AT RISK OF DROPPING OUT. It is them who will succeed in changing the school

Presentation

This seminar presents approaches and solutions targeting the causes of early school leaving from different perspectives and in different countries.

Currently, one of the main allocations of PNRR funds to schools – with a budget of 1.5 billion – concerns the reduction of territorial disparities, to strengthen basic skills and combat early school leaving. Ministerial Decree 170 of 24 June 2022 allocated an initial allocation of 500 million to ‘Actions to prevent and combat school drop-out’. And not by chance.

Early school-leaving is one of the emergencies in Italy, which ranks third last in Europe in combating the phenomenon of Early Leavers from Education and Training[1] (ELETs), young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who have left the education and training system with no more than a lower secondary education qualification. In 2021 they were 517,000, 12.7 per cent – three percentage points higher than the European average (9.7 per cent) – an average figure with dramatic territorial disparities. According to data just published by ISTAT, in 2022 the percentage of early leavers will have fallen to 11.5%, narrowing the gap separating Italy from the European target of falling below 9% by 2030.

Downstream of the Early Leavers are the NEETs, young people who are not studying, not working and not in training. According to OECD data published in 2022, the share of NEETs aged between 18 and 24 in 2021 was 26% in Italy, against an EU average of 13%.

To the bleak numbers of explicit dispersion, we must add those of the so-called ‘implicit’ dispersion, represented by students who obtain an upper secondary school qualification but have not reached a sufficient level of competence: according to INVALSI data for 2022 they represent 9.7%.

How can school failure be prevented and countered by abandoning habits of mind and ways of doing things of which we know the results that displease everyone?  We are convinced that change comes through careful observation and listening to reality. And reality is richest at the margins, at the periphery, it is there that we pick up dissonances and needs most clearly, and it is there that if we really listen we can also grasp the seeds of the highest future possibility.

Hence the title of this seminar. It will be them, the girls and boys at risk of dropping out, who will push us to bring about that change in the school that we feel is necessary and urgent for everyone.

The aim of this seminar is to present views and accomplishments that testify to the will to take these young people into account, to prevent early school leaving. Our speakers, in one way or another, have all listened to what is happening on the margins.

***

[1] Young people aged between 18 and 24 who dropped out of school with at most a lower secondary school diploma (baccalaureate), who do not hold regional vocational qualifications obtained in courses lasting at least two years and who are not attending school or carrying out training activities.

The speakers

The seminar will be introduced by Maria Teresa Siniscalco, ADi President.

Diego Mesa, sociologist, together with an overview of the causes of early school leaving will present some data collected by the Youth Observatory of the Toniolo Institute that give us young people’s point of view on school and teachers.

Eraldo Affinati, a teacher of literature in professional institutes and a writer, founded in 2008 together with his wife –  Anna Luce Lenzi – the Penny Wirton school, a free Italian school for immigrants. He will tell us what he has learnt from his students and also what the state school can learn from an experience like the Penny Wirton school, which is now present in 60 locations throughout Italy.

Camilla Brandao De Souza, will tell her story, testifying how emotional intelligence can transform a life.

Nick Chambers, CEO of the UK charity Education and Employers, will talk about the goals and interesting achievements of this charity founded in 2009 that connects students with the world of work. Today, in the UK, a network of 81,000 volunteers responds to the demands of 85% of secondary schools and 6500 primary schools, broadening the horizons and aspirations of children and young people, particularly in disadvantaged contexts, and helping them to feel the relevance of what they study.

Paul Downes, Professor of Educational Psychology at Dublin City University and an expert at the European Union on early school leaving and policies to prevent, intervene in and compensate for it, will talk about key measures – both at school level and at national policy level – that help prevent early school leaving.

Ardcoil La Salle Secondary School in Dublin, which has a high concentration of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and at risk of school failure, will present what it does to provide quality education for all students, giving each the individual attention they need. Colm Mythen, school headmaster, Michelle Higgins, deputy headmaster, and Kevin McElhinney, assistant headmaster with responsibility for implementing the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) plan, will speak.

Daniele Barca, headmaster of the Mattarella Lower Secondary School, which is part of IC 3 in Modena, will tell us about the pathway through which this school has come to transform spaces, times, class groups and the setting of activities, putting technology at the service of relationships and meaningful and motivating learning for all the children.