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AS A PARENT, having lived through two school closures, I can’t comprehend how hard it would be if my child suffered from such crippling anxiety that the very idea of going to school was impossible.
Imagine your child being out of school for two years and having to give up your job to be at home with them because they could not cope in mainstream education.
By international standards, we in Ireland are considered to have one of the top education systems in the world – but what about when attending a mainstream school is not an option – what then?
Our system
Five per cent of young people leave school early in Ireland, this rises to 15.2 per cent in disadvantaged areas. Each year, 4,500 young people drop out of school before completing their Junior Cert.
These children lose out not only on receiving an education but also on the opportunity to make friends, socialise with their peers and develop the necessary interpersonal and social skills that will see them through life. Studies show that early school leavers experience higher levels of depression, anxiety and their health and general wellbeing are detrimentally impacted.
The reality is, young people who leave school before the age of 16 have very limited opportunities to continue their education. Except for Youthreach, which is a state-provided programme of ‘second chance’ education, the area of alternative education is not explicitly defined or mentioned in the Irish education system.
While Youthreach supports many students in their education journey, it does not cater for all of their needs and many others who aren’t able to access a Youthreach programme find they hit a brick wall in terms of options.
This is where alternative education or out-of-education providers such as iScoil, Cork Life Centre, Citywise Fast Track Academy, Trinity Access 21, Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), Aspire2 and An Cosán VCC have stepped in to provide education at both Junior and Leaving Cert level.
Alternatives
Alternative education changes the lives of children who are left out in the cold by mainstream education. These settings provide students with individualised support, with a focus on personal development and a secure and safe environment where students are seen as individuals with a wide range of strengths and needs.
Students attending alternative education settings have explained how the experience has built up their confidence and made them excited about the future.
That’s what you want to hear as a parent. We want an education system that supports our children to reach their full potential, and an important part of that is instilling the self-belief that they can achieve their goals.
In research conducted by NUI Galway, parents reported huge changes in their children’s approach not only to education but to life in general thanks to alternative education. One parent expressed how her son is now excited about life and the future in a way he wasn’t before. Another parent expressed how alternative education has given her son the power to be in control of his own future and that he now believes he has a future because the education he received in an alternative education setting allowed it to happen.
Limited choice
Alternative education centres are at full capacity and do not have places for all the referrals they receive. For example, iScoil has reported that they had to turn down 100 referrals into their service in 2019/2020 and the Cork Life Centre has an annual waiting list of over 150 students. This means a significant number of students who are not in education and are denied opportunities to develop and learn.
Today, 24 January is the International Day of Education. This is a day to reflect on how we can reimagine our education system and think afresh about how best we support children and young people whose needs are not currently supported by mainstream education.
Critical to this are the findings of the Department of Education’s 2018 review on current and future provisions of out-of-school education that have yet to be published. We have learned a lot over the last couple of years about how we can do things differently in terms of education and how we can and need to put children and young people’s interests first.
Building on the Department’s recent experience of responding to issues raised by Covid-19, the Minister for Education, Norma Foley is well placed to recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work for every child and seizes the opportunity to recognise alternative education as a central component of our education system.
We need to examine the reasons why children and young people are dropping out of mainstream education, while recognising that there will always, for some children and young people, be a need for alternative education.
The Minister could deliver a clear alternative or out-of-education strategy with the resources to go with it. We need to get to a place where every child and young person, no matter where they live in Ireland, should be supported to remain in mainstream education, and at the same time, able to access an alternative education space if that is the best option for them to ensure that they reach their full potential.
Tanya Ward is Chief Executive of The Children’s Rights Alliance. She is currently the Chair of the National Advisory Council for the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People.
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It’s about time. Well done NY!
@Sohoma Roanie: Agree, all private sector workers should follow suit, look at what P & O Ferries did, sacked almost 800 permanent staff and replaced them with cheaper labour. Zero contract hours and the use of agencies has gotten totally out of control.
@Frank Cauldhame: the P&O staff were already in a union though. The new owners simply choose to ignore due process and sack them all without consultation. Seems they have got away with it too
@David Hammond: They are being investigated by The Insolvency Service in the UK and their Directors face being disqualified. Hopefully they will be made an example of Dave.
Massive achievement. Well done all . Unions are vital in the workplace.
@David Beattie: Really – in the public sector workplace. Remember when they wouldn’t budge on the half day off a month to cash non existent cheques. Unions need to pick their battles.
@Jon Boylan: I’m speaking from my experience in retail and as a former shop steward. A union is only as strong as its members and I for one applaud anyone that joins one or is already in one. This is my own opinion whether others agree or not.
@David Beattie: 100% agree.
@Patricia O’Brien: thanks
@David Beattie: ‘Our job is to taste the fresh air, our so called bosses own the clocks that taunt us from the wall but we own the hour’
@Jon Boylan: They’re vital AND need to pick their battles. Both true really.
You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you fight for..
@l: you must have had a pretty 5hit time of it to be that cynical
@l: I would argue not. Who pays the rates and esb in liberty Hall. We have a hugely dysfunctional civil service and public service with no accountability from top to bottom and incremental pay increases in some sectors for people who are clearly not fit to perform their duties never mind a pay rise ( everyone had that teacher) this is all due to unions and herd mentality. Good for amazon maybe good for everyone definitely not
Amazon is one of a number of companies pushing capitalism to its limits and proving that capitalism without clear moral boundaries is an abomination
@Paul Jude Redmond: Absolutely spot on, well said.
That quote from the union worker is quality.
@ChadChaderson: Jeff the spacer,might regret going to his Homeland………..
If they can see it through to an actual union and ignore what ever carrot that will inevitably be hung out to tempt them it could be a watershed moment for employee rights in the US.
@Eddie O’Neill: the cynic in me is half expecting Amazon to just clean house and fire everyone. Sure as he’ll don’t think this is going to be a case of the little guy winning in the US for sure. Amazon and its endless resources and army of lawyers will find a way to crush this
cant understand the logic of these massive companies, dead set on only shareholder returns?surely at some stage the average person wont have disposable income to buy anything, then yer left with only the high income demographic ..who by then will also be in free fall cause their companies are falling due to demand drop offs.? seems illogical. as the old saying goes “pop will eat itself”. as bad as ford was at least he paid his workers enough so that they might be consumers of the cars they were making.
@Mick Heery: Short termism is the issue. It is just like climate change and many other issues we face, some people only care about themselves. Extreme greed should not be rewarded.
@Mick Heery: rightly or wrongly that logic has seen Amazon become one of the most successful companies in the world
Several thousand workers in a single NY warehouse.. how many if this is replicated throughout the US and at others like Starbucks mentioned in the article?
Unions definitely the big winners here if this is carried through.
Loads of multinational companies here don’t have unions either, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google…..hopefully gonna start here soon as well.
@tommy:
And?
Most employees in those multinationals most likely have better terms and conditions than what is offered in comparable jobs outside the multinational sector.
I know I had when I worked for a multinational years ago.
They don’t want the Unions and the Unions aren’t interested in organising there. The existing arrangement seems to suit them both perfectly in Ireland…
Everyone here cheering this on. But you you honestly believe the unions really have the employees interests in mind? How much will those unions reps be paid? I think unions seemed to have positive impact when employees were treated like literal dirt, but now there are so many employee laws.
Please someone tell me I am wrong and give me impactful examples of what unions have really done in Ireland in the last 2-4 years. And I really do mean impactful… fighting for a 2% wage increase when inflation is higher than that is pointless. Also creating rules to ensure the absolute terrible people can’t be removed is also terrible. You all see the waste in various sectors, unions helped create that.
@Richard: I work in the private sector and there are people here who should be fired but they know someone.. so get off the stage dude.
@Billybutcher: did you do something about it? Did you raise your concerns to someone on leadership? Do you have solid data to show why that person is not performing at their job? Did you bring it to senior leadership if you do not trust line managers?
If not, kindly exit stage left.
I do dislike all the folks who complain about their colleagues and don’t want to do anything about it. Maybe they would actually get better if they got some feedback….
@Richard: the bit you’re overlooking here, is Amazon employees really are treated like dirt. There was a whole thing about it. Insanely long shifts and getting docked pay for using the toilet. With many hiding and peeing in bottles. Loads of other horrific stuff too. It was all over the news not so long ago. So yea a union would hugely help as it would give them rights. In ireland we have basic employee rights they don’t have in the states. Another thing you’re overlooking. This is in the states not ireland.
It seems crazy that we are still struggling for a right that was already won through huge struggle a hundred years ago, the right to organise.
thanks for going to space…lol.
Great stuff , they should make their Union sign Jeff’s Dildo Rocket
Goddam commies
The ideology of a union is great, in practice they rarely achieve anything other than quangos who suck money out of workers and line their own pockets.
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