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There's has been an almost 50 percent increase in the number of students who have stopped going to their regular school, and enrolled at the Correspondence School in the last year. Te Kura, which provides distance learning to students around the country, has seen a huge boom in enrolments in the last 12 months - with the vast majority; 1000, being classified as non-enrolled. That category now numbers over two and half thousand of the school's total roll of 10 thousand.
These are students whose previous school has taken them off the roll for not attending or have fallen out of the education system. These disengaged students, along with those expelled or excluded, may be referred to Te Kura by the Ministry of Education, but that can take months or even years. So what's driving these numbers to the Correspondence School, what happens to students who are out of the system, and especially to those left waiting in limbo? Kathryn speaks to Mike Hollings, the chief executive of Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu and Sarah Butterfield, a solicitor at YouthLaw Aotearoa, a free community law centre for young people under 25.
