Addressing the dropout problem

Dropping out from schools is a problem (big or small) all over the world. Even in the most developed USA, there is dropout problem. One such news says: "Nearly a third of high school students don't graduate on time; among blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, it's almost half."
Asia tops the school dropout league (Unesco, 2004). Countries like India, Myanmar and Pakistan have almost similar dropout rates, that is about 50% in the primary stage. The rate of enrolment in Pakistan is still around 80%. However, there is an increasing trend in enrolment (on average, raised to about 86% in 2004 from 77% in 1999) and decreasing trend in dropout rates in South Asia. But still the dropout problem remains a challenge. The Unesco data shows that about 45% of the global total of youngsters is not attending school.
State of dropping out in Bangladesh
About 94% primary school-age children are enrolled (USAID, 2006) in schools or Madrashas; i.e., 6% never attend the institutions for formal education, even after decades of declaration of primary education as compulsory. However, this is about 4% increase from the last decade. But there is no scope for complacency! And a recent survey (published in a vernacular daily) speaks of dwindling success again!!
The dropout rate in primary schools is about 24%; so at best 76% of the enrolled 94% complete our below standard fifth grade primary education. Calculation says about 28.5% (not enrolled 6% + dropped 24% of 94%) of secondary school-age boys and girls remain outside such educational institutions. Of the 71.5% enrolled, about 44% students drop out during or at the end of secondary grade 6-10 (ADB, 2004).
Calculating 44% of 71.5%, we get 31.5% tallied against the total population of this age. Adding this figure to the left out 28.5% at the primary, we get just 60% (28.5% + 31.5%) system loss just before reaching the higher secondary entry grade 11. So the enrollment at this grade must be less than or equal to 40% (100- 60%).
The dropout rate in higher secondary is 38% (ADB, 2004). Calculating that against 40% we find 15.2%. Therefore, of the total adolescents of higher education age-group, we can have at best 25% (40-15.2%) available for trying to enter into higher education. Thus, the system loss before higher education still amounts to more than 75%!
Reasons for dropouts
Poverty of parents and of the family as a whole is a major cause of dropouts. We know poverty is more prevalent in the rural areas. A Unesco study on the location of dropouts revealed that dropout rate is about 90% more in rural areas than in urban locations. The rate in both Bangladesh and India is 84% more in rural areas.
One more poverty-related cause in Bangladesh is most probably ignorance, which leads to the wrong belief that investment in education has an uncertain future. To them, the better way is to make the wards work from childhood for poverty alleviation. If, later on, there is no suitable work available, the sons can better be sent abroad by selling the meager land property the family has, while for the daughter, an early marriage is the answer.
Usually, the more crowded the class the less chance there is for better education. Among Asian countries, the number of students per class varies from 20 to 60 on an average. There is about one teacher for every 21 pupils in primary schools in East Asia, compared to one for every 40 in South and West Asia. But in Bangladesh this number is said to be 57.
In a survey in the US, 42% of dropouts left school because they mixed with persons who are not interested in schools. We don't have such studies in Bangladesh, but here such type of companions can convince the pupils prone to dropping out that working here or going abroad may help them prosper in life.
The above survey in the US revealed that 35% dropped out because they failed in school examinations. Bangladesh developed a no-fail system in the primary level, that might have helped retention at this level up to 76%, but this short-term success must have long-term failure in upper grades!
We have seen above that more than 75% of adolescents of Bangladesh drop out before entering higher education. Obviously, there can be no meaningful job for such low-educated people. So a very pertinent question arises -- what are we doing with this huge unskilled population? Certainly these people are doing something for their livelihood.
Suppose that about half of them are employed as farmers and as workers in industries. A good number of the rest (especially the males) are engaged in hijacking, in bombing, and acting as political "yes men" chanting slogans for this or that party. A good number of them are at present just unemployed and waiting for a passport to go abroad for selling cheap, unskilled labour.
How so solve
Research suggests that a three-pronged approach focused on prevention, intervention and bringing back the dropouts into schools are some effective strategies of solving this problem. Dropout prevention programs, which followed the rise in concern over the dropout problem, shared several traits with the conventional wisdom about dropping out. While recommendations, proposals, and operating programs rarely matched precisely, most programs shared at least a few assumptions with the world literature on school dropouts.
The solutions to the dropout problem proposed by writers in the 1960s generally matched their assumptions about its origins (i.e., causes described above). Those who believed that some form of maladjustment was the root cause of dropout often proposed intensified counseling programs as a measure for dropout prevention.
In a recent study, Robert Balfanz (a leading researcher on dropout prevention strategies) of Johns Hopkins University observed that any program, to be successful, must be "comprehensive, intensive and sustained."
Schools with smaller class size, stronger relationships between students and adults, and a focused, rigorous and relevant curriculum are better as intervention measures. "Relevant curriculum" may have one meaning -- being "job-oriented." Job-training programs implied that anyone with skills could get a job. Thus, employment can be achieved by providing for some livelihood skills in the curriculum.
Our problem lies more with poverty, ignorance, mismanagement and discontinuity, rather than high-stake mal-adjustment (as in the US). So poverty alleviation, national level awareness, making curriculum more relevant, and better management of the implementation process (including reduction in class-size, solving teachers' problems of both money and expertise, and academic supervision) of education would be solution paths in Bangladesh for better retention. We must remember Balfanz's words (being comprehensive, intensive and sustained) during planning and implementation of any program.
What to do with the youths already dropped out? I would like to put more emphasis on strengthening our technical and vocational education subsystem as a "bringing dropouts back into schools" measure. This subject deserves a separate treatment.
Abdus Sattar Molla is a PhD Researcher, NIE, Singapore.