Reclaiming the lost years: Why Year 7-9 students are switching off
Reclaiming the lost years: Why Year 7-9 students are switching off
The current reality for Victorian students in years 7-9*:
It starts with engagement.
Something is happening in the middle years of schooling that deserves our serious, collective attention.
Across Victoria, up to 1 in 2 students show signs of disengagement during Years 7–9. This is not disengagement in the narrow sense of truancy or disruptive behaviour, though those signs are present too.
Rather this is a quieter, harder-to-see withdrawal. It is a disengagement where students are physically present but emotionally and cognitively elsewhere. These are students who have not stopped showing up at school. These are students who have stopped believing that what happens when they do show up, is meant for them.
We recognise the current system is ‘school-centred’ as opposed to ‘student-centred’ and seek to change that by building evidence to drive reform, keep students engaged and turn them into lifelong learners with an explorer mindset.
“Students are telling us that the school curriculum is out of sync with their needs and interests.”
Young people are navigating identity, social and cognitive change in Years 7-9. Yet schooling curriculum largely ignores the student’s interests and needs.
“Education reform must start earlier and be systemic”.
By the time disengagement is in Year 9, it’s already entrenched. Early, targeted and systemic reform is required particularly in transitions, teacher-student relationships and curriculum design.
“The Lost Years can become the Foundation Years.”
With redesigned structures and the integration of technology, Years 7–9 can become a period of belonging, discovery and identity formation.
Engagement is where educational reform must begin.
It’s tempting to dismiss student disengagement as a phase most young people pass through on their way to adulthood, but our current research tells a different story.
Who we are
The people behind the mission
We are a research institute that examines what drives disengagement and what systemic changes are needed to address it through commissioned research and roundtables.
Research Partner
* The statistics and data shown above can be found in Dr Fabienne van der Kleij, Dr Suijing Yang, Dr Romany Manuell (2025). Student disengagement in Years 7 to 9 in Victoria. A review of recent evidence (ACER). This research was commissioned by the IER.
Victoria Department of Education: Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS) 2025