A damning new ERO report shows a sharp rise in young people leaving traditional schooling.
Over the last ten years, the number of teenagers who are not enrolled in school or are being homeschooled has doubled. Across the country, 31,000 young people are now completely out of the mainstream school system.
The Education Review Office (ERO) report highlights a concerning demographic shift: more than 8,000 of these youth are in alternative education programs, and 58 percent of those students are Māori.
The report states that mainstream schools are not intervening early enough when students start struggling.
Instead, vulnerable teens are being redirected into an underfunded alternative system that acts more like a holding space than a way back into learning.
Frontline strain on Alternative Education providers
The impact of this shift is being felt directly at Te Ara Poutama, an alternative education centre in South Auckland, which is managing a high volume of referrals from local mainstream high schools.
Te Ara Poutama currently has 28 students and is right on the edge of its strict limit of 30. Outside its doors, a waiting list of about 20 more teenagers has been left unserved because the centre does not have the space or funding to take them.
The centre focuses on supporting students aged 13 to 16 who have become disconnected from mainstream high schools due to disengagement. The programme centres heavily on rebuilding curriculum subjects, focusing on low literacy and numeracy levels while developing life skills.
Whaea Dornae Ray, a junior tutor and community liaison at Te Ara Poutama, said mainstream schools frequently fail to accommodate different learning styles.
“A lot of the students when they first come here, they have come from the schooling system that has let them down, mostly because it doesn’t fit the way they learn, or how they learn”, Ray said.
Ray added that the types of challenges students bring to class have changed completely.
“Previously it was 100% behavioural issues, but we are now seeing more kids come in with anxiety, neurodiverse students that can’t focus and don’t fit in that mainstream square”, Ray said
A lack of funding means they cannot afford to run basic programs or activities that would benefit student development.
“Unlike mainstream schools and community-based AEs, we have to cover our lease, power, water, staff wages”, Ray added.
Rebuilding young students through smaller classrooms
Students at the centre said the smaller environment and digital focus make a massive difference to their well-being and their future outlook.
For 15-year-old Tehariki Murray, the change from mainstream has been engaging.
“Way better than mainstream, I reckon. We just get to do way more hands-on stuff, you know, get way more opportunities than I did in mainstream,” Murray said. “Currently on my forklift licence at the moment, I finished my theory... Less people here, so it’s easier to get the opportunities too”
16-year-old Araki Gilbert agreed that the environment and the staff make a huge difference to keeping up with schoolwork.
“Oh, it’s pretty good. It’s better than my old school... I just think the tutors are better. Yeah, they’re like cool... more engaging... and it’s sort of better because they like track your credits,” Gilbert said.
For Wiki, who has been at the centre for a year, the smaller scale of Te Ara Poutama provided a relief from the social pressures of mainstream school.
“Everything is just like easy to understand, like more, less difficult than high school...because there’s not much people in Te Ara Poutama, so everyone has really good connections with each other”
To address the growing crisis, ERO has urgently recommended that the government overhaul the sector by funding alternative settings at a level that reflects the high and complex needs of their students.
ERO emphasises that the wider education system must treat alternative provision as a purposeful, high-quality pathway rather than a default holding space.
