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Understanding Early School Leaving
An overview of the current situation of early school leaving in Europe
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Methodological and Pedagogical Aspects
A definition of what experiential education is
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Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool
The role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context
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Practical Examples of Theatrical Laboratories
15 proposals of theatrical laboratories
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Contractual Partners
From this section it is possible to access to a description of each contractual partner of OFF-Book Project. There are 8 partners from 3 different European countries.
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Schools
From this section it is possible to access to the information about the schools involved in the OFF-Book Project in the 3 European countries participating in the project. The school teachers and students contribute to the testing of all the intellectual outputs.
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Associated Partners
As a result of the exploitation activity a number of associated partners officially joined the project in order to contribute to the improvement of the project impact on their target groups and to ensure the project sustainability by continuing using the project deliverables in the next years.
Information & Events
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The OFF-Book project has been promoted trough conferences and articles.
Conferences
The OFF-Book project was presented in a number of events in order to report about the activities carried out and the results achieved
Press Review
The OFF-Book project partnership made contacts with web sites focusing on the fields of educationThis section of the OFF-Book portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.
Teachers’ Guidelines
Homepage > Teachers’ Guidelines > Understanding Early School Leaving
An overview of the current situation of early school leaving in Europe
Understanding Early School Leaving
1 Analysis of Major Trends in School Leaving in Europe
The European Union defines early school leavers as people aged 18-24 who have only lower secondary education or less and are no longer in education or training. The definition was agreed by EU Education Ministers in the Council in 2003 (Council conclusions on "Reference levels of European Average Performance in Education and Training (Benchmarks)", May 2003). Early school leavers are therefore those who have only achieved pre-primary, primary, lower secondary or a short upper secondary education of less than 2 years (Levels 0, 1, 2 or 3c short in the United Nations' International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) (Early school leaving in Europe).
Early school leaving can take several forms. It includes young people who have dropped out of school before the end of the compulsory education, those who have completed compulsory schooling, but have not gained an upper secondary qualification, and those who have followed pre-vocational or vocational courses which did not lead to a qualification equivalent to upper secondary level (Early school leaving in Europe).
Early school leaving is a severe issue for any country to face. It is the result of a gradual disengagement process of students from school due to various interrelated factors that include lack of motivation, poor educational performance and delinquent behavior – often in connection with a difficult socioeconomic background and certain school practices (Eurydice Brief).
Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, or a fragile socio-economic situation. The way the educational system is set up, school climate and teacher-pupil relations are also important factors (Early School Leaving, EU).
The typical evolution of a young person into an early school leaver was (and, according to our research with teachers still is) frequently described as follows: The pupil comes from a poorly educated, socially and economically disadvantaged background which affords little support. Failure at school in the early stages leads to hostile attitude to school, which typically ends in chronic absenteeism. This is often reinforced by an out-of-school situation with few controls and in which the peer group plays a significant role. After a phase of truancy and school reports that reflect the pupil’s lack of attendance, he/she ultimately leaves school early. This description, which focused primarily on the individual, only points to clear failings in the 'professionalization' of teachers. In particular, it hides any structural failings, and largely absolves the school (as institution) of responsibility. Yet early school leaving – in the current research consensus – is a deep-seated and far more complex phenomenon with manifold causes (Erna Nairz-Wirth, 2015).
Since there is not a single reason for early school leaving, there are no easy answers. Policies to reduce early school leaving must address a range of triggers and combine education and social policy, youth work and health related aspects such as drug use or mental and emotional problems (Early School Leaving, EU).
EU countries have committed to reducing the average share of early school leavers to less than 10 % by 2020. The educational achievement of young people is essential for the employment prospects of every young person. It is important for the growth of our economy and for social cohesion, especially at a time when the current financial and economic crisis is having a serious impact on young people and their families. Investing in education helps to break the cycle of deprivation and poverty leading to the social exclusion of too many young people across Europe (Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support. Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving, 2013).
Early school leaving can take several forms. It includes young people who have dropped out of school before the end of the compulsory education, those who have completed compulsory schooling, but have not gained an upper secondary qualification, and those who have followed pre-vocational or vocational courses which did not lead to a qualification equivalent to upper secondary level (Early school leaving in Europe).
Early school leaving is a severe issue for any country to face. It is the result of a gradual disengagement process of students from school due to various interrelated factors that include lack of motivation, poor educational performance and delinquent behavior – often in connection with a difficult socioeconomic background and certain school practices (Eurydice Brief).
Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, or a fragile socio-economic situation. The way the educational system is set up, school climate and teacher-pupil relations are also important factors (Early School Leaving, EU).
The typical evolution of a young person into an early school leaver was (and, according to our research with teachers still is) frequently described as follows: The pupil comes from a poorly educated, socially and economically disadvantaged background which affords little support. Failure at school in the early stages leads to hostile attitude to school, which typically ends in chronic absenteeism. This is often reinforced by an out-of-school situation with few controls and in which the peer group plays a significant role. After a phase of truancy and school reports that reflect the pupil’s lack of attendance, he/she ultimately leaves school early. This description, which focused primarily on the individual, only points to clear failings in the 'professionalization' of teachers. In particular, it hides any structural failings, and largely absolves the school (as institution) of responsibility. Yet early school leaving – in the current research consensus – is a deep-seated and far more complex phenomenon with manifold causes (Erna Nairz-Wirth, 2015).
Since there is not a single reason for early school leaving, there are no easy answers. Policies to reduce early school leaving must address a range of triggers and combine education and social policy, youth work and health related aspects such as drug use or mental and emotional problems (Early School Leaving, EU).
EU countries have committed to reducing the average share of early school leavers to less than 10 % by 2020. The educational achievement of young people is essential for the employment prospects of every young person. It is important for the growth of our economy and for social cohesion, especially at a time when the current financial and economic crisis is having a serious impact on young people and their families. Investing in education helps to break the cycle of deprivation and poverty leading to the social exclusion of too many young people across Europe (Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support. Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving, 2013).
Online Resources
- Early school leavingEU commission report describes the problem of early school leaving, presents links to sources of what has been done for solving the problem and what the next steps are.
- Understanding and preventing early school leavingThe article of prof. Erna Nairz-Wirth (a Head of Educational Science at Vienna University of Economics and Business) analyses the understanding of early school leaving. She justifies the opinion that dropping out of school is a significantly more complex phenomenon, and that each case has a distinct history whose roots can frequently be traced back to kindergarten.
- Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy supportFinal Report of the Thematic Working Group of EU on Early School Leaving.
- Tackling early school Leaving in Europe: Different policiesPolicies implemented in European countries to tackle Early School Leaving.
- Eurydice Brief. Tackling early leaving from education and trainingThis Eurydice Brief provides a summary of the joint Eurydice/Cedefop report Tackling Early Leaving from Education and Training in Europe: Strategies, Policies and Measures, which has focus on general education at school level.
- Education & Training 2020. Schools policy. A whole school approach to tackling early school leaving Policy messagesThis paper presents the findings of the European Union’s ET2020 Working Group on Schools Policy (2014-15)1 on its priority theme early school leaving (ESL).
- European Commission: Education and training policies on early school leavingResults of the Report and policy messages on a whole school approach to tackling early school leaving.
