The Department of Education will share the data of the students who leave ESO, high school or the intermediate level of Vocational Training with the municipalities so that their social services can act in the reorientation. This measure, long claimed by local entities that wanted to keep track of these adolescents, and required, on the other hand, in the Spanish education law (Lomloe), will not be implemented until the next academic year 2023-2024. Most of the city councils already have policies to target the vulnerable population, but they do not have data on those groups that disassociate themselves.
Before sharing the student identification number (RALC) with local administrations, which alerts that a minor is not enrolled in any training, Educació wants to request the consent of the families and the students themselves from 16 years of age .
This process will be carried out, as announced today by the secretary for educational transformation, Núria Mora, in a conference on school dropouts at the Teatro Conservatori de Manresa, starting next September, so it will not be effective until the end of the next academic year.
The Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, stressed during the conference that by sharing the data with the local administrations "we are responding to a historical demand of the municipalities" and that "we can only ensure that the students continue in the system education- in collaboration with the town halls" and "from a joint approach".
Early abandonment is understood as the percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 24 who have not completed what is called second stage education (high school or intermediate vocational training cycles). They are the ones who have kept the ESO title or have not even achieved it. This is a priority in the European Commission that demands that it be reduced to 10%. Leaving school implies a greater risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion.
Sharing the RALC is the star measure of a "shock plan against abandonment", scarce in news, and which was demanded by city councils and by educational entities such as the Fundació Bofill in the face of the worrying increase in the disengagement of adolescents from training and young. La Bofill also asked for some type of scholarship or financial aid for those who drop out of school to work.
Early school leaving affected 16.9% of young Catalans in 2022 (2.1 points more than the previous year), a rate that is above the Spanish average (13.9%) and the European average (9.7%), and which is far from the European recommendation.
This rate occurs more in men (19.5%) than in women (14.2%), although in the case of girls it has intensified and the Catalan average is 3 points above the Spanish one. It also has a very special impact on students with immigrant backgrounds (25% according to the EU) and other languages. And it affects children with special needs (learning disorders, for example). However, in today's event, no detailed information has been provided on these groups or specific plans for them.
However, the transformation secretary has announced a pilot plan for Barcelona, directed by the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona, by which the so-called reception classrooms will be extended to 3rd and 4th ESO students in all centers educational of its competence.
These classrooms serve young people between the ages of 15 and 16 who start school late and do not know the language. As of the next academic year, they will receive reinforcement in Catalan and in instrumental subjects and if the program obtains good results, it will be implemented in all educational centers in the future, according to Education sources.
The shock plan, announced at the "Summit against early school leaving" does not have a quantifiable goal to reduce school dropout, but aims to go from almost 17% today to 9% in seven years.
Educació will focus on the prevention and reorientation of young people who potentially drop out from the childhood stage (increasing the schooling of 2-year-old children), changing the curricula, to motivate young people to continue learning, and reinforcing guidance.
The Ministry is preparing a guidance decree that will give guidelines on a "more effective" accompaniment to students from an earlier age, according to administration sources. And it is planned to increase the counselors, currently 60 for all Catalan centers (3,500).
Counselors will also be incorporated into vocational training centers. According to the data prepared by the department itself - different from the official dropout rate, which is carried out by the EPA - one in four 1st grade students leaves the cycle in which they are enrolled.
In this sense, the second measure of the crash plan is the guarantee of continuity in a medium level cycle of Vocational Training for those who leave high school first or come from an adult training school.
These groups will add to the prioritization of pre-registration that the 4th ESO students have already had this year. The risk of dropping out is lower if this group of vulnerable students can choose a first option cycle.
The students of the adult training schools are made up, for the most part, of young people who once left the classroom, whether they worked or not, and now want to graduate from ESO.
For Educació, abandonment is a multifactorial issue that requires an inclusive and coordinated response by various Government departments (Drets Socials or Treball) and other entities such as city councils that are the ones that have to act, in their opinion, once the student leaves the educational system.
