Youths in Qld detention centres receive less than half schooling of other children

Queensland youths in detention centres are receiving less than half the schooling other children across the state do.

Queensland youths in detention centres are receiving less than half the schooling other children across the state do.

New state government figures reveal the situation is even worse in watch houses, where young people are receiving sometimes less than an hour a day.

The figures come as the government faces pressure to explain why more than half of the state’s most hardcore repeat young criminals are roaming the streets and not in detention or on remand.

Some children in custody in Queensland receive less than an hour of schooling a day.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the figures showed the government was “failing on both ends of the spectrum”.

“It’s clear, if kids can’t read and they can’t write, they are consigned to a generation of that revolving door of being in and out of detention centres,” he said.

New government data reveals the average daily contact hours of students attending learning sessions at each of the Department of Education’s three Education and Training Centres.

It ranges from an average of 2.29 hours a day at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre to 2.69 hours at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre and 3.3 hours at West Moreton Youth Detention Centre.

But kids in watch-houses received well below that again – averaging between just 2.6 hours and five hours a week.

Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer said interim arrangements for the provision of educational services to young people pending their admission to a youth detention centre or their next court appearances had been made.

“These arrangements commenced on 15 December 2023 and are expected to continue until the commencement of the new Wacol youth remand facility in late 2024,” she said.

“Outside of the arrangement … DoE does not currently directly deliver education sessions to young persons held temporarily in QPS watch houses; however, DoE has developed a range of resources to provide meaningful education, literacy and numeracy that young people can complete while they are in a watch-house.

“Where resources permit, DYJ staff assist young people to complete these activities.”

Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer. Picture: Liam Kidston

On Friday The Courier-Mail revealed that of the 482 youths classified as the state’s most serious repeat offenders, just 196 are in detention or on remand.

The hardcore cohort make up about 19 per cent of young offenders, but commit more than half of all youth crime.

LNP justice spokesman Tim Nicholls accused the government of “flip-flopping all over the place”.

“They are delivering less than half of the education kids in a normal school are getting to kids that are in detention centres, and that’s only the ones they report on,” he said.

“So is it no wonder that kids are going back out on the street, because if you can’t read and you can’t write you can’t break the cycle of crime