Northern Territory truancy officers are fining parents up to $370 for failing to ensure their children attend school. The NT education minister promoted the program in Alice Springs today, but experts remain sceptical that a punitive approach will be effective.
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00:00Truancy officers patrolling the streets of Alice Springs.
00:07Just looking at the young ones during school hours that aren't at school and just trying
00:10to support them to engage back into school.
00:14Engaging with kids, in some cases fining parents $370 for failing to get them to class.
00:21And we're confident we've exhausted all efforts and that definitely is a tool.
00:25And since Term 4 last year, the NT government's school attendance program is part of a rebooted
00:31policy.
00:32It says we'll turn around the territory's dwindling attendance rates.
00:36Just making sure we can help them, help them get re-engaged back into school.
00:40The NT Education Minister says to date, 476 compliance notices have been issued to parents,
00:47with more than 150 since revoked.
00:50That means that those children got back into the school.
00:5339 fines have also been handed out, but the government couldn't confirm how many had been
00:59paid.
01:00But some are sceptical truancy officers scrapped by the previous Labor government in 2017 will
01:06make a difference.
01:08It's been tried before, it's been evaluated before, it didn't work before, it's no different
01:13than what it was before, so why would it work again?
01:16But some experts say money for truancy officers should be redirected into the schools themselves
01:23to train and employ more local staff, improve on-country learning and teach language.
01:29You could be spending the same money in schools on really positive, effective programs that
01:34engage kids, that make the school environment the place where young people want to be.
01:39Some concerned a punitive approach won't make a difference in getting NT kids back to school.