Three inner city Winnipeg groups are expressing concern over high absenteeism rates at North End schools, saying too many students aren't getting an education.

Without an education, children are destined to a life of poverty, gangs and crime, they say.

"If kids don't attend school, they can't get an education. If they don't get an education, they can't get good jobs and may not be able to meet their life goals," said Kyle Mason, executive director and founder of the North End Family Centre.

He, Inner City Youth Alive executive director Kent Dueck and Point Douglas Residents Committee chair Sel Burrows want to mobilize school board and provincial authorities to action — to find out why the students aren't at school and what can be done to bring them back.

"Many students not attending school come from families impacted by provincial departments. They are on assistance, are in Family Services protection families, are foster children or they are involved with the criminal justice system," said Burrows, chair of the Point Douglas Residents Committee.

The education program may have to look differently than the standard system, but the cost of the kids not getting an education is too high. - Kent Dueck

"These provincial departments need to support the teachers at schools like St. John's High School."

Attendance figures from the Winnipeg School Division say there is a 16 per cent absenteeism rate at St. John's High School, the main secondary school for the North End.

In comparison, Kelvin High School in the city's Crescentwood area, which has 300 more students than St. John's, has a three per cent absenteeism rate.

"We are calling on the school board and the province to ensure these [inner city] youths are involved in an education program," said Dueck, executive director and founder of Inner City Youth Alive.

"The education program may have to look differently than the standard system, but the cost of the kids not getting an education is too high."

Dueck, Mason and Burrows will make a presentation to the Winnipeg School Division board on Monday, urging it to look for solutions to the absenteeism.

"There's usually a specific reason why a kid's not getting to school. Just simply [sending] a truancy officer that bangs on the door and documents — but no one answers — and walks away, that's not enough," Dueck said, adding he knows of one inner city principal who did find a way to keep students in class.

"He created a community there, a sense of belonging. It sounds incredibly simple, but when you unpack a lot of the issues that the youth are walking with, it makes sense."

Burrows said his wife was a teacher who recognized it sometimes takes extra effort to keep kids in school.

"She made a partnership with the foster mom and the social worker and the three of them worked together and by the end, that kid was doing really well," he said.

"It is not an easy task. No one is saying all we have to do is snap our fingers and all these kids are going to come."