Barnett may shut down centres for disruptive students

THE Barnett government is considering shifting the state's 500 most disruptive students from government to non-government schools in a proposal that would shut down 13 behaviour management centres established by state Labor in 2008.

THE Barnett government is considering shifting the state's 500 most disruptive students from government to non-government schools in a proposal that would shut down 13 behaviour management centres established by state Labor in 2008.

West Australian Education Minister Peter Collier told The Australian he was in talks with the WA Education Department about the future of its behaviour management centres, which have an operating budget of about $9 million a year.

He was investigating whether the money would be better spent boosting the funding for independent colleges and training centres, which he said did excellent work with disengaged teens.

WA's first behaviour management centres were introduced by the previous Carpenter government to remove the most difficult and poorly behaved students from mainstream government schools.

Over the past four years, the Liberal-National Barnett government has added more such centres.

Mr Collier stressed they were achieving good results, but he was particularly impressed by the state's 10 independent colleges and training centres, called CARE schools because they focus on "curriculum and re-engagement in education".

He said those schools, run by not-for-profit groups with funding from the state and federal governments, were highly effective and did not alienate or stigmatise students in the way behaviour management centres could.

The behaviour management centres did very good work with troubled students, but "they know where they are being sent, their peers know where they are being sent."