Early School Leaving Needs Comprehensive Strategies

Affecting one in seven young people, early school leaving is one of the greatest educational challenges in Europe, and reducing its levels is a shared objective of EU countries.Across all workshops of an important conference("Reducing Early School Leaving: Efficient and Effective Policies in Europe") organised by the European Commission in  March last year the following points were raised as crucial pre-conditions to successfully reducing early school leaving:

  

1.Policies to reduce early school leaving need to take a holistic approach by looking at all the different obstacles to school success. While young people at risk of early school leaving face not only educational, but also social and emotional problems, targeted support to continue education and training has to address the entire situation of the young person. This requires the involvement of all stakeholders, of different services and multidisciplinary teams. 
2.The involvement of the local community and especially of parents. 
3.Children and young people need to be at the centre of all activities and need to be involved as competent partners in policy development against early school leaving. They need to feel ownership with regard to education and their school and having a choice and a say in their learning process.

4.Teachers play an important role in reducing early school leaving, but they need time, support and training to work with young people at risk of dropping out. 
5.Monitoring and evaluation of the nature and level of early school leaving are essential for understanding the phenomenon and its causes and finding solutions; early identification of signs and symptoms is crucial for rapid and preventative intervention

The European Commission has proposed for the new financing period (2014 – 2020) that the use of Structural Funds such as the European Social Funds should be better linked to the objectives of the Union. In case of early school leaving that could mean that EU financed measures against early school leaving have to be part of a comprehensive and evidence-based strategy.

Source:  (Conference Report:Reducing Early Leaving:Efficient and Effective Policies in Europe)