School failure: types, causes and prevention

What is school failure and why does it occur? This is a problem where many factors are at play: specific to the educational system, the student, the context.… In this article we will address its possible causes, what types of school failure exist and how to prevent it.

Did you know that, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA) (2019), early school leaving in Spain stands at 17.9%? Furthermore, 7% did not complete ESO. In the rest of the European countries, the average is well below (10.6%). These percentages include all those people who abandoned their studies between the ages of 18 and 24 (after finishing, at most, ESO).

School failure: what is it?

School failure is used to define the group of people who have not managed to successfully complete the different stages of compulsory education. Behind this phenomenon is premature school leaving, socio-family problems and significant learning difficulties in the student.

That is, it is about the difficulty of passing compulsory education, which in Spain is established until the age of 16 (4th year of ESO). We are talking about a social and educational problem, and as such it requires social and educational policies to prevent it.

The concept: problematic?

However, according to authors such as Marchesi (2003), the concept of “school failure” is not accepted by the entire educational community and this is due to its strong negative charge. As a result of this, There are authors who have proposed the following alternative names: “students with low academic performance“ either “students who leave the educational system without sufficient preparation“.

In any case, as we will see, the first alternative name would not be 100% accurate either, since sometimes students abandon compulsory education due to problems beyond their academic performance. In the causes section we will talk about it.

Guys

Not all school failures are the same. In fact, We find four types of school failure, according to their characteristics (when it appears, possible causes…):

Primary

It is the school failure that appears in the first years of schoolingdue to a significant lack of attention on the part of the student, his poor performance, stagnation compared to other classmates…

Secondary

The second type It generally manifests itself in the last stages of Primary (and especially in the transition to Secondary School, between 12 and 13 years old). It usually appears in students who until now had obtained good academic results. Its causes are usually: transition from school to high school, difficulties in adolescence…

Circumstantial

Circumstantial school failure is transitory. It is isolated, since it appears at a specific time and due to exceptional causessuch as: death of one of the parents, change of center, bullying… It can be reversed if its causes are identified and treated correctly.

Usual

Finally, the usual type of school failure appears when poor academic results are frequent in all educational stages of the student. Generally, its causes include: learning problems, developmental delays, certain neurological diseases, broken families…

Causes of school failure

The causes of school failure are very different; besides, We are not talking about a single cause as a triggering factor, but rather about a set of factors. that relate to each other. Among the most frequent causes behind this problem we find three types of causes: those that refer to the student, the environment or context and the educational system.

Causes related to the student

If we look at the student, we can find some of the following causes (which does not imply that they always appear):

Low level of effort.Low level of interest in school.Learning difficulties.High abilities (student is bored in class).Little or no motivation.Negative perception of the support received from parents.Little involvement in their learning process. learning. Feelings of insufficiency. Learned helplessness. Negative attitudes and beliefs in relation to teaching. Self-esteem problems. Alterations in self-concept.

Causes depending on the environment

The causes also have to do with the environment (social and family factors). Some of them are related to:

Profession of the parents. Family socioeconomic level. Culture. Relationship of the student with his environment. Family structure. Family dynamics.

Causes of the educational system

Finally, we find a group of causes (or factors) related to the educational system itself. These have to do with its operation, and also with the role of the teacher:

Teaching practice. Educational administration. Attitude and beliefs of the educational team. Management of the educational center. Teaching method. Preparation and level of the teaching staff. Teacher’s ability to motivate students.

So, School failure arises as a process that arises from the interrelation of many of these causes, most of the time belonging to the three mentioned areas. That is to say, a child, solely because he lacks motivation, it is difficult for him to leave school; Other variables are normally added to the equation (for example: low self-esteem, little parental involvement in their education, economic difficulties…).

How to prevent school failure?

School failure can – and should – be prevented. As? Through multidisciplinary approaches, since it is a problem in which the well-being of the student is compromised at a cognitive, physical, social and psychological level, in addition to the problems that are generated at an educational and social level. Some of the proposals we found are the following:

Detection of difficulties

It is essential to detect possible difficulties in the student in time. So, It will be important to observe and analyze the student from an early age. It will be evaluated: your level of motivation, interest, attention, educational skills, level of development, intelligence, relationships with peers…

Individualized treatment and attention to diversity

It will be important that the educational system adapts to each of its students (and not the other way around). Applying the same educational methods to such different students (including students with high abilities) can generate a lot of demotivation among students, which ends up causing academic failure.

In this sense, The strengths and weaknesses of each child, their educational needs, etc. must be taken into account. This will require adequate training for teachers so that they can adapt their curricula and methodologies, and involve the entire educational community.

Change of educational methods

Educational methods must be flexible (and ideally, personalized, although this is not an easy task). We must opt ​​for innovation (for example, introducing ICTs, enhancing emotional intelligence, contact with nature…) and teaching students study methods that motivate and serve them.

School failure is a multi-causal problem, and as such, its possible causes must be analyzed in each case. So, fighting it will be an objective, but even more important: preventing it, preventing it from appearing. In this sense, the student’s motivation will be essential and therefore finding a way to motivate them during their learning can help them continue studying, while continuing to analyze their specific context, their personal characteristics and their possible difficulties.

Every kid is a world! And every learning process, too.

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