The constant striving to improve one’s lot is human nature, and people naturally move to where the opportunities lie. But when moving house and moving jobs involve children, these moves become controversial.

Earlier this week, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) released a report on student transience in Auckland, entitled The Revolving Door: Student Mobility in Auckland Schools. Student transience is the term used by CPAG to describe students who move between schools, often multiple times.

The problems associated with transience are contestable. It is often associated with academic, social and behavioral difficulties, although this could be evidence of correlation over causation.

Nevertheless, CPAG’s report found that there was a disproportionately high concentration of student transience among low decile schools; it is therefore some of the most vulnerable children who suffer. While their discussion focuses mainly on transience due to socio-economic disadvantage, they acknowledge this is not the only reason.

CPAG attributes the phenomena to a lack of affordable housing and lack of steady, well-paid jobs. And they believe both are political issues.

Housing affordability and economic stability go hand in hand. Only when people can enjoy the security of full, stable employment, will residential security be fully satisfied.

The reality is that if people do not have the background, skills and experience in demand where they currently reside, they might have to move. 

Jobs may not always be available in the locations parents desire, and the longer a person is unemployed, the more difficult it is to re-enter the workforce. If this is a political issue, good luck with designing a policy of job creation that simultaneously limits mobility.

Whether it is due to employment, family breakdown, accommodation issues or the myriad of other reasons children move schools, it is impossible for the government to mitigate every disadvantage children face. Nor should they intervene when parents believe it is in their family’s best interests to move to more favorable circumstances.

However, as a 2008 report by the Council of Educational Research concluded, schools can minimise the damage to children's education by developing skills to make their learning more transferable from school to school.

There are already a number of policies in place within the education system to address the particular needs of transient students, none of which limit their parents in the pursuit economic opportunities.

While parents may struggle with secure and stable employment, it is important that the education system can provide children with the resilience and skills flexible enough to meet the needs of the future labor market.

Giving all children the capacity to learn and thrive in a variety of situations is a skill that will carry children well beyond their schooling years.