I appreciate the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. There is not a parent, pupil or teacher who could not tell a tale of unmanageable children, of bullying or truancy. It is estimated that as many as 27 per cent of all school-going children are affected by bullying, actively or passively. Much work has already been done within schools to counter the problem, but much remains to be done. All too often both the victims and perpetrators end up outside the school system, albeit for very different reasons. The victim may simply absent him or herself, while the perpetrator may well end up being suspended or expelled. Bullying is just one form of bad behaviour, albeit a common one. Many badly behaved children have no particular target, they are just generally disruptive and difficult to manage.
Currently the only method of dealing with badly behaved children is to suspend or expel them, a method which serves neither the child, his or her family, or the wider community. Many children, especially if they have behavioural problems, are unable to find alternative accommodation in other schools and receive little or no support or treatment for their problems. I am especially concerned at the practice of so-called "roll-over suspensions", where a child is given an infinite number of consecutive suspensions but not actually expelled. This practice effectively precludes the parents from making alternative arrangements and leaves the child in an educational limbo. Suspension and expulsion are not solutions, they simply remove the child from one environment, the school, and place him or her in another environment, all too often the streets.
It is unacceptable that society should off-load children with behavioural problems in this way. It is not only unacceptable, it is short-sighted. All the available evidence, including the most recent NESF report on early school leavers, shows that people without qualifications are, in the best case scenario, likely to drift into long-term unemployment and, in the worst case scenario, into a life of petty criminality. The NESF report provides a statistical basis for the link between educational disadvantage and other forms of social and economic disadvantage, a link which Democratic Left has highlighted for some time. That disadvantage is as real for children actively excluded from the school system on foot of bad behaviour as for those who simply drop out. Indeed, it can be argued that bad behaviour may be a result of disadvantage.
Some 46 per cent of 15 to 24 year olds without qualifications are unemployed, and are likely to stay unemployed. That statistic alone should convince us to do everything possible to keep children within the school system. The problem of children who simply fade out of the educational system needs to be addressed through measures such as the promised School Attendance Bill. I hope the Department will lose no time in bringing forward this vital legislation and it will be supported by adequate resources and personnel. I would also like to see a system whereby principals are obliged to report to the Department of Education or their local education board the absence of any pupil for more than ten consecutive school days, or more than 15 days in total, in any given school year.
We also need to devise a system whereby the Department of Education is notified of all children who are expelled, suspended or otherwise excluded from school, to ensure they are targeted by other educational services such as Youthreach and, where possible, to ensure their reintegration into the school system. The only way of reintegrating such children into the education system may be to establish what I would call schools of last resort, half way houses between conventional schools which are unable to control badly behaved children and detention schools which imply a criminal sanction. This option should be examined together with the appointment of teacher-counsellors and trained youth workers in each education region to cater for severely disruptive pupils.
We cannot possibly deal with early school leavers if we do not know where they are or how many are involved. I call on the Minister to ensure the suspension or expulsion of children from the school system is immediately reported to the Department of Education.
