Daily attendance portal rolled out

<h2><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">A new portal which tracks daily school attendance figures is now live on the <&sol;span><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;educationcounts&period;govt&period;nz&sol;statistics&sol;daily-attendance" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><span data-contrast&equals;"none">Education Counts website&comma;<&sol;span><&sol;a><span data-contrast&equals;"auto"> run by the Ministry of Education&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The new interactive page will be updated each Monday with figures from the previous week&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Schools have been advised that to meet the government target of 80 percent regular attendance by 2030&comma; schools must reach an average daily attendance rate of 94 percent&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><strong>Read the latest print edition of <em>School News<&sol;em> HERE<&sol;strong><&sol;a> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Currently&comma; 88&period;7 percent of state schools are providing weekly attendance data to the Ministry of Education which is subsequently being displayed on the attendance portal&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">At the moment&comma; attendance data reporting is voluntary&comma; but by Term One next year&comma; it will become mandatory&comma; says Associate Education Minister David Seymour&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The reason that we’re starting off voluntary is that we’ll require law changes to be made and Cabinet has agreed to that later this year we will amend the Education and Training Act so that the Education Secretary can direct schools to report their data daily&period;<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Once we have more data&comma; we’re going to be in a position to better understand which students are not attending&comma; perhaps why&comma; are there any patterns&comma; and which ideas and initiatives that the government undertakes will ensure that more students are attending school&period;”<&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Based on data provided&comma; national daily attendance fluctuated between 81&period;9 and 88&period;5 percent from Monday 29 April to Friday 3 May&comma; with Friday seeing the lowest attendance&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Seymour estimates that these figures averaged 86 percent daily attendance&comma; which translated to 60 percent regular attendance if sustained over the school term&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Available attendance data on the website can be disaggregated by region&period; However&comma; Seymour says there is no intention of publishing individual school data as it may discourage schools from reporting their attendance&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;25303" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-25303" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-25303" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;02&sol;AdobeStock&lowbar;59525680-scaled-e1696814041806-300x200&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-25303" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">AdobeStock by<br &sol;>&NewLine;bradcalkins<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">The new website and associated daily attendance reporting and publishing is estimated to cost &dollar;1 million per year&comma; said Seymour&period; He said that administrative burden for schools would be low as attendance reporting was digitised&period; Only six schools were the exception&period; <&sol;span><span data-ccp-props&equals;"&lbrace;&rcub;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span data-contrast&equals;"auto">Labour leader and former Education Minister Chris Hipkins said he didn’t believe publishing attendance data would help change behaviours of chronically absent kids&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;