Bad grades, teachers and being "bored" at school are some of the factors driving young Queenslanders out of the mainstream education system, an Australian Research Council funded report has found.
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More than 200 surveys taken from youth support workers, teachers, volunteers and young people across the state were collected to build on a 2010 Youth Affairs Network Queensland (YANQ) study that found many students who rejected mainstream schooling were prepared to make efforts to attend "alternative schools" or "flexi schools".
Alternative schools are facilities that support students from marginalised backgrounds and/or who have been failed or left the mainstream school system to continue their education.
These schools can be an annexe to mainstream high schools or run independently, through community or charity groups.
Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland surveyed 154 students learning across 15 alternative schools and found the top three reasons they left mainstream schooling was due to teachers (50 per cent), school being "boring" (43 per cent) and/or poor school results (41 per cent).
A survey of 36 young people not in any form of education found they had similar reasons for leaving mainstream schooling and included suspension and/or expulsion as another driving factor.
Of those in alternative education, 66 per cent were aged 16 or under and 8.78 per cent identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Half of the young people surveyed not in any form of education were aged 15 or under and 41.67 identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Researchers found the large number of Indigenous people who completed the survey was indicative of the lack of cultural diversity in structural organisations.
"There are well documented issues in relation to the mainstream's ability or willingness to meet the needs of Indigenous students, and we would suggest that unless the system develops appropriate responses to these needs that there will be more young Indigenous people turning to alternative schools for their education," the report read.
At the launch of the Engaging Students in Engaging Schools: lessons from Queensland's alternative education sector report at Parliament on Wednesday, Queen, a 19-year-old mother enrolled at an alternative school at Sunnybank, said she left her mainstream school to have her baby.
"I took some time off but I really wanted to go back to school so I looked into what options I had," she said.
"I feel like at other schools you have to go there and adjust to what they do and how they see things and they are not really understanding or try to get to know you and your circumstances."
The report found 69 per cent of youth not enrolled in any form of school indicated they would like to go to an alternative school.
Of those who attended an alternative school, 53 per cent did so to attend courses for work qualifications, 41 per cent to attend courses in normal school subjects and 32 per cent did so for social reasons.
The report also found a number of challenges existed in regional, rural and remote areas for young people including a lack of schooling choices and race, ethnicity, culture and gender issues.
The manager of a Neighborhood Youth Centre in one of Queensland's small mining towns said in the survey that transport also posed an issue.
"You can go to primary school out at the gemfields but then every one of those kids who live out there, once they go into Grade 8, they have to get on the bus and come in," he said.
"But if you have got behavioural problems, the bus driver can cancel you off the bus, so therefore you can't go to school."
A youth program coordinator from a regional Queensland city who was surveyed and estimated at least 10,000 young people "under the radar" and not engaged with any form of schooling.
In its observations, the report identified the difficulty in determining how many young Queensland eople were disengaged from school.
A range of recommendations were put forward in the report for schools, youth workers and researchers to improve the attendance rates of young people in some form of education.
It called for better access to education, an improved "tracking of students" to stop them getting lost" in the system, a way to assess the quality of alternative educational provisions, a greater awareness of triggers for educational disengagement and better communication and relationships between schools, youth workers, families and communities.
"At this stage we are of the view that these (alternative) schools currently meet the needs of the most marginalised in the community and that they have become a real necessity because of the current system of schooling," the report concluded.
"However, it is also our view that these schools could, in some cases, represent a first choice for students and not just those who are struggling with the mainstream.
"There are elements of these schools, as we indicate in the case study sections of the report, which if implemented in the mainstream, could improve schooling all students."
Youth Affairs Network Queensland director Siyavash Doostkhah said the report was "evidence" we can have a schooling system that leaves no young person behind.
"Young people not only deserve this, they have a right to this, education is a human right and as such it is non-negotiable," he said.