This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
-
Understanding Early School Leaving
An overview of the current situation of early school leaving in Europe
-
Methodological and Pedagogical Aspects
A definition of what experiential education is
-
Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool
The role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context
-
Practical Examples of Theatrical Laboratories
15 proposals of theatrical laboratories
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
Latest News
The students have to deal with maltreatment, possible neglect, bullying and discrimination issues in the...Events
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
6. Conclusions
In order to conclude there are certain elements worth mentioning:
- First, ESL is a complex phenomenon with multifaceted reasons. From the analysis of the gathered data it is also clear that it is a transversal phenomenon to all European countries although with very different proportions. It is true that ESLs are decreasing at present and that various Member States have already reached the target share of 10% defined by the EU initiatives, at the same time the number of ESLs is still quite relevant counting 4 million young people across Europe;
- The second element for reflection is that, although with differences, some common features can be point out. ESL is not necessarily linked to subjective factors (such as individual marginalization and fragility) but rather to “environmental” factors at school. Dropping out thus finds roots in the situated experience of the students, in their paths of school failure, prelude of irregularities and desertions, but also in their disaffection for what they study;
- A third element refers to the fact that tackling Early School Leaving requires the involvement and participation of multi-agents and diverse stakeholders. Thus the involvement of schools, universities and civil society associations for theatre in Off Book follows the correct approach;
- The fourth and final element is the lack of consistent data in the quality of the actions tackling (or trying to tackle) ESL and in the educational content in general. Usually projects and suggestions launched at European level focus on quantitative elements, i.e. the number of actions adopted from a normative and administrative point of view at national and local level, the proportion of pupils involved in ESL, the proportion of teachers’ curriculum changes adopted at national level. Conversely, there is also a need to evaluate the impact on the school environment, teachers’ experience and students’ expectations and outcomes of an experience-learning based approach, in order to clearly demonstrate how the students’ “perception” about their classroom environment can be addressed and improved through such innovative teaching methods and how relevant from a qualitative point of view these approaches can be.
Online Resources
- A whole school approach to reduce early school leavingEU commission report describes the problem of early school leaving, present links to sources of what has been done for solving the problem and what are the next steps.
- Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy supportFinal Report of the Thematic Working Group of EU on Early School Leaving
- 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).
- Council of the European Union. (2015)“Council conclusions on reducing early school leaving and promoting success in school”, Brussels, 14441/15, 24. 11. 2015
- Understanding and preventing early school leavingThe article identifies key-points and useful organizational strategies to deal with the phenomenon of Early School Leaving in secondary school.
- Early School Leaving: Reasons and ConsequencesThe article analyses ESL causes and its links to participation in education and school environment
- Statistical DataThis article presents statistics on early leavers from education and training in the European Union (EU) and forms part of an online publication on education and training in the EU.
