Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Don't expect David Seymour's crackdown to go over well with teacher unions

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

That's quite the crackdown on truancy from David Seymour today - don't expect this to go down well with the teacher unions.

So the first thing David Seymour's announced is that he's coming for the parents. He's bringing in the possibility of enforcing fines on parents who don't send their kids to school.

Now, it's 100 percent that the excuse-makers of this country are gonna have a problem with this because it’s picking on the vulnerable, etc.

Let me tell you something - school is compulsory in New Zealand. If it's compulsory and you don't do it, you will get punished. A fine is the punishment, that's how compulsion works.

There's no point in having it be compulsory if you aren't prepared to punish someone for the compulsory thing not happening.

And the fine thing is not new, they already exist on the books.

Parents can be fined up to $3000 if they’re recidivist offenders, it's just that the fine is not enforced.

The second thing he’s doing is scrapping teacher-only days during term times. Schools now have to hold teacher-only days in term breaks.

100 percent the teacher unions will complain about this, but again - this is not new.

According to David Seymour's office, the law already states that teacher-only days should only be held during school breaks. And if they have to be held during term time, it must be only with the permission of the Ministry of Education - but it’s got a bit loose.

So, all David Seymour is doing here is reminding us all what the existing rules already are and getting us to follow them.

And the fact that that is quite a big crack down - I think that tells you how loose we’ve gotten with respecting education.

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