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The Feed: June 18

In a special program, The Feed explores what happens to teenagers who drop out of the school system.

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On Thursday in a special 30-minute program, The Feed explores what happens to teenagers who drop out of the school system.

Is it possible to ever re-enter the education system? And what sort of future can you hope for when you leave school at 14?

It doesn’t matter what you call it – wagging, jigging, playing hooky, cutting class – every day across the country hundreds of Australian teenagers are skipping school.

The Feed’s Walkley award-winning journalist Joel Tozer travelled to South Australia to speak to students who say they don’t fit in to the school system, and never want to go back.

“I started to stop going in year seven and I started wagging school all the time with my parents not knowing,” 14 year-old Taylah tells The Feed. “I would just walk around the streets all day, but in my head it was much better than getting bullied every day.”

At 15, James says he never wants to go back to high school. “School is probably in my top three worst lasting experiences of my life,” he says. “I was being bullied without knowing why, I was having to deal with all of these learning problems without knowing why everyone was able to do it right.”

Like many other children not in school, Taylah and James have been placed into a Flexible Learning Program (FLO) in an attempt to reconnect them with learning.

But some aren’t convinced that the softly, softly approach is actually helping. Marie Shaw QC, a retired judge, who also runs a program for troubled youth says it isn’t a preparation for real life. “In real life you cannot work a job one day a week. In real life you cannot get an education going to school one day a week. So… what happens after?”

The Feed spent two weeks following the lives of teens who say that school system is not right for them. How do they spend their days? What do they hope for their future? And is it possible to ever get back on track after missing so much school?

SBS 2 at 7.30pm, Thursday 18 June.

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