education

Disengagement in Education

Disengagement among young people is a widespread problem throughout the western world. Across the OECD, levels of school completion are an increasing focus of concern. In the United States for example, the country's political, economic and philanthropic leadership is attacking a ‘silent epidemic of school dropouts' and is seeking to re-invigorate educators, school communities and students.

In its most recent report on youth transitions, the OECD concludes, "there is agreement that, in order to improve youth job prospects, it is essential to combat school failure. In particular, early and sustained intervention can help prevent a vicious circle of cumulative disadvantages."

If anything the situation in Australia is worse than for other OECD members. We now rank 20th among OECD countries in terms of school completion. Currently, close to one in five young adults in Australia have not completed Year 12 or an equivalent vocational qualification.

Early school leaving costs Australia an estimated $2.6 billion a year in higher social welfare, health and crime prevention costs and lower tax revenue, productivity and GDP. This does not include the human costs that result from the continuing cycle of disadvantage that follows from the non-completion of school.

The Cycle of Disadvantage

The PISA survey of Australian 15 year olds at school shows that disengagement -measured by sense of belonging, student-teacher relations and attitudes to school - is especially pronounced among students from low socio-economic backgrounds, students growing up in poorer families and in schools with high concentrations of students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Australian students from low socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to have educationally supportive infrastructure at home and twice as likely to under perform in literacy and numeracy. They are more likely to have negative attitudes to school - and more likely to act this out through truancy, suspension, expulsion or the non-completion of school. They are also more likely to struggle with the transition from school to work - and less likely to enter university or to successfully complete further education.

‘It's Crunch Time', an August 2007 report on raising youth engagement and attainment, concludes that: "Young Australians without basic educational attainments and levels of engagement will not be adequately equipped to cope with the demands being made of them either in the workplace or in the wider society."

The Haves

Having a job that pays adequately and provides opportunities for self development is important to most people. Employment is a key determiner of living standards, self-esteem and overall wellbeing. It is also important to the family. Children who have a parent who is employed are more likely to attend school and stay on past the compulsory school age.

Those who finish high school and participate in post secondary study have greatly improved employment prospects. They are also more likely to earn higher incomes. An individual's education can also affect their health, and the health of their children, as well as their ability to make informed life decisions.

The Have Nots

Young people not fully engaged in learning or work will experience more financial and personal stress and lower levels of participation and integration with society. They are less satisfied with their lives. On average, early school leavers receive lower wages over their lifetime than their more skilled counterparts and are significantly more likely to become long term unemployed adults at later stages of their lives.

Disadvantage also manifests in more fundamental and disturbing ways - hunger, malnutrition and the trauma of family breakdown.

Disadvantage and disengagement is increasingly a feature of specific postcode areas, creating communities where low educational attainment and poor life outcomes are becoming entrenched.
disadvantages that come with it are seeded down from generation to generation.

Rationale

As part of our ongoing work in the advocacy area, Doxa developed a 10 point plan to highlight what we believe to be the key priorities in keeping young people connected to education. We have distilled those priorities to the following 4 which we plan to work on over the next 3 years.

Our major focus will be on:

Ensuring that student teachers in mainstream schools are appropriately trained to keep young people connected to education, particularly in the middle years
Funding a greater range of alternative school settings that have been shown to work
Ensure that schools have knowledge and adequate access to support services in the community
Ensure consistent government policies to maximise student engagement