Early school leavers advise on dropping out

To prevent students dropping out, schools need to be organised more flatly. Teachers need to connect better with students’ own world. Students should also be able to evaluate their teachers, and appraisal interviews should carry real consequences.

That is the view of twelve young people from Rotterdam-Zuid, set out in their advisory report ‘Zie me dan, hoor me dan’ (See me then, hear me then), which they present on Friday afternoon to Korrie Louwes, the alderman for education.

“We know a great deal is already being done to prevent students dropping out. But young people themselves have never been involved in it,” say the authors. As early school leavers, and therefore people who know it from the inside, they are now back in education or in work. At some Rotterdam schools the drop-out rate is said to be 30 per cent.

“It is unique for young people to advise us out of their own experience,” said alderman Louwes in a first response. “We can come up with all sorts of things, but if it does not connect with what actually moves young people, we will not succeed in reducing the number who drop out. This advice fits well with what we are working on as a council.”