Hon JAN TINETTI (Associate Minister of Education): On Sunday, the Minister of Education, the Hon Chris Hipkins, and I made a pre-Budget announcement of $88 million of targeted funding for attendance and engagement programmes to ensure our tamariki are in education. Over the past two years, we have been investing in evidence-based attendance initiatives that are led by schools and communities who know their students best. This latest package is providing further funding for these initiatives, which, prior to 2017, had been under-invested in. Attendance rates need to improve across all ages, deciles, and regions. They have been declining since 2015 and COVID-19 has added more challenges. Budget 2022 provides system-level and targeted investment to make the education system a place where learners want to be and where they can get the targeted support they need, ensuring there are routes back into learning for those learners who are disengaged.