ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25208, 12 June 1947, Page 3

ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL

FAMILY ALLOWANCE CONDITION So far as the Canterbury Education Board has not had to lay a complaint with the Social Security Department about parents who fail, without good and sufficient reason, to send their children to school. As announced early in the year, payment of the family allowance may be suspended if children do not attend school regularly. The board's attendance officer has power to report any cases of undue absence from school to the district officer of the Social Security Department. It was learned from the Canterbury Education Board that school attendances in its district were fair, though there was room for improvement. Last year the average attendance in Canterbury and Westland was 88.4 per cent., in 1945 it was 89 per cent., and in both 1943 and 1944 it was 90 per cent. The highest figures in recent years were in 1936. with 91.9 per cent., and in 1937, with 92 per cent.

To the general public these averages might seem low, an officer said; but casual absence through minor illnesses over such a large numer of schools had to be taken into account. Also, there had been bad weather in recent winters, and the heavy snow two years ago had necessitated the closing of some schools for a period. Added to’ this, there had been threats of serious epidemics. Speaking from long experience, the officer said that he did not think there was the same tendency for children to fail in school attendances. Parents generally were becoming increasingly interested in education, and the children themselves found so much to interest them in the activities of modern schools that they had little inclination to “play the wag."