The Education Review Office (ERO) is calling for a complete overhaul of New Zealand's Alternative Education system, saying it's failing our most vulnerable learners who aren't getting the support they need.
New Zealand's Alternative Education system provides for over 2000 of our most vulnerable youth, who are disengaged from the standard schooling system.
However, a report released on Tuesday morning from the Education Review Office (ERO) is calling for significant reform to give better outcomes for our most at-risk youth.
Many of these learners have been exposed to crime, violence, and trauma, and many are in the youth justice system.
The report shows one in six of these young people have been in Oranga Tamariki care, and less than one in 10 go on to achieve NCEA Level 2.
By the age of 18, over a third had police proceedings against them for an offence and by the age of 20, almost seven in 10 are receiving benefits.
ERO deputy chief executive Ruth Shinoda appeared on AM on Tuesday, providing a scathing review of the Alternative Education system.
She told AM co-host Ryan Bridge there is a range of issues leading to the failures, including just one in five teachers being registered and classrooms being "cold and damp".
"What we saw is Alternative Education is just not providing these learners with the quality education they deserve," she said.
"We saw inadequate funding that doesn't match their needs. Facilities that were run down, cold and damp, getting in the way of their learning, not enough space for them to sit down. But also, we saw really poor teaching."
Shinoda is calling for better support to help New Zealand's most vulnerable learners, better facilities and teachers that are fully registered and can provide quality learning.
At one site ERO visited, they found there wasn't enough room for all the students in that class to sit down, but this was just the start of the problems.
"We did, again and again, see poor facilities. For example, some are cold and damp, having to walk quite far across fields to the bathroom, not having enough space to learn," she told AM.
"All of this, though, reflected the inadequate funding. These providers we saw were doing the utmost to help these young learners, but they really were facing real funding problems."
She told AM six sites out of the 22 they visited were "cold and damp" and "not adequate" and they had concerns about many others.
Concerningly, ERO last reviewed Alternative Education 12 years ago and found it was not meeting the needs of some of our most disadvantaged young people.
But disappointingly, this is still the case - the current model is not providing quality education or enabling these learners to succeed.
When pressed about why this review would be different to the last one 12 years ago, Shinoda told AM they are after a reform of the model.
"Last time around we said, look, we need some changes and some changes I think are underway, but what we're saying this time is, look, actually, we need a complete and utter reform of the model," she explained.
"What we've realised is it's not about the providers who are working really hard, it's the model behind it. We need adequate funding, really good teachers, wide provision, less isolation so they're plugged into the network of education, not off to the side and separate."
She said New Zealand should be doing better to support our most vulnerable learners.
"We're saying let's put in place registered teachers, let's put in decent facilities, let's put in a networked provision where we're linking up providers with each other so that young people can access the breadth of support," she told AM.
"We're seeing continue with some of the great work which re-engages these learners, but make sure they can access specialist support. The report is really clear and specific about what we want to see and the reform we are urging to see."
Watch the full interview with Ruth Shinoda in the video above.
