Monitoring School Dropouts

The Open Society Education Support Program and the Network of Education Policy Centers have published Monitoring School Dropouts, a report that analyzes national policies on enrollment of compulsory-school-age children, and presents firsthand information on what causes chronic absence and dropping out. The report includes an international overview and country summaries from Albania, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Mongolia, Slovakia, and Tajikistan.

The report highlights the issues and policy challenges regarding non-enrollment, misreporting on absentees, and the consequences of school dropout. The country chapters examine policies and survey findings, and provide recommendations for policymakers. The result is a better understanding of the reasons why many children in these countries do not complete school.

Monitoring School Dropouts reveals that official data on the number of dropouts and unenrolled children are often inaccurate, inconsistent, and misreported, leaving policymakers and administrators unaware of the real scope of the problem. According to the report, the main reasons for dropping out of school are poverty, lack of motivation, family factors, school milieu, and poor academic achievement.