In a statement today, ACT education spokesperson Chris Baillie said "In term 2 of this year, 60 percent of students did not attend regularly".
A recent Ministry of Education attendance report showed the number going to school regularly was 39.9 percent.
Baillie said the rate was "shocking" and that "New Zealand is not a sustainable society".
"It is not passing enough knowledge from one generation to the next to maintain first world status."
The party proposed five ideas to get back into classrooms:
• Daily national attendance reporting - ACT would require every school to fill out an electronic attendance register accessible by the Ministry of Education
• Empowering schools to deal with truancy - Schools should be empowered to deal with poor attendance through direct, cashed-up funding, ACT said
• Traffic light system - This would set out clear expectations for the responsibilities of everyone relating to unjustified absences
• An infringement notice regime for parents - ACT would introduce an infringement notice regime for truancy
• Accountability for schools through mandatory reporting - Schools would be required to report their attendance daily and failing to do so would risk losing funding
