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Speaker 1: Now, this is a crazy number. Get a load of this.

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Speaker 1: Last year, about eleven hundred students didn't go to school

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Speaker 1: at all for more than a year. They were not

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Speaker 1: enrolled in any school for more than a year. And

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Speaker 1: it's not the little ones that we're talking about. Two

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Speaker 1: thirds of these kids our age between twelve and fourteen

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Speaker 1: years old. Kathy Charmers is the lead principle of the

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Speaker 1: Manyereba Attendance Service and is with us morning, Kathy. What

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Speaker 1: on earth is going on that that number's gone up

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Speaker 1: by five times in just ten years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are a lot of students. I think some

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Speaker 2: of that is a backlog of students that have been

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Speaker 2: non enrolled from COVID times that particularly at the adolescent age. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's a large number of disengaged students and getting them

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Speaker 2: back to school is a really complex problem.

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Speaker 1: Why is it complex? Is it because you can't find them?

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Speaker 2: Not being able to find them as part of it.

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Speaker 2: The other thing is that you kind of need multi

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Speaker 2: a multi agency approach. Normally there are other issues that

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Speaker 2: contribute to the reasons why they're not going to school,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes it's condoned, you know. Sometimes they've got to

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Speaker 2: an age where the parents find it just as had

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Speaker 2: to get them to go to school. The students are

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Speaker 2: making their own choices about what they're doing, and so

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Speaker 2: it's it's it's as simple as just picking them up

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Speaker 2: in a car and re enrolling them.

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Speaker 1: No, I mean, what are the what are the options

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Speaker 1: if you if you turn up at the house and

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Speaker 1: they're sitting, they're playing on the PlayStation and mums like whatever,

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Speaker 1: I don't care, or does care, but the young one

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Speaker 1: doesn't care. What can you do?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the whole problem.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not allowed to put them up and

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Speaker 1: put them in the car. Are you?

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Speaker 2: Attendance officers are able to if they if they are

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Speaker 2: an appointed attendance office, so yes they are. The legislation

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Speaker 2: allows for that. But you you're not going to force

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Speaker 2: an issue like that. That's that's that's combetive, that's that's

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Speaker 2: not going to re engage a student with education. You've

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Speaker 2: sort of got to get them behind them and have

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Speaker 2: a wrap around approach. You know that they're being combative

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Speaker 2: is not going to sustain a child at school. They'll

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Speaker 2: just take off, So you know that's probably not the

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Speaker 2: recommended approach.

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Speaker 1: Well, what's the approach? Then because none of the approaches

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Speaker 1: are working well.

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't say that they're not working. I think what

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Speaker 2: you've got is a large backlog that that are very

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Speaker 2: very difficult hey to find those students, because the longer

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Speaker 2: they're out of school, the lot the harder it is

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Speaker 2: to find them. The ones that had not been out

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Speaker 2: of school for such a long time, they're the ones

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Speaker 2: that you were likely to have more success. The longer

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Speaker 2: a child's out of school, the more they become engaged in,

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Speaker 2: you know, other activities that they would prefer to do.

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Speaker 2: I think I think that's why it needs a multi

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Speaker 2: agency response. You know, that's where you know, we get

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Speaker 2: support for them and schools, we get them into the

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Speaker 2: right school. I think alternative education pathways, you know, I

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Speaker 2: need to perhaps be more offerings that you know that's

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Speaker 2: very limited for the twelve to thirteen year old age

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Speaker 2: lev old that you know alternative education only starts at

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Speaker 2: year nine. You know, these kids need a different approach.

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Speaker 2: The stock standard straight into a classroom that thirty kids

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Speaker 2: isn't probably going to work as well.

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Speaker 1: Well. Clearly no, nothing normal is working there. Kathy, thank

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Speaker 1: you mate. That's Kathy Charmers, lead principle of the manyetto

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Speaker 1: attendance service tell you, actually, I've got to tell you before,

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Speaker 1: before too long, I met a family that doesn't school

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Speaker 1: the kids, and I reckon part of it. I reckon

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Speaker 1: Our biggest problem in New Zealand right now with education

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Speaker 1: is we don't know how lucky we are. There are

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Speaker 1: people around the world who cannot send their kids to school,

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Speaker 1: and they would do anything to get the kids in education.

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Speaker 1: We take it completely for granted and don't think it's

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Speaker 1: worth it. For more from The Casking Breakfast, listen live

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Speaker 1: to news Talks at B from six am weekdays, or

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