The Department of Education yesterday presented its shock plan against school dropout, a serious problem in Catalonia that affects 16.9% of young people. This rising rate is above the Spanish average (13.9%) and the EU average (9.7%) and is far from the 9% target set by the European Commission, which considers that citizens cannot stay only with compulsory education and sets the minimum at high school or technical training.
The Generalitat’s plan does not have quantifiable short-term goals or specific programs for groups at greater risk of abandonment, but it aspires to reduce the rate to 9% by 2030. How? With prevention measures and leaving to the councils the task of redirecting the teenagers who drop out to some type of training (educational or employment).
So, among the first, are the ones to educate 2-year-old children, achieve more motivation with curriculum reform and increase orientation, an aspect on which we are working. And next year, what is called a “pilot program” will be activated, welcoming classrooms throughout Barcelona for immigrant students in the 3rd and 4th year of ESO in Barcelona. “And if it works, we will extend it to all of Catalonia.” As a novelty, students who have left the 1st year of high school or who come from adult schools will have priority, like those in the 4th year of ESO, when it comes to pre-registration for FP.
The star measure of this shock plan, the only really new one, is a very valuable tool for the councils that have been demanding it for years: to know immediately the names of the boys who drop out in order to be able to offer them exits that do not disconnect them from education (second chance schools, short-term job training, accreditations, etc.). But it’s bittersweet. It will not be immediate, it will start in the 2023-2024 academic year, and will require the consent of both parents and the student if he is already 16 years old.
The RALC is the identification number that is given to the child when he enrolls in an educational center. It is like a student ID card, which incorporates the educational background and status (student with special needs due to their socio-economic situation, origin or their physical or mental faculties). It is important because it alerts when the student leaves school.
There are several profiles of boys who drop out. We have the multi-repetitor who, when he reaches the age of 16, still in 2nd or 3rd year of ESO, withdraws from high school himself. There are those who do it in 4th grade. Those who finish high school don’t enroll anywhere and stay on the sofa or work in a supermarket. Those who start an intermediate level of vocational education and leave it (one in four students, according to Education). The one who starts high school and regrets it.
Although early dropout officially refers to young people aged between 18 and 24 who have not completed the second stage of secondary education (VET or high school), dropout already starts two years earlier. But, as teenagers leave the education system, “they are no longer our students”, say Education sources, and express that the accompaniment corresponds to others (Social Rights, Work) or the town councils. These institutions are concerned because the lack of training of the young population increases the risk of poverty and social exclusion, generates more consumption of social services and can trigger conflicts.
The problem that the municipalities see are the obstacles that some families or the student himself (perhaps already in a vulnerable situation) can put in order to give their consent. The profiles of abandonment are very varied, but, basically, they share features of fragility such as an immigrant background, a low socio-economic and cultural level or mental health problems.
But in March 2022 the decree-law on data access between local bodies and Education was published. With this regulation, the municipalities provided the Government with the children’s social data, which made it possible to distribute the most vulnerable children between different schools (to avoid segregating them). Then, parental consent was not required, which made it possible to speed up the procedures. They do not require it in healthcare either, so a (private) pharmacy can receive confidential information from a hospital or a public service.
