An evaluation of the educational priority policy in relation to early school leaving

Abstract

In the Netherlands, just like in other EU countries and in the United States, early school leaving is considered to be a major problem. Early school leaving has traditionally largely been approached from the point of view of social inequality and social integration. It has been known for some time that it is largely working-class children and immigrant children that tend to drop out of school early. Since the early eighties there has been somewhat of a shift in policy with regard to early school leavers, away from the problem of social inequality towards the problem of labour market and qualification needs. This has resulted in an entirely new definition of early school leaving, based on the concept of basic qualification: the minimum qualification level which all students (and all people looking for work and in work) should attain. These two perspectives have been incorporated in all of the studies into early school leaving that were carried out within the framework of the evaluation of the Dutch Educational Priority Policy (EPP). In this article we will describe the results of the studies into early school leaving within the first five years of secondary education. Within the framework of the Educational Priority Policy research is regularly carried out among more than 5000 students in secondary education; these students are part of the cohort that was also monitored in primary education. Since 1993, attention has also been paid to drop-outs within these secondary education studies and these drop-outs are now also being monitored. A ftrst study focused on drop-outs during the first four years of secondary education. It was noted that the problem was less serious than initially assumed, in terms of both scale and the kind of situation the drop-outs tend to end up in (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994). A follow-up study was recently carried out into the drop-out rates within