Lesson for pollies in school figures
ERIN Blanch is one of the few students on the Gold Coast to make it out of Year 12 and into university.
It’s a big deal for the 18year-old, who graduated from Miami State High School last year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals only 30 per cent of Gold Coast school leavers enrol in uni, while one in three don’t even finish Year 12.
“There were a lot of people at school who just weren’t interested in finishing or going to university, it just wasn’t for them and you could tell they weren’t motivated,” Ms Blanch said.
“High school is really tough and a lot of us were feeling very overwhelmed, everything was due at the same time and most of us were working after school.”
Erin’s mum Tracey said it was a tough journey to get her daughter to the finish line.
“Half of her friends didn’t want to go to university but Erin is a special case,” Mrs Blanch said.
“She put so much pressure on herself and pushed herself to get a scholarship to Bond University because there was no way we could afford it otherwise.”
Child and adolescent psychologist Michael Car-Gregg believes the number of students finishing Year 12 could be increased with compulsory mental health testing of Year 7 students.
“We could seriously reduce this issue, we just choose Increase the number of students finishing school and going to university.
● More specialist training for teachers. ● Targeted plan to improve outcomes.
not to because it’s expensive and because parents don’t want to face the truth that their child may have a mental health issue,” he said.
“My view is that we should be testing our children for mental health problems and detecting these early so we can help them.
“It is not benefiting anyone ... having such a huge percentage of school kids dropping out in Year 10.
“We need to give these kids coping skills.”
Adjunct Professor Stephen Holden said the relatively low percentage of school leavers on the Gold Coast was not necessarily a bad thing, because the city had been built on an entrepreneurial and construction backbone.
“Many Gold Coast school kids didn’t see the value in finishing high school because there is a demand for trade work,” Prof Holden said.
“It’s an attractive job for some school kids in regional towns who just want to earn money and be independent.
“No one looks down on it, it’s seen as an ordinary thing to do.
“In the city it’s a different stigma, school kids are expected to stay in school and go to university and white collar job.
“The key thing is that they are motivated to do that there but in regional towns it’s just not appealing, they are bored with school and they see more opportunity leaving early.
“I was doing a mock interview with students on the Gold Coast who feel they are more stable heading into a tradie job.
“They don’t want to be bullied into finishing school, instead they need to be encouraged.
“Year 12 just doesn’t offer anything special for most Gold Coast students.” get a