A data dispute has detonated over whether children skipping school without a proper excuse is on the rise or on the decline.
The Education Minister says it's down but National says she's being funny with statistics.
Kimi Rewi, a former truancy officer, knows how to get kids back to school. She also knows why they skip it.
"No food. I've been in homes where there's no power. I've been in homes where there's no uniforms."
She said the number of children missing class without a valid excuse like sickness is increasing.
"Unjustified absences would be the majority of what we call our dashboard of what we get in."
Asked why unjustified absences are increasing, Education Minister Jan Tinetti began saying they have "been on the increase over COVID", before then saying: "Unjustifieds are coming down since 2019."
But official data very much shows unjustified absences are increasing.
They made up 3.5 percent of half days taken without a valid excuse in Term 1 2019 and 6.5 percent of half days in Term 3 2022.
Newshub showed the graph to the minister.
"You can't compare between terms. Each term is very separate," she said.
So let's take a look at Term 3 data.
In Term 3 2019, 5 percent of half days were unjustified absences and then in 2022 those absences were up to 6.5 percent.
She didn't accept the trend line is increasing.
"No, because you have to look at each term separately."
The minister's preferred data shows even though absences overall are increasing, the proportion of unjustified absences are decreasing.
"I almost need a whiteboard to explain it to you because it is so complicated."
National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford said Tinetti is "desperately clutching at straws in this instance".
"What she needs to focus on is a solution."
Unfortunately, the minister was too busy to give Newshub that whiteboard session.
The data dispute is exactly why the Government is giving $7.7 million to improving data systems to clean up this mess, because as the old saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure.
