High numbers of school exclusions have got Northern Ireland's educators worried. What happens to students removed from mainstream education? And are they being cheated of their rights?
| If one child is suspended or excluded from school that is one child too many for me. We must keep our finger on the pulse. |
Teachers working with young people who have been excluded from school say official statistics do not reflect a true picture of the amount of young people who are slipping out of mainstream education.
Statistics from the Pupil Support Unit at the Department of Education show a total of 84 pupils were expelled from primary and secondary schools across Northern Ireland in 2000/01.
During the same period more than 4,450 pupils, mainly boys, were suspended from school. In the Belfast Board, 98 pupils were suspended three or more times. School suspension can last anywhere between one day to 45 days in a school term.
Many professionals working with young people who have been excluded from mainstream education say the current situation is "insidious." They say this sector is under-staffed and under-resourced and currently there are not enough places to cater for this group, particularly with rising numbers coming from primary schools.
Marie McKnight, coordinator of the Day School at Conway Mill, said the Department of Education has acknowledged the problem and is working to address it, but progress is slow.
The Day School at Conway Mill, which caters for a small number of young people, has been operating for more than 25 years, relying on funding from trusts and charities.
"We have been saying for years there is a problem and we have been left in the wilderness. But the authorities have actually started to take it seriously and from next September, we are going to be funded by the Department of Education through the Belfast Education and Library Board," Ms McKnight said.
"The number of young people who are not attending mainstream education is increasing. We are really looking at an awful lot of disaffected young people," she said.
An educationalist with wide ranging experience in special education said: "There needs to be more imaginative and flexible approaches to how we accommodate these young people while they are at school. The system needs to be re-evaluated, there needs to be a closer monitoring of statistics and procedures to protect young people from being short-changed."
Ms McKnight said: "If you actually look at the statistics, very few young people are expelled from schools.
"Quite often the parents will be guided in that direction by the school and on that advice will actually withdraw their children."
Another source claimed some schools are failing to remove excluded pupils from their rolls and if the pupil is attending an alternative education programme, the schools are marking them for full attendance and still receiving funding from the Department of Education for that student.
Minister of Education, Martin McGuinness, said more thorough reporting from schools to the Education and Library Boards partly explains why there is a perceived increase in the numbers of expulsions and suspension.
"There may also be an increase in behavioural difficulties in young people. This is a difficult time for young people. This is a modern age and there are all sorts of difficulties and problems in the lives of young people and families. Sometimes that works its way through to the schools," he said.
The government has spent considerable sums of money on programmes for excluded pupils and even a purpose built centre on the Shore Road, which was closed but recently reopened under a new name.
"There were huge problems there and decisions had to be taken in the best interests of the people who were at the school," said Mr McGuinness.
"I think it's still important to point out that it only affects a very tiny percentage of the school-going population. If one child is suspended or excluded from school that is one child too many for me. We must keep our finger on the pulse and ensure that we are adequately dealing with and providing the resources required to tackle the problem," he added.
Fred Brown, teacher in charge at Education Other Than At School (EOTAS), a programme which provides education and support for young people who have been excluded from mainstream education through expulsion or suspension said: "There are a large number of pupils who are out of school and they are not being referred to us and that worries me a great deal."
Mr Brown and others working in this area recognize that schools are under pressure to get academic results and understand they face difficulties when pupils are disruptive.
"[In Schools] there's a lot of pressure to have a group conforming in every possible way, so they have difficulties with people who may be experiencing problems," he said.
"A few years ago, we were talking about a maximum of 48 people on EOTAS and now we've got something like 181, with more coming," Mr Brown added.
"Schools need to listen much more to what pupils are saying about what they feel that their needs are and they need to be talking to future employers about what kind of education people actually need to be able to get places in the job market," he said.
Senior Lecturer at Queens School of Education, Rosemary Kilpatrick, said: "Increasingly, research indicates there is a correlation between young people not attending school and engaging in criminal activity, however petty."
‘I missed out on an education’
Sitting in the airy halls of the former Jaffe centre, renamed Loughshore Education Center, EOTAS pupil 16-year-old Mary Hanvey told Children's Express reporters she would like to go back to her old school because she feels she "missed out on education."
Details are sketchy but Mary was unhappy at mainstream school. For her, being expelled meant "there was nothing to do when you weren't in school." At EOTAS, Mary studies maths, English and art.
Kevin Toner,16, also at EOTAS, says he feels comfortable with teaching staff and is offered a wider range of subjects to choose from, such as joinery, brick-laying and catering.
With support from the Belfast Education and Library Board, EOTAS is going to extend its range of subjects and offer pupils a full-time programme at Loughshore.
Across town, at Conway Mill, Leanne Higgins, 16, hangs out with three other students before class at the Day School. Leanne attended two secondary schools before giving up on mainstream education two years ago and opted for the Day School, where she studies four subjects.
"It is part-time and you can get on with everyone. You are treated as an individual because there are not as many people here," she said.
A fellow student Katrina McAuley, 16, said the Day School atmosphere is less formal than school and smaller classes mean increased learning possibilities.
Although she will face GCSE's at a later stage than most of her peers, Katrina is happier and prefers the Day School's teaching methods.
No right of appeal for pupils
A comparative research report between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, says that here the mechanisms which lead to expulsion are "less punitive." It suggests that once pupils are expelled in Northern Ireland it is more difficult to return to mainstream education.
From a human rights point of view, Catherine Lavery, solicitor at the Children's Law Centre said suspension and expulsion procedures fall short of international law.
"With suspensions there is no right of appeal, so you could effectively be out of school for 45 days and not have an education. Now, a school is required to give you homework during that time and if they don't do that the Education and Library boards will provide home tuition while this rolling suspension continues," she said.
"There is also no appeal at all for young people in the expulsions procedures so the main issue under human rights is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."
Article 12 of the Convention states that children should be allowed to express their views in relation to all matters affecting themselves.
"Really, the only person who can take an appeal to the Expulsions Appeal tribunal is a parent, so young people cannot appeal an expulsion unless their parents support them in that action. Under the UN Convention, they should be able to participate in any decisions regarding suspension or expulsion and that is not normally the practice in schools," she said.
About the team
This story was produced by Stephanie McCann, 15, Siobhan Quinn, 13, Michael Leathem, 15, Thomas Kielty, 16 and Hugo McIllveen, 16. It was published in the News Letter in Northern Ireland.
