UP TO 10,000 young people a year are being condemned to unemployment and anti social behaviour because of a lack of training places for early school leavers, according to an EU report.
The cost of dealing with such anti social behaviour will "far out strip" the shorter term spending on training, the report from the European Social Fund evaluation unit warns, it criticises the "relative inefficiency" of the education system to counter the disadvantage faced by many young people, and its "failure" to adapt to their requirements.
Spending on early school leavers is actually decreasing between 1990-1993, the average investment of ESF funds by the Department of Education was £34 million a year, but this has fallen to £10.7 million a year for the five year period between 1994 and 1999.
About 5,500 places are provided each year on vocational programmes for early school leavers, such as Youthreach and the Community Training Workshop. Yet each year 14,500 young people leave school without the Leaving Certificate.
The report, Evaluation Report: Early School leavers' Provision says the certification provided by Youth reach is "virtually meaningless". It also criticises the follow up to the programme: "The failure to provide guaranteed, structured and bridging progression, places any initial investment in these young people at risk and opens up the possibility of future costs that may be associated with, for example, unemployment, crime, incarceration, drug abuse or violence."
Unless this situation is addressed, Youthreach will be no more than a "holding mechanism" for several thousand young people until they become officially unemployed at 17 or 18 years of age.
The failure of the current system to cater to the needs of early school leavers should be openly acknowledged by the system itself.
The report categorises 40 per cent of school leavers, or 25,700 young people each year, as "educationally disadvantaged". Of this figure:
. 4,500 achieved five passes in the Leaving Cert.
. 5,500 did not achieve five passes in the Leaving Cert.
. 2,700 left school with the Junior Cert and a VPT course only.
. 8,000 left school with the Junior Cert only.
. 4,000 left school with no qualifications whatsoever.
. 900-1,000 did not progress to second level at all.
The fact that young people leave school early is not "in itself" a problem, the unit says. What is "problematic", however, is the labour market situation they then face, and the fact that early school leavers are typically from a working class and increasingly unemployed background.
The unit, which is based in the Department of Enterprise and Employment, points out that, at 16 per cent, the level of youth unemployment in the EU is about twice the rate for overall unemployment. In Ireland, youth unemployment stood at 23.2 per cent in 1991.
