The Main Causes of Educational Drop Out - Essay Example

Education drop out Introduction Research indicates that most students who are admitted to various learning institutes do not finish the learning process with a graduation but instead run out of schools due to a number of reasons, one of them being the youth transition which according to science, it is referred to as the transition of a young person from a particular age stage to another stage biologically and thus such changes have made the youths to develop desires for freedom and demands and also that they have the right to make their own choices. Based on Tomlinson’s report, the paper will examine the social policy that affects young people with reference to welsh learning pathway and more focus will be on the case of school drop outs in this specific region. In the report, four themes are brought in as a strategy of dealing with cases of school drop out especially due to poor funding and student debt. These themes are; pathways and provisions that advocate for institutional relations between employment opportunities and qualifications; knowledge, seamlessness and flexibility in terms of currency relationships and knowledge acquisition; pathways and qualifications that encourage participants in education and training institutions to embrace equity in terms of opportunities. This educational drop out cases comes out as a result of lack of motivation for better educational performance to the youth undergoing transition to adulthood and of course this leads to, absenteeism, poor performance, lack of involvement in activities, and dropout cases in schools. Most of these students are said to be undergoing various challenges while at school, these problems may include: fear of failure, lack of academic success, social pressures, lack of confidence in themselves, misplacement of papers and books, frequent absenteeism, lack of motivation and quietness at school as a result of racial discrimination. I recommend teachers to focus on the students’ problems culturally, linguistically and socially and at the same time, they should encourage the students to choose subjects that are of interest to them. (Rosenthal, 1998) Causes of educational drop out Students Defiance This is the resistance of a student over their teachers’ authorities this student’s behavior is normally characterized by not following the teachers’ directions and also talking back, this has been said to come up as a result of racism thus creating a negative impact teaching and learning. This resistance is a another factor that is claimed to be an effect of the inequity cases in schools under which students react in a particular ways such as breaking of school rules, disrupting class sessions and their denial in learning. Depending on the research I conclude that, this resistant is a factor leading to the existing discipline crisis in schools in Wales. These behaviors results in the irritation and annoyance of the teacher who sometimes lack skills of resolving his students’ resistance especially where there is a racial contribution to the situation. (Molla and Wagener, 2004) Lack of Academic and Social Support This is normally linked with the case of the students resistance whereby research finds that most students claim to be disruptive because they do not receive adequate support in doing their school assignments or in developing skills in their self management which leads to a low academic competence whereby most students are held back leading to lower achievement. Sexual harassment Sexual harassment can be considered as a type of sex prejudice and it is usually considered as an infringement of human and civil liberties of an individual. According to research such sexual harassment acts are recorded to take place commonly at schools or institutions and other organizations, whereby we find that in schools girls are the most sexually abused as compared to boys, however in the recent past there have been cases of boys also being sexually harassed by female in the school set up. According to psychologists this behavior such as rape and assaults normally causes Stress, anxiety, isolation and discrimination to the victim. One may also develop mental and physical disturbances leading to poor concentration due to distress, anxiety and chronic stress resulting in severe mental illness and for this reasons we find that the youths affected by such activities eventually drop out of school to find a secure place where they can not be harassed. (Molla and Wagener, 2004) Effects of educational drop out I therefore argue that, educational drop outs has a diversified effects on the students which normally differ with the presence of many factors including those of self attitudes this factors target the performance of the students whereby, a negative impact is brought up that is when a school administration fails to address the needs of its students this may be done when the school administers in formulating its curricula that include the exclusion of those with social impairments which proves to lack relevance to the students thus making the impaired students to loose interest after which they fail to attend school and some of them dropping out of schools due to the boredom caused by the school curricula this course may also lead to a low literacy rate among the members of the society. (Ross and Wu 1995) Employment The other effect of educational drop outs is the diminishing positions in employment prosperities of the children due to low educational levels. Research indicates that there exist a high unemployment rates in the Wales as specified by Tomlinson’s report and it explains that this is because, since most of the children get discouraged from attending school due to social and health disparities, they do not acquire enough knowledge and skills that would be required to be applied in a working environment rather than at school, thus creating a sub-class of society members thus increasing the unemployment cases in the communities. (Bandura, 1997) Parents also are said to have failed in showing their children faith in the Christianity, democracies, and principles which include; fairness, equality, justice, and compassion that are said to be the most important ingredients in the welfare of the society. The parents have also failed to strengthen the social bonds that include love, and forgiveness. This action will enable the youths not to engage in activities that will eventually make them drop out of school. Depending on such factors most youths undergoing transition are not encouraged to become more productive members of the society through their completion of their educational levels, whereby after the completion they are therefore provided with employment opportunities and thus get employed and become productive members of their communities. (Ross and Wu 1995) Moral decay Moral deterioration comes up as result of unlimited access of information on the internet at schools by the youths undergoing transitions. In this case we find that the gained knowledge on the use of computers as another learning technology has made youths to have the freedom of looking for information that is not related with their educational lifetime, they are said to get such information on the internet, and this usually comprise of pornographic materials which brings in the ruin awaiting for the future of the youths who get access to this immoral information. Such information is found to be decaying morally; the children are therefore found to be immoral as a result of the advancement of the technology through which they adopt behaviors that are said to be unique this behaviors include: Premarital sex and other related behaviors; in this case we find that the children are found to be engaging in premarital sex which is considered as an effect of the moral decay which comes from the engagement of the children watching pornographic materials on the internet. They therefore tend to practice the act before they reach the right age to indulge in such activities. Therefore we find that the children’s education system has been reduced to a low standard where many children are failing to meet their educational targets since it is believed that most parents have abandoned their children and that they are given the freedom to access this information at their disposal, and this is said to be leading factor to educational drop outs among the youth. (Molla and Wagener, 2004) There is the enabling of young people to watch television and other wanting programs by parents, such programs are always subjected to various vices that will definitely make the children be interested in practicing them at home and in the community too leading to an indication of moral decay of the children, thus making them drop out of school so that they may engage in the same activities that they watch from the media materials these vices include: Violence and Murder, in this case violence is always considered in children as a way of expressing themselves since they always feel that their needs are not always fulfilled by their parents. It is also reported that by the children watching a number of celebrities and prominent people engaging in murder activities, they are meant to understand that for one to be famous or prominent then he or she should commit murder so that he can be featured in many mediums of communication. (Rosenthal, 1998) Under the educational drop out we find that the children may also be tempted to engage in deceptive activities such as fraud and deceit, in the society. The best example of such activities is that of the case of the 11 year old that was found driving in Virginia. The 11 year old according to the police had alcohol level in his blood high above the normal allowable limits of any adult. This particular incident demonstrates the fact that the moral decay in the society is at a record high. This means that the moral values especially among the youth today are beginning to diminish. This incident according to the police can be attributed to lack of proper parental care among today’s parents. In this case we are in formed that the parents have completely neglected their responsibilities and children are left to enjoy unwarranted freedom. (Molla and Wagener, 2004) Recommendation According to research, many youths are reported to have a number of challenges which leads to their dropping out of schools, such challenges include, communal fear, confusion and other anxiety related disorders. Therefore, institutions dealing with these individuals are required to implement social policies which will be able to deal with such drop out cases through which various educational programs such health education, employment support program, mentoring and counseling programs. This policy should therefore, implement the following factors that will enable the youth engage themselves and perform better in their schools. Motivation These students should also be allowed choose a unit of their study whereby, the teacher can relate the student’s preferences of the subjects by asking them questions on the subjects they like and those they dislike not basing on the racial factors. The first step that a teacher is recommended to take is to know what the students like or dislike about the school activities and what they would recommend the school to do to enable them have an environment that makes them to learn better. The teacher is encouraged to be caring and be able to give attention and assistance to each and every student in his class this is said to be normally the major factor leading to improvement in the achievement of the students’ school goals. The teacher should also show the students how the courses they are learning are applied outside the school environment thus making it more relevant to their future. Schools as a whole are advised to establish a learning format that can enable them set goals for each student, this format can enable each student to get rewards for his great efforts and achievements this makes the students to be motivated whereby learning in a school is made to be a competition with few rewards available to the best performing students through which recognition of an individuals excellence is one way of motivating the other student to work harder so that he or she may also be rewarded accordingly. I also recommend the parents are encouraged to talk to their children openly so as to find out the real cause of their lack of interest in the school performance, they should also be encouraged to spend most of their times at the school where their children attend so that they can be able to know what activities are carried out in the school. Rehabilitation Rehabilitation normally involves the teaching and training the persons who are addicted to a particular behavior to stop the defective behavior and try to become acceptable members of the society. Therefore under this, the society is given the responsibility of assisting these addicts or criminals by helping them to get hope through various programs that they will be educated thus helping them to heal their bodies and mind. The strengths associated with rehabilitation policies are that the addict will achieve through these Programs education which allows the offender an opportunity to re-enter into the society as a responsible and productive citizen. For example, the people who undergo rehabilitation programs are normally allowed to receive counseling and guidance. For example a rehabilitation program may involve the offenders in doing community work, such as cleaning the environment and activities that they think suits to the foundation of their interests. This will make them appreciate who they are and accept their presence and roles in the particular society. Parents should also join the institution in curbing the vice This is done by providing drug abuse education, counseling, parenting and youth mentoring education in which various government incentives end up training parents on the advantages of supervising their children and providing guidance to them. The parents are also sensitized on how to identify the risks and threats that their children are likely to face, through this, parents are therefore ready to intervene when they identify the signals of trouble in their children and incase of anything they are taken to the juvenile justice system. In the juvenile system there exist two main forms of juvenile deterrence these are the incarceration and rehabilitation. Development of a sexual harassment and bad behavior prevention policy It is therefore important that a sexual harassment prevention policy is put in place and quickly implemented by the school administration. This policy should be written in such a way that all the students and teachers can read and understand very well and ensured that everybody accesses it easily. It should also contain such elements as; the value statement which describes the schools commitment to eliminate the vice completely, provide a clear definition of harassment and the impacts of the same by singling out examples of deviant behavior in the policy. Proper obligations of every teacher should be clearly spelt out starting with the school administrators on top to the watchman at the gate so that each individual understands his or her role in the school and desist from interfering with other people. It must also encourage students especially the youth to report all forms of harassment and make a commitment to fairly investigate the allegations. The policy should finally provide agreed penalty for harassers. Conclusion Recent estimates indicate that Tomlinson report on learning has received government backing and that the thirst for learning has encouraged more children in Wales to apply the technical skills in their learning. Tomlinson had suggested that the UK government becomes pragmatic in their approach to the implementation of this report such that the drop out rate reduces by significant figures in the near future (Bandura, 1997). For the schools the report recommends that the schools need to bring development systems that may enable the students to cope with the educational curriculum that is through the enhancing of short learning durations for the students and this will actually enable them cope with the learning systems Based on Tomlinson report, the Welsh Bac has gradually evolved to stem out student drop out and acceptance through an initiative called the learning pathways. There is increased evidence from this report that more children between the ages of 14 and 19 years would want to get access to vocational curriculum which is difficult to achieve especially with regard to provision of quality education through qualified teachers and better facilities. This report had however received criticism for not addressing how its agenda would help curb drop outs and poor learning outcomes. Read More