from YAPRap March 2005
by Kristy Delaney, Executive Officer, YAPA
Not being in school long enough (early leaving) or often enough (truancy) has a dramatic impact on young people's life opportunities.
Young people who miss out on school also miss out on gaining basic skills and knowledge and are at greater risk of unemployment, poverty, homelessness and involvement with crime.
National and international research provides strong evidence that maintaining a connection to school protects young people from extreme risk behaviours.
So, what can we do to improve school for all young people?
Recently the Department of Education held a consultation about the future of schools and TAFEs in NSW. YAPA contributed a submission which focused on issues of school retention, truancy, suspensions, and support for disadvantaged students such as refugee young people.
A summary of our comments are provided below.
School retention
Each year about 8% of 15 year olds in NSW leave school. The percentage of Year 7 students who continue to the end to the end of Year 12 in NSW government schools is approximately 65%. In NSW, the school retention rate is lower for students from low-socio-economic backgrounds (56.3%) and remote areas (48%) and much lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (29.2%).
There are lots of reasons why young people don't stay at school. Some early school leavers say that that school is too boring, too hard, not practical or relevant. Some say that they don't feel valued by their teachers while others simply want to leave so they can look for work.
Theses issues must be addressed if we want to keep all students in the education system
The NSW Government's Youth Policy Working Together - Working for Young People outlines 5 key principles to guide Government action for young people. These are participation, connection, opportunity, early intervention and collaboration.
These principles provide a useful framework for student retention strategies, as outlined in the table.
Key principles & strategies for increasing student retention |
||
Principle |
Aim |
Recommended strategies |
1. Participation |
Students have a voice in decision making |
|
2. Connection |
Students feel valued and have a sense of connection to their schools, teachers and peers. |
|
3. Opportunity |
Students are provided with opportunities to reach their full potential |
|
4. Early intervention |
At risk students are provided with the support they need to reach their full potential |
|
5. Collaboration |
Parents, industry, youth & community services and the community provide support to students and teachers. |
|
While Commonwealth and State governments continue to emphasis the importance of higher student retention rates, they have not succeeded in convincing all teachers of this policy objective.
Non-academic students, particularly in Year 11 & 12, continue to report strong encouragement from teachers to leave the school system. Teachers continue to report frustration at students who "waste their time and disrupt the learning of other students".
Many young people believe that the HSC, which is primarily designed to prepare students for further education, is only worthwhile if they want to go to university. Young people want schools to be more flexible and provide for the diversity of interests and skills that they have.
Clearly there is a need to develop more practical, job related subject choices for students whose career goals do not include further academic studies.
The introduction of vocational education and training (VET) courses have been a welcome inclusion in the HSC. Currently 30% of HSC students choosing to do at least one VET course for their HSC.
YAPA recommends the expansion of VET course options, more opportunities for students to combine work, TAFE and study options, increased subject choice to meet the diverse needs and interests of students and a mixture of academic and practical job orientated subjects.
Truancy
Truancy rates in NSW are not publicly available but research estimates that around 10% of students are absent on any school day (includes parent approved and non approved absences) and that truancy is increasing.
The seriousness of truancy is not adequately considered by all schools.
Some schools have limited strategies for dealing with truancy, such as a once per day roll call, while others have developed comprehensive strategies such as once per class roll calls, partnerships with local police and shopping centres and increased communication directly with parents such as SMS, computerised record keeping and emails.
Schools that maintain a close focus on truancy find a significant increase in school attendance rates.
YAPA recommends that the Department of Education and Training require schools to implement comprehensive truancy strategies, record keeping and communication with parents.
Schools also need to address the reasons why young people are truanting such as perceived irrelevance of the curriculum, dislike of particular lessons or teachers, fear of bullying, peer pressure or family values.
Suspensions
YAPA supports the view of the Department that suspensions "allow students time to reflect on their behaviour, to acknowledge and accept responsibility for the behaviours which led to the suspension and to accept responsibility for changing their behaviour to meet the school's expectations in the future. It also allows time for school personnel to plan appropriate support for the student to assist with successful re-entry".
However we believe that students should only be suspended from classes, not from the school environment.
Too often students are "rewarded" for disruptive behaviour by having "time off". The underlying reasons for disruptive behaviour are, too often, unaddressed.
YAPA recommends that suspended students be required to continue attending the educational institution and that schools put in place effective strategies to deal with the underlying causes of the disruptive behaviour.
Many youth & community agencies are available to assist schools with extra support such as family counselling, drug and alcohol counselling, anger management courses, support with alternative education options etc.
Other recommendations
YAPA also recommended:
-
more educational support to refugee young people in mainstream high schools, after students have left Intensive English Centres
-
providing more funding and support to homework help centres
-
increased support and professional development for teachers in working with refugee young people.
-
expansion of the number of Links to Learning programs to disadvantaged communities which do not have access to an existing Links to Learning program.
-
development of guidelines and draft protocols for schools on youth service partnerships
-
showcasing successful models and the benefits of youth service partnerships to schools
-
the Department to work with YAPA to provide training to youth workers on how to work effectively with schools.
-
a reduction in TAFE costs for young people on low incomes, to facilitate young people's ongoing participation in the education system.
Thanks to the young people and youth workers who gave feedback to our submission!
YAPA will continue to work on these issues during the coming year, particularly in relation to school & youth service partnerships.
Background information for this article is from:
- the NSW Youth Policy
- Australian Council for Educational Research
- Department of Education & Training discussion paper
- YAPA ACTivate Report.
Limitations of this information
Published: 2005
Applicable to: NSW only.
