Georgette Mulheir Shines a Light on the Ills of Residential Schooling

(Photo : Georgette Mulheir Shines a Light on the Ills of Residential Schooling)

Georgette Mulheir is a leading children's rights activist who has spent over 30 years fighting against the institutionalization of children around the world. Her recent manual on transforming care systems urges leaders and educators to ask important questions about residential schooling.

Do boarding schools, or residential schools, play a positive role in childhood development? And, if parents and children are given no choice but residential schooling, are these schools simply harmful institutions for children? 

Georgette Mulheir has found that residential schools around the globe lead to neglect and abuse of children. A lack of a loving family and strict systems of control can lead to psychological and behavioural damage. Many children in residential schools live in poor conditions and have no recourse against abuse by peers and staff. 

This is true of traditional boarding schools in developed nations like the USA, Canada and the UK, but it's far worse in institutions around the globe used to house disabled and disadvantaged youth. 

Georgette Mulheir works with agencies and governments to reform education systems and provide communities with the resources they need to educate children. When local communities have the resources to provide comprehensive education, children can benefit from healthy development and better education. 

Residential Schools Harm Children of All Classes, Sexes and Nationalities

Boarding schools don't have a bad reputation. In fact, it's easy for governments to spin them as positive places for children to learn and receive care that they couldn't get at home. But the reality is quite different.

In the UK, George Orwell recollected the terror he and his peers felt at the random punishments and cold ritual of boarding school. Even today, generations of boys are dealing with PTSD from sexual abuse suffered in private UK boarding schools.

In the US, Canada and Australia, boarding schools were used as a means of re-educating native and indigenous children. Many were forced from their homes into institutions where they were abused terribly and forced to disown their culture. In Canada, the truth was recently revealed to be much worse at the uncovering of 1,300 unmarked graves on the grounds of boarding schools for indigenous youth. The fatality rate of children entering these schools was 1 in 25. 

Georgette Mulheir Highlights a Lack of Accountability at Residential Schools 

Many residential schools, both state-run and private, are able to conveniently escape oversight. This is because many are defined as schools and not institutions for children, so the only oversight they receive is regarding curriculum. This is despite the fact that children are housed, fed, clothed and cared for in these schools and are restricted from leaving the grounds. 

This makes it easy for living conditions to decline and for staff to punish children in any way they see fit. It also means that children have nowhere to go if they encounter abuse. In fact, Georgette Mulheir notes how many residential schools share the same characteristics of harmful orphanages.

Many schools are overfull and understaffed, increasing the likelihood of abuse by peers. With no safe space and no nurturing family, children are in danger of stunted development and lasting trauma. 

Why Parents Choose Residential Schools 

Why would parents choose to send their children away to school? Georgette Mulheir has found that most parents don't want to send their children away and that separation is traumatic for the entire family. 

Many communities don't have the resources to provide education above a certain age, so parents have no choice but to send their children away. Some schools reject children who are improperly clothed, leaving parents unable to cover the costs of local education. These issues are common in poor and disadvantaged communities and those with minority populations. This leads to systemic abuse and trauma within these communities, and it leaves the next generation ill-adapted compared with their peers. 

A great many communities do not prioritise adapting to the needs of children with disabilities, leading families no choice but residential schooling. UNICEF found that disabled children are nearly 17 times more likely to be sent to boarding schools. 

Disabled children are at high risk of abuse as they often can't communicate or defend themselves. That was the case in several Catholic residential schools for the deaf, in which many boys were sexually abused by staff. 

Georgette Mulheir Designs Systems to Reduce the Institutionalization of Children

Georgette Mulheir found that many governments were pouring vast amounts of money into institutions for children while neglecting poor communities with insufficient educational resources. 

She realized that it would be much cheaper and more beneficial for families if governments provided communities with the resources they needed to take care of local children. Diverting funds takes time and care, but Mulheir proved it to be possible and much preferable to all parties when she worked with the Moldovan Ministry of Education.

During her time in Moldova, she provided guidance on education reform to reduce childhood institutionalization. When she began, about 50% of the nation's institutionalized children had disabilities, as local schools were unequipped to care for them. Five years later, the number of children in residential schools had dropped by 90%. Now, most children are living with their families and receiving better education and care.  The number of children with disabilities educated in inclusive community schools has more than doubled to nearly 10,000. Teachers are also better trained to address the needs of disabled children and those coming from different socio-economic situations.

Georgette Mulheir: "No Child Should Ever Go Through This" 

Today, Georgette Mulheir is hoping to expand her work in Moldova on a global scale. She has developed a manual to help transform education and care systems to reroute funds from costly residential schools to communities.

"We cannot keep separating children from their families and placing them in institutions that subject them to the risk of physical and sexual abuse, in the name of education," Georgette Mulheir pleads. "No child should ever go through this - and no parent should never feel they have to make that choice."