Editorial: Hope from alternative education

The formal process of excluding or expelling a student from secondary school raises an obvious question: What happens now to educate that young person?

The latest Ministry of Education figures on disciplinary action in the Hawke's Bay region show there were 60 exclusions and eight expulsions in 2010. The combined number of exclusions and expulsions was exactly the same in 2009 at 68. In 2008, the combined number was more than 90.

Exclusion is the formal removal of a student aged under 16 years from his or her school with the requirement that the student enrol elsewhere. The educational future for an excluded student hangs in the balance, relying largely on the hope that he or she will be accepted into a school prepared to invest time and energy into turning around the life of a young person with behavioural issues.

Expulsion is the removal of a student over the age of 16 from his or her school and it is optional as to whether an expelled teenager enrols again elsewhere.

Exclusions and expulsions are at the serious end of a spectrum that begins with stand-downs (removal from school for a set number of days) and includes suspensions (removal from school until the board of trustees meets and decides on an outcome).

Most people in the education sector agree there are no easy answers as the young people who get excluded or expelled often have serious issues. A story published by Hawke's Bay Today on Saturday outlined that drugs, continual disobedience and assault were the major reasons for students being excluded or expelled.

It is, however, encouraging to report today (see story page 3) that a group of excluded students have made real progress through an alternative education programme.

Sixteen Bay students have been acknowledged for both academic achievements and commitment to learning at Te Marama Learning Centre in Flaxmere, He Timatanga Hou, Pathways, Hayseed Trust and The College of Future Learning.

Our story also outlines that 150 students, most known to police and unable to be schooled in the mainstream, are in alternative education in the region.

This has to be seen as a story of hope. Some of these students, square pegs in round holes when it comes to traditional schooling, are going to advance themselves through alternative education.

I like the quotes from 15-year-old Heripo Kohiti, who received an excellence award at the prizegiving and who will next year be studying agriculture in the Hawke's Bay Schools Trades Academy at EIT: "I achieved my level 1 NCEA. I'm more respectful to people, and I'm keen as for the future - this is way better than school."