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ANALYSIS OF DROP OUT AND SCHOOL FAILURES IN ITALY

ANALYSIS OF DROP OUT AND SCHOOL FAILURES IN ITALY. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN REGIONS.

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ANALYSIS OF DROP OUT AND SCHOOL FAILURES IN ITALY

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  1. ANALYSIS OF DROP OUT AND SCHOOL FAILURES IN ITALY

  2. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN REGIONS • The problem of dropping out is mainly concentrated in the first year of Middle School and in the third year of Secondary school. The students involved in this phenomenon are aged between 11 and 18 and consequently still have the right and duty of schooling and vocational training. The highest rate of dropping out in the Secondary school is concentrated in the technical and vocational ones. From a regional point of view the South isn’t the only part of Italy registering high rates, even richer parts of the country see a great number of withdrawals, probably because it is easier to find a job even if not well paid or qualified.

  3. CHOICE AFTER THE MIDDLE SCHOOL • In this research made by the Minister of Education another interesting data concerns the schools chosen at the end of the Middle School. 91,1% students choose to continue their studies and 4,8% choose a vocational education because it is considered a better and quicker starting point for work, especially in the richest part of the country.

  4. EARLY SCHOOL LEAVERS • The problem of the dropping out is analyzed also focusing on early school leavers’ numbers (aged 18/24 without a complete education). This data is considered one of the most important indicators to evaluate the progress made by the country members in order to reach Lisbon objectives in education and training fixed by the European Council in 2000. In Italy there is 20% of early school leavers with only a Middle School leaving certificate. The objective fixed in Lisbon is to reach 10% within 2010. Only Portugal and Spain have a worse situation whereas Denmark, U.K. , France and Germany have a better one.

  5. FAILURESDURING THE COURSE OF STUDIES • Another data emerging from this research is the high number of failings. More than 14 out of 100 students in the secondary schools don’t pass to the following class. A data that increases up to 23.8 for vocational schools and to 18.8 for technical ones. Concerning vocational schools the highest rate is registered in the 1st year (28.9%) but even in the 4th year more than 10 out of 100 don’t pass. This is probably due to the fact that the less talented students are steered towards vocational and technical studies. We have to point out that these students are unable to deal with impending programs. Generally failing students are steered towards vocational or art schools traditionally considered easier. There isn’t any failing students’ steering among Lyceum (schools with an emphasis on humanities or sciences). It’s also interesting to notice a moving from public to private schools because these are considered the best place to obtain a final degree easily and quickly.

  6. Costs of failures • These failings are really expensive for the Italian Government. Staying longer at school makes the cost for students, classes and teachers grow higher and higher, in fact the Financial law made 2 years ago had the specific objective of drastically cutting down the quantity of failures.

  7. Educational debts • In the year 2006/07 almost 1 student out of 2 has been moved up to the next class with an “Educational debt” in Maths and 1 student out of 3 with an “E.D.” in a foreign language. These difficulties can be another cause for dropping out. In two official surveys made by the Minister of Education and by OCSE-Pisa the data concerning the results in the different regional areas are not always of the same opinion. Probably this is due to different evaluating methods and the M.of E. ‘s proposal is to start up all the necessary steps to create an external evaluation system in a position to provide reliable data to be compared with the international ones.

  8. Subjects involved in E.D. • The situation of “E.D.” in vocational school is dramatic: 8 students out of 10 have low marks in some subjects in the 1st term (especially in Math, Foreign language and vocational subjects). In order to make up for this situation all the secondary schools have faced an enormous financial and organizational effort to start a very high number of extra-lessons activities. Some schools have openly declared to have had stopped or slowed the daily learning activities. Consequently it can be assumed that the best students have been penalized by this situation

  9. Why such dramatic figures in studets’ failures? • researchers are trying to explain why the students are so disinterested; the successful school seems to be the one where the necessary conditions for every single student to be successful in the learning process have been established. Some teachers state that students, if engaged in targeted activities, react properly. The model proposed by the traditional school with a strict curriculum and a teacher acting as the only one able to pass the required knowledge, is no longer valid. Nowadays it is necessary to enhance the students’ learning potential and their freedom of choice. Some suggestions involve the investigative approach use, a bigger emphasis on basic abilities such as reading, writing and calculus and a different learning-teaching process organization with a selection of the main ideas in every subject in order to enable the students concentrate on fewer concepts.

  10. New approaches to evaluation and learning • A different evaluating approach is essential as well. A real evaluation has to concentrate not on single abilities but on the overall ones: this objective is reached through the solution of real problems that requires a coordinate use of all the abilities and an appropriate use of the cooperative learning. A useful ally is represented by the new media tools: the Internet and CDs. Teachers are asking for better equipped labs and for more refresher courses. Even the traditional textbooks are changing with the use of innovative educational strategies (the so-called digital books).

  11. Teachers’ shift to the use of new tools • A significant effort is requested: all the teachers have to update and shift towards multimedia approaches. This requirement to meet the digital natives’ needs has been the start-up for the COMENIOUS “Taccle” project that plans to produce material to be used by teachers “in open content” on the Net.

  12. EXTERNAL SUPPORT • In Italy the new event is the close collaboration between Microsoft and the Minister of Education. A new site www.apprendereinrete.it was born and its special program “docente@autore” enable teachers and students to be at the same time authors of special projects using innovative contents. Sharing contents and tools can bring to the realization of programs in several subjects. For this reason the digital culture widespread distribution is the unmissable condition to make the Italian school system competitive. This seems to be the right way to fill the current gap between our country and the rest of Europe.

  13. Drop out situation at Alberini school in the last 3 years On the overallnumberof enrolled students the blue column shows the non-attending students percentage, the red one the early withdrawing students percentage and the yellow one the percentage of students steered towards other schools. It’s clear to see the increase numbers in all the three aspects in the past year.

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