Northland schools have the lowest attendance rates after the Covid-19 level 4 and level 3 lockdown, with one only getting about quarter of their students back.
About 800,000 students were due back in class on Monday for the first full day of school. On average attendance was 79 percent, and that went up only one percent on Tuesday.
Secretary for Education Iona Holsted told Checkpoint some iwi remain worried about the spread of coronavirus, there is also anxiety about catching the bus, and some families may have moved to find work.
"I think the worst case that I've heard was around 29 percent [attendance]," Holsted said.
"I know that in a particular school it's gone up to 50 percent today.
"Many iwi are really quite concerned about any form of infectious disease, they have very horrific stories they have experienced from the 1918 flu. There'll be anxiety about travel, a lot of those kids will travel by bus," she said.
"We've spent the last week or so talking a lot to principals about this, because for some principals they'll be fine, they'll know exactly what to do, and they'll have connections with those family in a way that will bring them back quicker than not.
"For others, they will need some help. And so we might, for example, connect them with iwi or with hapū. We might in South Auckland connect them with Polynesian churches, we'll use a variety of contact points to encourage these families back.
"It is really important that our young people get back connected to school. Obviously we're not going to be trying to do that immediately because we are conscious that some people have got anxieties. But we don't want to let it drag on either."
Holsted said in the next couple of weeks the Ministry of Education will be in a better position to be firmer about truancy and attendance.
The question of how many students will not return to school at all is difficult, she said.
"It's one I know is bothering principals too, because they're concerned particularly about those children who might have to left to go to work."
Trying to bring back students who have left to take up work is hard, Holsted told Checkpoint.
"Once they've left school, they've left school. It's not probably our priority because people are entitled to exercise the right to leave school at a certain age.
"And they do so every week, and often they're children who we would rather not be leaving school at the time. But that is their right. So we'll be prioritising attention onto those children who are expected to be at school."
The end-of-year NCEA exams have been delayed 10 days by the government, to allow more time for teaching after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority is talking with Universities New Zealand about possible changes to the requirements for university entrance, but waiving entry requirements altogether was not part of it, Holsted said.
"That's an ongoing discussion. I think that they've had quite productive engagement there."
NCEA is "very flexible," Holsted said. "The second thing is that huge number of kids actually end up with far more credits than they actually need to get NCEA. So actually working through with students about what they actually need to do is the first thing, and teachers are familiar with doing that."
