Troubled teen students face dangerous lives

Relevant offers

Education

Pupil's eye injured in water fight No background checks on Education ministry staff School orders safety review after boy's death Demolition protest shelved but tension high South Island could become 'quake school' Good start for trades facility Children prepare to go to classes in a tent Gourmet school grub is delivered to order Woman found unconscious at university Ngaio quake-prone classrooms closed

Young teens outside the mainstream school system have been found to have much higher rates of smoking, drinking, unprotected sex and suicidal behaviours than mainstream students, an Auckland University study has found.

It was even reported that the students, aged between 13 and 15, have higher rates of dangerous driving, even though they cannot be licensed to drive.

University researchers studied Alternative Education (AE), a system of educational provision established for secondary school students aged 13 - 15 years who have been expelled or excluded from mainstream schools, many for truancy and behavioural issues.

They looked at the health and wellbeing survey of 335 students attending AE facilities in the Auckland and Northland regions.

"These young people are more likely to come from poorer families, be exposed to violence and feel mainstream schools are unsupportive.

"Alternative schools simply do not have the same resources that mainstream schools have, yet their students are far more vulnerable," Dr Terryann Clark from the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland says.

She led the project and noted there were some very concerning health disparities.

"There really needs to be a focus on getting high quality, consistent, confidential health services with well-trained youth health staff collaborating with education to address these issues" says Dr Clark.

However most of the AE students said that it is a supportive environment, that tutors care about them and students are more hopeful about their future educational and employment opportunities.

"We need to harness their enthusiasm for the future and support them to be healthy and achieve their goals for the future," says Dr Clark.

"We hope that this report serves to highlight and advocate for young people in Alternative Education, who deserve quality education and health services with improved resources and coordination, to reduce their risks and increase their chances of growing up healthy and successful."

- © Fairfax NZ News