess guess what happened. Absenteeism went down by twenty seven percent. So that's one thing I would do. But I'd go a bit further than that. I would I'd try to get schools on board with starting at around eleven thirty. And he'd probably have to limit to high schools for all sorts of practical reasons. In my parents and caregivers needed to get to work and all of that. And I would make it an eleven thirty start because of what we saw after the earthquakes, and how much better teenagers whose high schools had to share care hampuses, and because of that we're only physically at school for half the day, how much better they did in Nceea. It blew everyone, blew everybody away at the time. I remember, And I know it's very easy to say or to think that kids who don't turn up at school, that they're all the same, that they're no hopers, or it's easy to think that all of their parents and no hopers. But we need to think about some of the practical reasons why kids aren't turning up as often as we think they should, or not at all. And if teenagers, especially if they need to sleep in we know they do, then let them knowing that they just have to be at school later in the morning at eleven thirty. That's the first thing I'd do. The other thing I would do if I was running this NEU truancy agency is I would encourage schools not to be so hell bent on insisting kids having to be in the actual classroom, which probably sounds a very weird thing to do for someone given the job of getting more kids involved in school. But I think we need to decide whether we're going to focus on attendants or participation. They're two very different things, and if we are honest with ourselves, we will probably agree that participating in the education system in some way, shape or form is far more important, far better than just turning up and attending, So its attendance versus participation, and participation wins hands down. For me as a parent, I would always want my kids to go to school. That's how I was right from the start right to the end, because I think kids learn a lot about dealing with other people from being at school. But if you've got a child who just can't cope with that or whatever reason it is, then why shouldn't they be able to participate in the education system by working from home? Why should they be labeled a truant? You know, shouldn't we do what we can to make sure they get an education that they participate. Of course we should. And if the best way or the most appropriate way for them to get that education seems a bit weird to you and me to those of us who might think that you can only be educated at a school with everybody else by attending by turning up. If we think that, then we just have to get over ourselves and accept that people learn in different ways.

Well done to the government. Well done to the government for making all the right noises this morning about dealing with truancy. Associate Education Minister David Seymour. He has announced that it's going to spend one hundred and forty million bucks over the next four years, with one aim getting more kids to turn up at school regularly. Now we will wait and see, let's wait and see. But for now the Associate Minister doesn't seem to be banging the drum about finding parents whose kids don't go to school. But we'll see leopard and their spots and all of that. But you know, at first blush it's looking good. But I'm wanted to see some more creative approaches than what's been talked about up until now to deal with truancy. And I've got a couple of ideas which I'll get to. So one hundred and forty million bucks all up, most of it over four years, and most of it one hundred and twenty three million dollars is going to go into setting up what the government's calling an attendance service. Sounds like the old truancy service to me was it even called the truancy Service. But that's the kind of thing it's going to be. Maybe what I'm hoping though, is that the government is going to be prepared for this new service to be a bit creative on it and not go down the old route or stick and no carrot. In fact, I'm hoping that the government's going to be prepared for the no stick, because I don't think punishing parents, for example, is a solution to truancy. So I've got two things I would do if I was running this new outfit, which might sound a sound like a weird way of going about it, and if I'm honest, these ideas they generally go against how I've thought about school, my approach to school for the whole time i've been a parent. But here goes. If I was in charge of this new agency, I would start by looking around the world to see what has worked already, and I would try to get schools on board with something that they trialed at a school in the UK that actually got some results starting the school day later. This was at a high school in northam Tinnesite, and what they did is they gave eight hundred high school students a late start. They didn't start until ten in the morning. I guess guess what happened. Absenteeism went down by twenty seven percent. So that's one thing I would do. But I'd go a bit further than that. I would I'd try to get schools on board with starting at around eleven thirty. And he'd probably have to limit to high schools for all sorts of practical reasons. In my parents and caregivers needed to get to work and all of that. And I would make it an eleven thirty start because of what we saw after the earthquakes, and how much better teenagers whose high schools had to share care hampuses, and because of that we're only physically at school for half the day, how much better they did in Nceea. It blew everyone, blew everybody away at the time. I remember, And I know it's very easy to say or to think that kids who don't turn up at school, that they're all the same, that they're no hopers, or it's easy to think that all of their parents and no hopers. But we need to think about some of the practical reasons why kids aren't turning up as often as we think they should, or not at all. And if teenagers, especially if they need to sleep in we know they do, then let them knowing that they just have to be at school later in the morning at eleven thirty. That's the first thing I'd do. The other thing I would do if I was running this NEU truancy agency is I would encourage schools not to be so hell bent on insisting kids having to be in the actual classroom, which probably sounds a very weird thing to do for someone given the job of getting more kids involved in school. But I think we need to decide whether we're going to focus on attendants or participation. They're two very different things, and if we are honest with ourselves, we will probably agree that participating in the education system in some way, shape or form is far more important, far better than just turning up and attending, So its attendance versus participation, and participation wins hands down. For me as a parent, I would always want my kids to go to school. That's how I was right from the start right to the end, because I think kids learn a lot about dealing with other people from being at school. But if you've got a child who just can't cope with that or whatever reason it is, then why shouldn't they be able to participate in the education system by working from home? Why should they be labeled a truant? You know, shouldn't we do what we can to make sure they get an education that they participate. Of course we should. And if the best way or the most appropriate way for them to get that education seems a bit weird to you and me to those of us who might think that you can only be educated at a school with everybody else by attending by turning up. If we think that, then we just have to get over ourselves and accept that people learn in different ways.

For more from Category Mornings with John McDonald, listen live to news talks It'd be christ Church from nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

For more from Category Mornings with John McDonald, listen live to news talks It'd be christ Church from nine am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio