Structural change needed to stop dropping out of education

July 3, 2013

Urgent structural change needed to stem tide dropping out of education

Hundreds of US high school pupils drop out of school every hour and it's no secret that New Zealand has a high rate of student disengagement from education. At least one in every eight of our young people is not involved in education, employment or training.

According to Dr. Stuart Middleton, the Director of Manukau Institute of Technology’s Centre for Studies in Multiple Pathways says the statistics show we are dealing with a huge issue both in New Zealand and internationally and it’s critical we make structural changes to make it easier for students to succeed.

He was speaking at the third Bridging the Divides conference on Multiple Pathways and Transitions in Auckland this week which is looking at transitions from secondary to tertiary education and into employment.

MIT’s Centre for Studies in Multiple Pathways (CSMP) and Ako Aotearoa: The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, have partnered to hold the conference which is also supported by the Ministry of Education, Cognition Education, Cyclone Computers and the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education.

Keynote speakers include the Honourable Hekia Parata, Minister of Education; Sir Mark Solomon, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, Dr Joel Vargas from Jobs for the Future Foundation in the US; Associate Professor Leesa Wheelahan from the University of Melbourne and Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke from Victoria University of Wellington.

In his presentation, Dr Middleton spoke on how addressing structural issues demands structural solutions. He believes grouping students in age related cohorts and moving them from early childhood to primary, intermediate, secondary and into tertiary education means students must get through four to five major tricky transitions. He suggested we could consider a new system with just two sectors that is based on development rather than age and time.

“We understand that if we can produce education systems that are seamless then we will have more success,” he said. “MIT’s School of Secondary Tertiary Studies has done this and the results for students there who might otherwise have dropped out of the education system have been outstanding.”

International speaker, Dr Joel Vargas is Vice President High School through College at the Jobs for the Future Foundation in the US. His not for profit organisation focuses on designing new approaches for low income young people and struggling workers to get a post-secondary credential that leads to a good job.

“We set up an early college high school, akin to MIT’s tertiary high school, as a way of restructuring the transition between high school and college,” he says. “This has proved very effective and the research on this is widely documented. Yet despite this increased interest government policy does not support this model as it’s a separate system.”

The Honourable Hekia Parata, Minister of Education told the conference 21% of 15 and 16 year olds are leaving the secondary system and the government has spent a lot of time trying to understand what is needed organisationally and structuring at this level.

“In the secondary tertiary space under the umbrella of Youth Guarantee we have been supporting good quality courses that can help 16 and 17 year olds move on,” she said.

She said other initiatives including Trade Academies, MIT’s secondary tertiary high school and new apprenticeship systems are all designed to help youth stay engaged in learning and to help them get into jobs.

ENDS

© Scoop Media