The claim last week by National Party leader Christopher Luxon that 100,000 New Zealand schoolchildren were chronically truant quickly turned into an argument about terminology, statistics and how to interpret them.
In fact, it appears Luxon was referring to a figure from term one this year that showed 101,861 children were “chronically absent”. This means they miss 70% or more half-days of school, but is not the same as being truant.
