Children who move schools frequently are less likely to complete NCEA, a new report has found.
Peter O'Connor, a professor of education at the University of Auckland, says the Treasury's report reveals a vulnerability in the children of the working poor.
"They come from low socioeconomic areas, so we're not really talking about kids whose mum or dad got a promotion and they're moving somewhere else. We're talking about kids who are highly mobile, moving up to eight to 10 times in a school career," he told TVNZ1's Breakfast's today.
Professor O'Connor says children's learning abilites are also being affected by the "break in their peer groups".
"Especially when you're a teenager, the most important thing in your life isn't actually school - it's your mates, it's your friends - and when you're constantly moving schools, you're breaking those kinds of relationships and that has ongoing impact," he said.
The professor says children who frequently move from school to school are often repeating topics they've already learned, causing their learning process to "jumble".
The Treasury report found Decile 1 primary schools had student turnover rates two times higher than that of Decile 10 schools in 2015.
It also found a high turnover rate of 30 to 40 per cent of kids moving schools in one year.
The solution, the professor says, can be found in the education system's ability to cater to the needs of at-risk children.
"The education system's been starved for a number of years of basic funding and we know that, but they also need to have programmes and policies in place to track kids who are moving in and out of the system," Professor O'Connor said.
"What's clear from this report is that support's most important for the kids with the most needs, because they're the ones who are moving the most."
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