When James Flanagan was two years old, he and his mother were homeless. By the age of 15, he had dropped out of secondary school in Dublin’s north inner city before he had completed the Junior Cert.
He was, he says, at risk of falling through the same cracks as other young men in his neighbourhood whose lives were blighted by drugs, prison or worse.
Today, the 18-year-old works as a technician for an engineering company at the Intel campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare. He is, he believes, the youngest supervisor on the site, responsible for the safety of men twice his age.
“It’s crazy – it’s a job that requires a lot of responsibility,” he says, with audible pride. “I’m working with highly dangerous and expensive machines. Just one part is worth the same as a house. You’re in charge of the safety of grown men with families.”
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Flanagan put much of his change in fortunes down to attending an alternative education centre for young people at risk.
The CMS learning centre in Dublin city centre is targeted at students who dropped out of school or were expelled. Most are boys in their early teens. In many cases, they struggled to engage with mainstream education due to a range of factors such as chaotic home environments, behavioural problems or undiagnosed educational difficulties.
I’m working with highly dangerous and expensive machines. You’re in charge of the safety of grown men with families
The focus of the centre is on building positive relationships. Unlike mainstream schools, classes at the centre are small and informal, with no more than ten students. There is access to counselling and other supports. Students get a chance to complete the Junior Cycle and, afterwards, rejoin their school or pursue apprenticeships or training options.
“For these young people, it’s all about inclusion, acceptance and building up their self-confidence,” says Pat Doyle, chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust, which runs the centre.
“They face the kind of obstacles that others don’t in mainstream school. Maybe they’ve had a parent arrested the night before, and they’re in school the following day being asked: ‘Where’s your school tie?’ That’s what some are dealing with.”
One of the main misconceptions about early school-leavers, Doyle says, is that they are academically incapable of completing mainstream education. Yet most of the centre’s graduates go on to complete the Junior Cert and continue in education or training in other settings.
Nationally, about 4,500 young people drop out of school before completing their Junior Cert every year. They are mostly from heavily disadvantaged areas and have been in the lowest-streamed classes.
In Flanagan’s case, he says he left school because he felt it was going nowhere and that teachers were struggling to keep students engaged.
“When I moved to CMS, the teachers felt more like your parent: you could talk to them, really, about anything,” he says. “It changed my confidence. It’s one-on-one. I was talking more, not hiding in the back of the class or waiting for the teacher to come to me.”
For these young people, it’s all about inclusion, acceptance and building up their self-confidence
Despite their vulnerability at a critical stage of their lives, young people who leave school in their early teens have limited opportunities to continue their education. Doyle says the CMS centre – one of two alternative education settings in Dublin run by the Peter McVerry Trust – offers a crucial lifeline to these students.
The Department of Education provides funding for alternative education providers. However, there is no formal funding or regulation for them, beyond a registration system with Tusla, the child and family agency. Teachers in these alternative settings tend not to get the same recognition as in mainstream, and suffer financially as result, leading to staff turnover.
Yet alternative education providers across the State such as the Cork Life Centre say they cannot meet the demand for their services and are forced to put young people on waiting lists.
The Children’s Rights Alliance say far more alternative education pathways are needed for young people who fall out of mainstream education, along with greater supports, funding and oversight.
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A recent Department of Education review on out-of-school education provision recommends the need for a framework of supports for students at risk and proposed a number of ways to sustain their work into the future. Minister for Finance Norma Foley said last week that a group has been appointed to oversee implementation of the recommendations as soon as possible.
Flanagan, meanwhile, is looking to the future.
After going on to attend Liberties Training Centre, he completed an apprenticeship before securing a job with his current employer, Verax, which provides semiconductor site engineering services. One day, he would like to set up his own company.
“That experience at CMS is the main reason I’ve got to where I am,” says Flanagan, who grew up near Grangegorman in Dublin’s north inner city. “When I was two years of age, I was homeless. My mother had nothing. We lived in a car for a time. But she’s been there for me all the way through. She’s helped to keep me on the right path.
“People are proud of me; I’m proud of myself, because of where I grew up and where I came from. Right now, I want to keep going and move forward and help not just myself, but other people.”
