Wellington, March 2 NZPA - School truancy officers are key figures in the battle against wagging, Prime Minister John Key said today.

His comments followed the release of a survey which found more than 30,000 children a day -- 4.2 percent of New Zealand's 750,000 students -- cut school every day.

Education Minister Anne Tolley followed the release of the survey with an announcement of an extra $4 million a year to tackle the problem, as well as one-off funding of $1.5 million to get long-term truants enrolled in schools.

Mr Key, speaking at a Lower Hutt private school where truancy is not an issue, told reporters truancy officers made a real difference.

"What we do know is that truancy officers who work actively with schools make a real difference in terms of making sure that youngsters are followed up on. If they're not at school, their parents are notified," he said.

An ongoing commitment to bringing down the number of truants was needed because children not at school were not learning and, ultimately, not prepared for adult life.

"In a lot of cases, where kids are truant from school, the parents aren't aware of it," Mr Key said.

"There certainly are a number of children who are truant with the blessing of the parent and that's a situation where a prosecution may be appropriate, but if the kid's just not turning up at school, the better way is to deal with that through a truancy officer and through a system which really identifies it."

Mrs Tolley said the survey, of 653 primary and secondary schools, represented about a third of all state and integrated school enrolments and found two-thirds of truants were at secondary school, with truancy rates increasing as students got older.

About 5 percent of students cut class in year 9, compared with almost 15 percent in year 13, the survey found.

Truancy rates were 80 percent higher at decile 1 schools than decile 10 schools, while Maori and Pacific students were twice as likely to skip classes.

The survey did not include figures on the almost 2500 long-term truants not enrolled in any school.

Mrs Tolley said the additional funding would help schools introduce electronic attendance registers to enable quick identification of casual truants before they started skipping school more regularly.

The funding would also encourage schools to implement early notification systems, which automatically send text messages to parents when students are absent without explanation.

Long-term truants would be targeted in a $1.5m scheme, which would involve truancy officers visiting homes and searching known hangouts to get students re-enrolled at schools.

Funding would also be set aside to help schools prosecute the parents of persistent truants.

"Work will continue on our long-term approach, aimed at keeping more children engaged at school, rather than having to get truants back into the system once they have become disengaged," Mrs Tolley said.

"Evidence shows that regular attendance in school is the biggest factor in student achievement. Chronic truancy can lead to negative outcomes later in life such as violence, substance abuse or unemployment."

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