Jo Malcolm-Black: Graeme Dingle Foundation CEO on thousands of students not enrolled in school for more than a year

A youth charity believes the Government's taking courageous steps, to tackle chronic school absence.

Ministry of Education data shows more than one thousand students weren't enrolled in school for more than a year in 2024 - a 576 percent increase on a decade ago.

Graeme Dingle Foundation CEO Jo Malcolm-Black told Andrew Dickens it's good to see the Government is wanting to tackle the problem.

She says early intervention and consistent support reduces the risk of disengagement.

Malcolm-Black hopes schools, social services and community organisations will support the Government's approach.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some pretty grim numbers around truancy out this morning. Around
one thy one hundred and ten students weren't enrolled in
school for more than a year in twenty twenty four.
Two thirds of those ages between twelve and fourteen years old.
Students are put down as not enrolled if their absence
is unexplained for twenty days or more so. Joe Malcolm
Black is the CEO of the Graham Dingle Foundation. This

(00:23):
is the charity that's worried about all of this, and
she joins me this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello Joe, Good morning Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
This is pretty dire, isn't it. These kids aren't just wagging,
They are choosing not to be educated for a year.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is pretty worrying.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Why is it happening?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Wow? It's an interesting one obviously, at least this is
a pretty tricky chilt for young people. There are lots
of complex things happening in their lives. What we are
seeing at the Foundation, and we've noticed it since after
the twenty twenty lockdowns, is that a number of young
people are flying under the radar there just becoming less
connected to their friends, they're learning in their communities, and

(01:05):
what that tends to do is that tends to have
a long impact normal things like not just on things
like confidence, anxiety, loss of direction, but it can have
a really negative long term impact on their well being,
their educational outcomes, and of course the future. So what

(01:25):
can start something pretty small can happen massive impact on
their lives.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's not just the kid's choice here. The parents are complicent,
So why are they letting the kids get away with us?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Young people, if you've got some in your lives, are
complicated animals, and it is really hard to the place
blame entirely on parents or on students. What tends to
happen with young people at the stage is there are
a lot of complex things going a lot around in
their lives that are needing to be managed. They will

(02:02):
be dealing with developmental, social, emotional, and environmental factors. Sometimes
the parents just don't know, sometimes they do. Sometimes there
are complex things happening happening in their families. The best
way that you can turn this around, or the best
way that you can can change this from happening, is

(02:22):
to try and engage early with young people and provide
consistent support about urge and that will reduce the risk
of of disengagement. It's really something you can start at five.
You can actually start it at four things like building

(02:43):
coping skills as preschoolers, but you can start it at
five with creating some fun, interact experiential sessions that help
young people stay connected with Some of the feed that
we got during COVID around some of our promo school
kids is how much their attendance school happened. We know
it attending here, we can classes. It's a habit that

(03:07):
resilience is built. You are born with some inateability, but
you you augment that by help. But they're learning their experience.
This is not a child doesn't wake up at five
and say I've got to disengage from school. Now. There
is a whole lot of commutative factors that cause that

(03:28):
to happen. You can keep them connected by staying alongside
them and helping them learn with their peers about why
being engaged and connected to their colleagues and connected to
their schools, connected to their communities is important.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Now, this was an election issue, So is the work
that the government doing on truancy working and what could
they do more?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
It is hard to say at the stage. Obviously we
really support the government getting involved in this in this
because it will change the impact of how our next
duration has grown. So we think it's a really good
thing to do. What we advocate for is working towards
community approaches that really really does take your whole community. Obviously,

(04:16):
supportive families and communities are important engagement of skilled teachers,
but social services and community organizations as well are important
are important to we will all create an environment that
want to stay connected to and parents support and the

(04:40):
government feels as valid. All of those things will create
a social system that can make this happen for us.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Jo American Black. I thank you so much for getting
up early for us and show as the CEO of
the Graham Dingle Foundation. For more from Early Edition with
Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
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