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Rainer champions 'learning agreement' approach for Education and Skills Bill
22 January 2007
Young people's charity Rainer today called for punitive attendance orders in the Education and Skills Bill to be scrapped and replaced with 'learning agreements', which would make extra financial support or incentives such as free travel conditional on young people attending classes.
The idea for the agreements originated in feedback Rainer received from the more than 100 young people it consulted over the Raising Expectations green paper. The vast majority of these young people agreed that they should be responsible for their own learning and should face consequences for non-attendance. However, they argued that imposing fines and criminal sanctions on those who skipped classes would alienate the very young people the bill was designed to help.
John, a 17-year-old who took part in the consultation, pointed out the contradiction of imposing criminal sanctions:
"The whole point is to get a better job. How are you going to do that with a criminal record?"
Rainer Chief executive Joyce Moseley said that the learning agreements would be the educational equivalent of acceptable behaviour contracts, which have proven far more effective than punitive orders such as ASBOs in tackling anti-social behaviour.
"One of the central aims of this bill is to improve the long-term prospects of those young people considered 'hard to reach' by engaging them in education or training for longer. We know from our experience working with this group over a long period of time that incentives and support are what works here. Threatening young people with a criminal record - or worse, giving them one - does nothing to foster a commitment to learning."
Ends
Notes to editors
1. For further information please contact Rainer press officer Lucy Jackson on 020 7840 5627 or 07734 022409.
2. Rainer is the national charity for under-supported young people. We have contact with more than 18,000 young people and young adults in 115 communities across the country - including those who are at risk of family breakdown, in or leaving care, caught up in the criminal justice system, homeless, or outside education, training or employment. www.raineronline.org.
