The answer to our current ONE LANE education system, is to think outside of the limited box we have set for our children.
EARLY INTERVENTION
Every teacher will recognise the pupils who might not fit the system and require extra care and attention. The first year of secondary school is enough of an indicator to future performance. By the time behavioural problems become serious enough to warrant exclusion from school, it’s already too late. We need to notice the child who will not conform to the One Lane system and build an alternative programme. If they don’t fit the system, the system needs to offer something more suited to their needs.
ALTERNATIVE PATHS
If formal education and academic qualifications are not achieved, we should find a way to take a child on a different path and improve their life chances in another way.
A 14 year old boy with disruptive behaviour and no engagement will eventually be excluded from school. If that same boy had been taken in a different direction, involved in an apprenticeship he is interested in, he could be on his way to learning a skill, a trade and future employment.
This needs to start at the end of the second year of secondary school. Not viewed as a failure of the child or the system, just not a good fit for either. If school doesn’t suit 100 teenage boys, 100% will either be kicked out or leave with nothing of value for their futures. There is another way. If 100 teenage boys were placed in apprenticeship schemes, combining classroom education with practical experience, it is possible that 70% of them will stick with it and go on to play their part in society.
That might seem like 30% of boys still lacking life chances and exposed to criminality but it’s still 100% offered something other than exposure to detrimental forces on the street and an absolute failure to acknowledge any glimmer of potential.
The effect on society can not be discounted. The excluded students of today are the poor, disadvantaged, mentally ill, disenfranchised, angry population of tomorrow. Some will already be in the pipeline to prison or premature death. More than any other demographic, the risk this presents if disregarded until the damage has already been done.
ENGAGING BUSINESS LEADERS
A sponsorship programme from business leaders could establish a generation of trained, skilled workers ready to join the work force of the future.
Girls and boys who fail to engage with formal education, given the right guidance and opportunities, could be the carers, mechanics, plumbers, musicians, retailers, chefs of the future. We don’t have to wait for young people to fail, we can catch them before they fall and set them on an alternative path.
556-11