Policeman Escorting Girl to School Daily

You know there is something horribly wrong when you hear of (yet another) Government program which has been created to ensure that children stay at school. The "Rock On" scheme is a 16-week programme, aimed at cutting truancy levels in New Zealand.

"There's an informal conference held at the school, where some of the agencies get together, along with the school, and discuss what the issues are." - said Senior Sergeant John Robinson, who's duty it is to escort a fourteen-year-old girl to Linwood College, Christchurch - every single morning.

Family First spokesman Bob McCoskrie responded,

"A dangerous precedent is being set by the police by taxiing a truanting 14 year old to school every morning, and fails to deal with the underlying problems... In this case, reported from Christchurch and under a new scheme called Rock On, the police are simply fulfilling the role of the parent and are providing a short term solution to a potentially longer term problem.” - www.familyfirst.org.nz

However, Linwood College principal Rob Burrough said,

the student was back at school and doing well. "She's not a bad kid; it's just she hadn't been turning up to school," he said. "Sometimes the tough-love approach is the best way because it is a shock to students when mum or dad is going to get prosecuted because they're not going to school." He was delighted with the support of the police in taking the girl to school each day. - www.stuff.co.nz

I find it intriguing, but typical that the Government are so desperate for every last child to be attending school. They offer 20 hours of free state-funded child-minding for all three - four year-old children, so that mothers can get out of the home, away from the children, and back into the workforce. They also punish parents who do not send their children to state schools, by charging them for the service anyway. The agenda is coming through loud and clear, our present government is sold on the idea of social change (to put it politely), achieved through the state-schooling system.