School dropouts in Latin America
Given that the large majority of children and adolescents in the region are enrolled in the education system, it can be argued that school dropouts in Latin America are predominantly due to the weakening of a link, which for a variety of reasons wore away and finally broke.
[2] It is clear from these findings that the link between paid work, caregiving and interruption of each educational trajectory could be thought of as the outcome of family dynamics due to persistent shortages and deprivations.
This means that young people dropping out of school is one of the consequences of the difficulties encountered by adults trying to achieve a minimal level of well-being to protect the educational trajectories of their adolescents.
Family dynamics while seeking to achieve adequate levels of well-being undoubtedly form a complex web of interactions that, in many cases, affect educational trajectories.
[2] The information from the household surveys in the region confirm, to a large extent, a close link between the participation of young people in the family dynamics of the production of well-being and school drop out.
In any case, the information analysed shows strong indications that a quarter of out-of-school youth aged 18 to 24 years who left school before completing their secondary education have brothers and sisters or other young family members who were adolescent fathers and mothers.
An over-representation of this subgroup of adolescents and young people who broke off their educational trajectories before completing their secondary level was found in considerably greater proportions among the poorest households, in rural areas and among women.
[4] Various studies have characterized this reality, such as the case carried out by Espíndola and León (2002),[5] who state that: In this manner, the characteristics and very structure of the education system together with the intra-school agents themselves would be directly responsible for generating its expelling elements, whether on account of its inadequate socializing action or because of its inability to channel or contain the influence of the (adverse) socio-economic environment in which children and young people develop.
Confirming this observation, the national youth surveys conducted in the countries in the region (with their methodological variability and certain local adaptations) highlight the persistence of the traditional models of assessment of the role of the school which is under strain due to many problems, such as the widening educational divides according to socio-economic backgrounds, physical and psychological violence, and the imbalances between learning processes and the labour market, among other factors.
Nearly 20% of the region agree on the role of teachers and contents, their instrumentality for work or violence in the educational environment, with the exception of Central America and Brazil, where the criticisms in all respects remain at a little over 35%.
Teachers, however, rated last in the importance attributed to them by young people as socializing agents in daily life – after mother, brothers and sisters, father, friends and boyfriend or girlfriend.
Text taken from Youth and changing realities: rethinking secondary education in Latin America, 22-24, 51-54, López, Néstor; Opertti, Renato; Vargas Tamez, Carlos, UNESCO.
