The Truancy Issue

I think there are better things in the education system that you could throw $32 million at. Forcing kids to be somewhere they do not want to be is honestly not one of them. As much as I am passionate about education and the need for a good quality education, you can't force feed it to someone who does not want to be there.

But throwing money at a problem seems to reduce it somehow in someones mind. Putting people onto the streets to take kids back to a school that they will run away from again given the first opportunity just seems to be a waste of cash.

Here is my two cents worth.

The education system is fundamentally flawed or broken (nothing new there). It fails to cater for the needs of New Zealanders and still people who go into school struggle with the basic needs in the world today. Just today, a student in a level 3 class I was supervising, who had already been through level 1 employment skills, and level 2 computing, failed to read and understand the simplest instructions in a an assessment.

I have to admit to going to school to eat my lunch. I say that because other than eating my lunch I did little else when it came to the reason for being there. Learning or achieving School C, SFC and bursary. I had a maths teacher who was less than interesting, a human biology teacher hell bent on teaching more about plant biology, as as much as my english teachers tried, I just never really was going to get verbs, adverbs and all the other junk that I have now come to appreciate. The difference for me though, as much as I did not achieve, I wanted to be there for some unknown reason.

I guess perhaps I was still naive enough not to really know what else to do.

But there needs to be more options for students to attend some form of learning environment that taps into their aspirations. But in that mode of thinking...do they know what their dreams and aspirations are? Have they been encouraged to dream? Some school kids I know have been encouraged to dream too much.

I remember talking with a school kid a year or so ago, who had been sold on the dream of being a professional athlete. The more I listened to his talk, the more I grew concerned about his mode of thinking. As much as I do not want to trample someones dream, I also do not want someone to get trapped in an almost impossible trap. And all it took was...and if you get injured to a pont where your career is over...what happens next? What is your fall back plan?

How do we make school more interesting for kids and get them more engaged. Maybe don't worry about getting the schools engaged, get the parents engaged. How do we get them to give a toss about their kids education when in some instances, it was meaningless to them.

The other side is the apathetic attitudes of the parents or family members. How do they get involved. Is the stick of prosecution the right one in the end? It ultimately makes families who have difficulty in making ends meet under more financial pressure and prosecutions could put employment at risk. Throwing money at the problem won't I think solve it. It's a concerted combined effort that at least some of those who need to be, won't be willing to be a part of.

The problem with forcing someone to be where they do not want to be is that they will continue to rebel and ultimately nothing will be gained thus money spent getting them there is wasted. I don't have a perfect solution. I'm not in a position where I can influence government policy. I'm giving my perspective.