The school dropout It is the concept by which the situation is known in which a young person of age to go to school abandons it for some reason.
In these cases, the student does not win the certificate or degree that accredits completion and opens the most important doors of university study or the workplace, but fundamentally interrupts one of the most important knowledge acquisition and socialization processes.
School dropout, then, is seen as a very big problem of public interest.
Consequences of school dropout
Practically from all the angles that make up the formation of a child, the school dropoutbecause in addition to losing all the possibilities that the school offers, it is usual that the reason for dropping out is not something that represents an advantage, and that the decision to leave education aside is made in an involuntary or forced way.
The usual path away from school is towards the child labor from a very early age, or towards a sedentary lifestyle or habits that are harmful to young people on the street, in the most complex cases. The younger the age of dropout, the greater the magnitude of these implications for the child.
From the school side, school dropout implies a breach of one of the fundamental duties assigned to it, since it is expected to provide the mechanisms so that whoever enters can finish their primary and secondary studies. In countries that have public educationthere is no economic limitation for access to education, but dropout is still a problem: the school should provide containment mechanisms so that young people do not abandon it.
It is common for teachers to find themselves with children with very low school performance, but they avoid making them repeat the year in any way due to the consequences of discouragement and possible dropout that this generates: among teachers, there are often voices for and against the decision to make in the face of this dilemma.
Dropout is leaving school for any reason. To illustrate the different issues that can motivate it, different causes of school dropoutmore or less frequently.
Examples of school dropout
- Joaquín, 11 years old, stops going to school tired of traveling the six kilometers there and six kilometers back that he must do every day to get to his school, on the outskirts of a rural town.
- Tomás, 7 years old, suffers bullying. Tired of trying to change the behavior of his classmates for different reasons, he simply decides to leave his school and does not try his luck in others.
- Matías’s father, 14 years old, leaves the family. In the midst of such commotion, Matías stops going to school in order to stay in his house with his mother.
- Felix, 14, lives in a country where there is no public education. His family doesn’t have much money, and the scholarships demand a performance that Félix doesn’t reach. He must leave school.
- 9-year-old Diana’s father and mother divorce. One lives in one area of the city and the other in another far away, and conflicts between them mean that Diana must travel permanently. With that pace of travel, it seems impossible for her to continue going to school.
- Damian’s family (15 years old) is very absent, and he has very little contact with his peers. For a while they believe that he attends school but he goes intermittently, and begins to use drugs. He finally he stops going completely.
- Natalia (17 years old) is offered a job as a model, with a salary that is very attractive to her. She has no doubts and she decides to drop out of school to start her career in the media.
- Tobías, 8 years old, has learning problems. The school doesn’t pay much attention, and unmotivated Tobías believes that the problem is his and he will never be able to learn. With no other containment than the failed school, it doesn’t go any further.
- The economic situation of a country is difficult, and unemployment is on the rise. In this context, Sofía’s father (15 years old) is fired from his job, and he decides to do family work in which her daughter is essential, so she stops studying.
- Juan’s grades (17 years old) were not good this year, and although he has very little left to finish school, he leaves him, believing that he will not need the degree to get a job.