Is the Education System Failing Students who are being excluded?
26th July 2017
By Zara Searley
This interesting article retrieved from the BBC website, explores the students who are excluded and perhaps reveals the misunderstandings of mental health within the education system. This may be suggested by the fact that almost half of students excluded are reported as having a mental health condition. Whilst students appear to suffer the detrimental consequences of being expelled from school, should questions be asked of the efficiency of an education system which could be argued does not appear to address the severity of mental health issues? Furthermore, are schools set up to provide the appropriate support? This may also lead to students blaming themselves when it is not necessarily their fault, as this article conveys by addressing that the ‘most vulnerable’ students are those whom are being excluded.
As a result of this, figures portray a worryingly high figure of 6,685 students being permanently expelled from state primary, secondary and special schools. In addition to this, by these mental health issues not being solved within the education system and not addressed with understanding, could this be a contributing factor to future criminal activity? Figures from the report show that nearly two-thirds of those whom are incarcerated were excluded from school at some point. In addition to this, around 99% of student expelled also do not achieve 5 A-C GCSE grades desired by organisations making securing employment very difficult which may have further implications for negative outcomes such as an individuals well-being and risk of criminality.
To address such problems, the suggestion of better links with mental health nurses and schools is being proposed. This could possibly help to reduce students being expelled who suffer from a mental health issues by placing greater emphasis on educating pupils most at risk. As a consequence, by enabling students to better understand their mental health, one would hope they would be better equipped to successfully navigate day to day life within the parameters of the law.
To read the full article please click the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40667089