The Early School Leaving: The Spanish Case

The early school leaving: the Spanish Case

==========

The early school leaving: the Spanish case

The leader of early school leaving in the European Union is Spain, with a rate of 21.9% of

young people between 18 and 24 who have left the education system prematurely before

completing the upper secondary education (Carra, A., 20015). This percentage doubles the

EU average (11.1%) and it is still very far from the Spanish propose of reducing early school

leaving to 15% by 2020, according to a report published by Eurostat (2015), which is the

statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the

European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries

and regions.

However, Spain has reduced the rate of premature school leaving from the 30.3% recorded in

2006 to 21.9% in 2014. The percentage of dropout is much higher among men (25.6%) than

women (18.1%), according to Eurostat data. Moreover, Spain not only has high rates of early

school leaving but also has the fourth highest percentage of people between 25 and 34 with an

educational level lower than upper secondary education.

Along with Spain, the EU countries with the highest rate of school leaving are Malta (20.4%),

Romania (18.1%), Portugal (17.4%) and Italy (15%). At the other extreme, the lowest

percentages of early school leaving are registered in Croatia (2,7%), Czech Republic (5.5%)

and Lithuania (5.9%). Among the big EU countries, dropout rates ranged from 8.5% in

France, 9.5% in Germany and 11.8% in the UK.

This problem is important because the level of educational attainment is vital for our society’s

economic growth, as Hanushek, E., et al. (2008) said. It is a problem which affects directly or

indirectly to all people. It is not a problem that concerns only Spain, but also it worries all

over the world, because it is a way to measure the educational situation of a nation.

In this alarming situation of early school leaving not only students are affected, perhaps they

have the least fault. Parents, schools, education system and government are also involved in

the problem. Many students are victims of the collapse of a social structure that produces

serious imbalances, and an education system that is not capable of that the 100% of young

people achieve the objectives of compulsory education. Currently, poor scholar results are a

problem perfectly located, identified and it has a specific treatment if efforts from different

elements of the social system join.

In addition, this dropout affects personal and social development of these students. And

although the problem is not new, it is particularly relevant in current society, in which

knowledge is not only the key to economic