Megan O'Connell Consulting

One of the joys of freelancing is that you can spend your ‘free time’ on issues that matter to you, as well as engage with important topics as part of everyday work.

For the past 8 months I’ve been pleased to collaborate with MGSE Dean Jim Watterston to examine the full extent of young people who are not in school.

I was shocked to uncover that thousands of primary students are not in education, and that there are no incentives in the education system to re-engage children who have left. Indeed, with the current focus on NAPLAN scores schools who do want to help these children could find themselves in a pickle. These children will not help a school’s bottom line, but they deserve an education.

Unpacking and addressing these issues is complex, but vital. Providing a greater focus on social and emotional wellbeing of all children, extending from access to quality early childhood education and throughout schooling, would be a start. This includes funding for early intervention to address issues before they escalate.

We need to reframe and broaden what we consider as success in education – to holistically support all children and young people to thrive.

No child should be able to just fall through the gaps, and we should not have to estimate how many children are not in education.

We need a data system to identify and share across the country who is missing out, and make sure resources are provided to re-engage these children in appropriate settings and with the right supports to succeed.

Governments should be held to account. It is unacceptable that in a country as wealthy as Australia any child should be missing out on education, let alone 50,000. We must do better.