Schools key in helping youth

CLASSROOMS rather than prison cells could be the best places for juvenile offenders.

Disengagement with education has been identified as a major factor behind youth offending and experts believe addressing this problem could go a long way towards solving Townsville’s crime crisis.

There is a shocking overrepresentation of indigenous children in Townsville’s youth justice system with 76 per cent of youth offenders before Townsville courts last year identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Youth offending can be linked to a lack of attendance in schooling, Stronger Communities Action Group co- ordinator Inspector Glenn Doyle said.

“The majority of our young offenders have very limited attendance at school,” Insp Doyle said. “It’s really important to engage kids with education and if it’s not mainstream education then there are things like flexible education, apprenticeships, and traineeships.”

Professor Sue McGinty, of James Cook University’s Indigenous Education and Research Centre, has studied the value of alternate education.

She said there were a number of reasons why children became disengaged with traditional education.

Prof McGinty said flexible learning was proving successful in re- engaging youth.

“If you always try and have hope in these young people I think there are ways that education can re- engage these people in life and then what they can learn when they do that is quite phenomenal,” Prof McGinty said.

“If the kids feel a sense of belonging at school at age 15 then they are more likely to be settled in employment and significantly less likely to be incarcerated at 25.”

The Townsville Flexible Learning Centre is working with 130 young people.

Many of the students enrolled at the school have a history in the criminal justice system or were deemed at risk.

Head of campus Todd Alloway said about 25 per cent of students had had some connection with the youth justice system.

“We work very closely with Youth Justice in Townsville,” he said.

“We have a partnership program called Burragah, which means meeting place, that focuses on establishing routines and connection to the centre and reducing recidivism in the 12- 15 years range.”