The Education Review Office has delivered a damning report into the way alternative education is run and says reform is urgently needed.
"This is despite the really great and hard work we saw by the providers, but the model itself just isn't setting them up to succeed," the Education Review Office's (ERO) head of education evaluation Ruth Shinoda said.
Alternative education offers teaching to around 2000 who have been expelled from mainstream schools.
They are regarded as among the country's most vulnerable young students, who may have been exposed to crime, violence and trauma. Many may have learning disabilities such as autism, dyslexia and fetal alcohol syndrome.
ERO says a sign of the system's failure is that fewer than one in 10 students achieve NCEA Level 2. It says by the age of 18, more than a third have committed a criminal offence, and by age 20, nearly seven in 10 are receiving benefits.
"What we saw was inadequate funding, really poor teaching because often there wasn't a qualified teacher. Some of those facilities were really run down and not good for learning," Shinoda said.
The Government does not require all alternative education teachers to be qualified or registered.
1News visited a West Auckland alternative education centre last October, where we found students had been sent to the centre because of truancy, fighting and, in some cases, for ram-raiding.
Teacher Damon Ruakere told 1News at the time that many students came from extremely difficult homes.
"Like 'I haven't seen Mum and Dad for three months'. And when you have kids looking after kids in some households, sometimes that just doesn't work out," Ruakere said.
ERO looked at funding for alternative education and found that while a small secondary school received $36,760 per year per student, alternative education received far less, at $16,536 per student per year.
Kristine Eagles of the North Taranaki Alternative Education School explained that this funding had to cover teachers' salaries and all other costs, such as the lease for school property.
"We simply cannot afford to pay registered qualified teachers to work in front of our young people, or that would be the bulk of the operational funding gone," she said.
ERO called for a range of reforms, including increased funding, a requirement that all teachers be qualified, more specialist support and better coordination with other government departments.
"Actually, I wouldn't like to put a figure on it. But I think it's a lot more than what's going into alternative education at this time."
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