Why Do 16 Year Olds Have a Right to Drop Out of School, Essay Example

In contemporary educational environment it appears that 16 year old kids are legally able to drop out of school, thus not finishing their education. Moreover, it appears that great numbers of students actually use this legal right and quit school early for multiple reasons. Therefore, school dropout issues are getting increasing attention as recently conducted studies have proved it to be a problem for the current society. Thus, identifying the reasons why they actually drop out of school appears to be an important step in solving the issue.

The reasons for not attending school and dropping out of school actually differ between boys and girls and between urban and rural children. “According to NFSH-II (which has clubbed children aged 6 to 17 years), overall, 15 per cent of boys and 22 per cent of girls were not attending school at the time of the survey.”(Ramachandran, 43) The first two major reasons for boys in rural and urban areas not attending school provided by half of the recipients were the increasing and high costs of obtaining education, and the complete lack of interest in studies. On the other hand, for girls the high cost of education was also one of the reasons, along with the fact that they were useful when helping at home. If we look at it globally, this is an alarming issue, for “in October 2006, approximately 3.5 million 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential.”(NCES, 2008)

In order to understand why 16 year olds dropout of school we have to analyze these main reasons. For example, even though schooling is considered free in the predominant number of rural and urban regions, there are still some costs that are hidden and may not be visible at a first glance. Among these expenditures we can highlight the need for proper clothing, books, and other materials and equipment necessary for successful studying. The lack of interest in school can appear for multiple reasons, like home environment not being very conductive for pursuing studies, or even the lack of necessary facilities in school, irregular teachers, and low social status of some of the children and their families. Some of these factors can lead to harassment in school, which is also a reason why kids want to dropout. In some cases, kids dropout of school because they must contribute to their household income, or are simply engaged in some useful household activity. 40% of males drop out for work related reasons, and 28% of females dropout due to personal and family reasons, primarily pregnancy and marriage.(HRSDC, 2000)

In fact, these are not the only issues that push 16 years old kids to quit their studies, for such reasons are not easy to identify because of them being complex and interrelated. Thus, the major reasons for dropout of school for them would be the lack of interest in studies, caused by possible issues with their teachers and peers, or simply boring classes.  On the other hand, another reason could be the need to work at home or outside of their household in order to contribute some money to the family that might be in need.

References

Ramachandran, Vimala. Gender and Social Equity in Primary Education: Hierarchies of Access. SAGE, 2004.

National Center for Education Statistics. National Status Dropout Rates. Sept. 2008. 31 Mar. 2009. <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/dropout06/findings3.asp>.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Dropping Out of High School: Definitions and Costs. Oct. 2000. 31 Mar. 2009. <http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/cs/sp/hrsd/prc/publications/research/2000-000063/page06.shtml >.

Slavin, Robert, and Margarita Calderon. Effective programs for Latino students. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.