SIMPLE SOLUTIONS WON'T HELP TRUANT STUDENTS

"Simple one-off solutions won't help students who have fallen out of the education system," Education Minister Wyatt Creech said today.

Mr Creech was speaking to a conference in Auckland which is looking at dealing with truancy in schools. The Ministry of Education has also released new research on attendance rates in schools.

"While I often hear claims of sweeping simple solutions to problems of truancy, the reality is that it will take persistent applied effort across a range of initiatives for truancy to fall," Mr Creech told the conference.

"We can't just rely on one initiative - like say the NETs (non-enrolment truancy services) scheme or like say the new Special Education 2000 policy.

"We must see that our public policies complement each other; that they cross over the traditional boundaries between agencies so that people do not fall through the cracks between agencies and programmes.

"The Government can only ever be a part of the education answer. What we cannot do is make it all work for everyone without the input of families, communities and of course the students themselves. A strong family supportive of education and their child's learning makes a critical difference to a child's success.

"The safest, most up-to-date superbly taught classroom will not succeed if the children aren't turning up able and willing to learn. That's where parental responsibility comes home to roost. Parents are in a key position to ensure their children are ready to get their best from their school."

Mr Creech referred to the programmes designed to ensure students don't miss out on their education. They include specific truancy initiatives in schools such as Nets, the District Truancy Service and School Based Alternative Education programmes, Special Education 2000, Strengthening Families, the Code of Social and Family Responsibility discussion document, the School Support Project and individual school initiatives such as Tu Tangata and social workers in schools.

"These programmes all help to catch those students who either have the potential to drop out of school or for those who need help to hook back in," Mr Creech said.