CHAPTER2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents a review of related literature and studies that could further enhance
the background of the study. A review of different literature and documents related to the
problem and studies conducted by a number of researchers, which have had a significant impact
on the subject under study, has revealed some illuminating facts and interesting observations that
have enabled the researchers to take a deeper look into the research objective.

Related Literature ( HAVE THE LITERATURE FIRST HERE)

RELATED STUDIES

School dropout has been defined as leaving education without obtaining a

minimal credential, most often a higher secondary education diploma (De Witte et al.,
2013). Estimates of dropout rates seem to be higher in South and West Asia (43%) and
sub-Saharian Africa (36%), while other geopolitical areas such as East Asia, and Europe
show similar lower dropout rates (between 4 and 12%) (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2012; European Commission Education Training,
2013). In Spain, where the present study is conducted, dropout rates are estimated as high
as 22% (Andrei et al., 2012; Korhonen et al., 2014) with a greater incidence among males
(26.6%). Although there is great diversity of standards by which school dropout and
completion are measured across various studies (Cataldi et al., 2009), these figures
illustrate the relevance of school dropout worldwide and ask for a close study of its
causes and consequences.

Although it is often difficult to differentiate causes from consequences, youth who

drop out from school are at increased risk for displaying socio emotional problems and
engaging in delinquent and criminal behavior. Literature has also suggested that school
dropout might be regarded as the last stage of a dynamic, cumulative and
multidimensional process of school disengagement (Bjerk et al., 2012) in which multiple
causes at different levels (individual, family, school, and neighborhood) might be
explaining this phenomenon (De Witte et al., 2013).

Among the individual risk factors, both internalizing and externalizing disorders
have been claimed to have an influence on school dropout. Among the externalizing
disorders, disruptive behavior seems to be the most impeding for educational attainment
(Esch et al., 2014) whereas depression and anxiety are among the most studied
internalizing problems ( Quiroga et al., 2013). Patterson, 2010 suggested that children
with early behavioral problems are at risk for developing academic problems and
experiencing rejection from their prosocial peers, probably leading to connections with
deviant peers and in turn engage in other maladjusted acts such as truancy, substance use,
or possibly violent behavior. Alternatively, students who conform to school rules tend to
perform better in the classroom setting and are less likely to leave school early.
Moreover, disruptive behavior at school also influences parents' involvement and
guidance, as well as teachers' relationships with students (Prino et al., 2016), thus
exacerbating its effects on school performance (Van Bergen et al., 2015).

Of special interest among the individual risk factors is substance abuse. The
relationship between substance abuse and school dropout is among the most studied in
official records (Esch et al., 2014), suggesting that students who are involved in drug or
alcohol abuse are more likely to drop out from school (Patrick et al., 2016). For instance,
Esch et al. (2014) found that students who continued their academic career had lower risk
of becoming current drinkers than their peers who had dropped out from school.
Likewise, those adolescents who began to use cannabis before the age of 16 were up to
five times more likely to drop out of secondary school than their peers who did not
consume any drugs. However, possible mechanisms linking substance use with school
dropout are unclear, ranging from cognitive and neurobiological deficits to learning
difficulties and low academic performance (DuPont et al., 2013)
 Among the family factors, socioeconomic status, family structure (De Witte et al.,
2013), and the importance parents place on academic success have been related to school
dropout. From a family socialization theoretical point of view, school performance and
home environment are closely related. For instance, stressful events such as parental
divorce or family conflict might influence how a student behaves in and outside the
classroom. Beyond the existence of stressful events, family structure may also influence
school dropout (De Witte et al., 2013). The empirical evidence shows how children from
single-parent households are more likely to drop out from school (Torres et al., 2015) and
there is literature suggesting that family structure might influence the socialization
process (i.e., lack of rules) which in turn exacerbate its influence on school dropout. As
Bridgeland et al. (2016) found, 38% of school dropouts believed that they did not have
enough rules, making it too easy to skip class or engage in activities outside of school.
This lack of rules seemed to relate both to lack of order and discipline at school as to
substance use and juvenile antisocial behavior (Cutrín et al., 2015). In this regard, Park
and Kim (2016) found that living with parents has a protective effect against substance
use, while low parental education level was associated with substance use, thus
emphasizing the importance of family parental monitoring to reduce also the likelihood
of substance use. Likewise, Guillén et al. (2015), in a sample of 1023 young students,
found that parental monitoring would be able to strengthen resistance to peer pressure
and therefore it can be expected to reduce alcohol consumption.

Regarding school factors, truancy has been identified in several studies as a risk
factor for school dropout (Ekstrand, 2015). According to Wilkins and Bost (2016),
truancy might indicate that students are potentially disengaged from school and that a
trajectory toward dropping out is likely. Truancy has been regarded as a resistance to the
school culture which results in negative developmental outcomes such as deviant
behaviors, crime delinquent.

School failure is a process where a student slips farther and farther behind his
peers and gradually disconnects from the educational system. The end result of school
failure is dropping out before graduation. Students can begin the slide into failing patterns
at any time during their school career, but school failure is more likely to occur at
transitional stages. Failing grades typically are symptoms of emotional, behavioral, or
learning problems.

There are four major causes of students dropping out of school: The child
him/herself, the family situation, the community they live in and the school environment
and in order to prevent the students from dropping out of school, the causes listed above
must be attacked (Schargel, 2012).

An article in humanillness.com averred that, people who fail in school may feel
"stupid," but emotional or mental health problems and "hidden" learning disorders, not
low intelligence, often are the root causes of their inability to meet the standards of a
school.

There are several factors that can lead to school failure; among them are
depression, anxiety, problems in the family, and learning disabilities. Retained students
are 2 to 11 times more likely to drop out of school when compared to underachieving, but
promoted, peers. Students often improve during the year following grade retention,
particularly if additional instruction is provided. However, these gains are normally lost
in two to three years. Moreover, non-academically, an outcome of retention or repeating
is associated with poor ―social adjustment, attitudes toward school, behavioral
outcomes, and attendance.

Prior studies have noted several risk and protective factors for school dropout;
however, only a few have examined longer-term vulnerabilities alongside temporary risk
and protective factors. Consequently, we focused on the role that both stable and time-
varying psychosocial risk and protective factors play in dropout intentions and actual
dropout, using a 4-year longitudinal design. We investigated to what extent dropout
intentions and dropout can be predicted by an interplay between negative life events,
general self-efficacy, and perceived social support. We distinguished between time-
averaged levels of self-efficacy and social support, and within-person change in self-
efficacy and social support over time. This enabled us to establish whether dropout
intentions and dropout were sensitive to fluctuations in perceived self-efficacy and social
support over time when controlling for person-specific levels of these psychosocial
resources. Calculating multilevel models with data from a prospective cohort study (N=
4,956, 43% male), we found that negative life events were significantly associated with
an increase in dropout intentions and the likelihood of school dropout. Furthermore, time-
averaged levels of self-efficacy and social support, and a within-person (situational)
increase in these characteristics relative to their time-averaged levels, were related to
lower levels of dropout intentions but did not prevent dropout. The positive relationship
between negative life events and dropout intentions was attenuated for individuals who
perceived higher levels of self-efficacy than usual. Our findings suggest future research
should further investigate time-averaged and situational psychosocial drivers of school
dropout in combination. (Robin Samuel, Kaspar Burger / Journal of educational
psychology 112 (5), 973, 2020).

School dropout is related to difficult life trajectories in Western society.

Developing effective preventive interventions is urgent. Nevertheless, few studies have
interviewed unemployed young adults in the aftermath of school dropout to understand
their experiences with influential factors. We interviewed seven former students two to
five years after they had dropped out and seven same-aged students in their final year at
college. The participants were given qualitative semi-structured interviews focusing on
questions about what kept them on track and what pushed them off track when struggling
to complete school. The participants were also clinically interviewed, drawing on the
Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The analysis revealed that the students
who had dropped out described a larger number of mental health problems and problems
of a more serious nature than the college students did. The participants who had dropped
out also described less access to resources and social support. The clinical interviews
supported the impression given in the qualitative interviews, that those who had dropped
out were more burdened by mental disorders than the college students. The college
students described comprehensive social support to play a major role in their coping with
school and mental health problems. The former students who were unemployed and who
had dropped out described internalizing mental health problems in combination with a
lack of social support as important influences in their dropping out from school and
employment, indicating the importance of further exploring the role of internalizing
mental health problems in school dropout processes. (Gro Hilde Ramsdal, Svein Bergvik,
Rolf Wynn, 2018)
RELATED LITERATURE

Education plays a vital role in the economic development of a country as it

increases the capacity and ability of people to be more productive economically. Every
child – even those living in poverty, in war-torn areas or those living with disabilities –
has a right to education.

As stated by Save the Children, a leading humanitarian organization for children,

education is the route out of poverty for many people. It gives them a chance to gain the
knowledge and skills needed to improve their lives.

Southeast Asian nations have made numerous efforts and plans in order to
improve their education systems and standards. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thailand’s premier,
has promised first-rate education as a way for the kingdom to become a developed
country by 2036.

Whereas fellow ASEAN member state Indonesia vows to build a “world-class”

education system by 2025. The governments of Cambodia and Lao are also aware that
education standards must be prioritized and improved if their economies are to shift from
low-cost, low-skilled manufacturing, writes David Hutt in his article titled, “Confronting
Southeast Asia’s Big Education Challenge.”

According to the 2019 ASEAN Key Figures report, all 10 ASEAN member states
have made significant progress in ensuring primary education enrolment, with an
enrolment rate of more than 90 percent in 2017.

As for the enrolment rate for secondary education, almost all Southeast Asian
countries experienced an increase in the last decade. A significant increase of more than
30 percent was recorded in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Nevertheless, the report notes that there is still room for improvement as the net
enrolment rate in secondary education is still below 80 percent in some ASEAN member
states.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis has severely impacted education systems

around the world as millions of children and students are now out of school due to
shuttered institutions. Towards the end of March when most countries had introduced
COVID-19 preventive measures, over one billion students worldwide were affected.

Although some countries have reopened schools, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that more than 500 million
learners are still affected by the pandemic.

As a result of school closures, many institutions are now offering online learning
to their students. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to opt for this, which then
highlights the digital education divide in many developing and least developed countries.

“Global Education Emergency”

Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund

(UNICEF) said that the disruption to schools caused by the pandemic is a “global
education emergency”. She added that at least 24 million students are projected to drop
out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know that closing schools for prolonged periods of time [has] devastating
consequences for children. They become more exposed to physical and emotional
violence. Their mental health is affected. They are more vulnerable to child labour,
sexual abuse, and are less likely to break out of the cycle of poverty,” explained Fore.

A recent survey by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF
revealed that the number of students from poor communities in Malaysia’s capital city
Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas returning to the classroom is dropping at an
alarming rate.

“Children have returned to school, yet seven percent of upper secondary-age

children (nine percent for boys) in these families reported not returning to school,” noted
the organizations.

The study found that one out of five respondents said that their children had lost
interest in school or are demotivated, while cost was also found to be the biggest factor
contributing to the issue. One in two respondents said that they struggled paying for
tuition fees while 50 percent found it difficult to provide pocket money for their kids.
 According to local media dated last September, the Philippines is also reporting a
drop in school enrolments for the current academic year, with a nine percent decline
compared to the previous school year (2019-2020).

“For now, we consider these 2.3 million as dropouts… What we don’t want to
happen is to have a permanent dislocation of children, and instead of studying, they
would permanently just go to work,” said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

A similar situation can also be observed in many other developing nations.

Room to Read, an organization focused on girls’ education and children’s literacy

conducted a survey of 28,000 girls across Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Lao, Nepal, Sri
Lanka, Tanzania and Vietnam with disheartening results. It was found that 42 percent of
the girls surveyed reported a decline in their family’s income amid the pandemic and that
one in two girls surveyed was at risk of dropping out of school.

“The worrying trend is that the reopening of schools doesn't automatically mean
that all children will be back in schools," said Francisco Benavides, regional education
adviser at UNICEF East Asia and Pacific. The pandemic has a high economic impact for
the region. If girls don't have access to learning opportunities, it's very likely that the
families and society will be less able to adapt to economic shock (Nortajuddin, 2020).

The disruption to schools caused by the coronavirus pandemic constitutes a

"global education emergency threatens to derail the education of at least 24 million
students projected to drop out of school as a result, said Henrietta Fore, executive director
of the United Nations Children's Fund (Feuer, 2020).

"At the height of Covid-19," 192 countries shuttered schools, leaving 1.6 billion
students without in-person learning, Fore said on a press call hosted by the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
She added that now, more than 870 million students, "or half the world's student
population in 51 countries," are still unable to return to school.

"The longer children remain out of school, the less likely they are to return," she
said. "That's why we are urging governments to prioritize reopening schools when
restrictions are lifted." She added that beyond education, schools around the world
provide many students with a source of nutrition and immunizations. "At least 24 million
children are projected to drop out of school due to Covid-19," she said.

Many schools went online in the spring as the virus spread around the world,
turning to virtual education to replace in-person learning. Education experts, however,
have acknowledged the shortcomings of virtual learning, saying that it cannot replace in-
person schooling. Fore said that more than 460 million students across the globe don't
have internet access, computers or mobile devices to participate in virtual learning while
their schools are closed.

"We know that closing schools for prolonged periods of time [has] devastating
consequences for children," she said. "They become more exposed to physical and
emotional violence. Their mental health is affected. They are more vulnerable to child
labor, sexual abuse, and are less likely to break out of the cycle of poverty."

The reopening of schools has become a hot-button issue, particularly in the U.S.,
where President Donald Trump has pushed to reopen schools regardless of how widely
the virus is spreading in the community. Public health officials have emphasized the
importance of reopening schools for in-person learning but have acknowledged that the
virus presents a risk for young people. While young people typically don't become as sick
due to Covid-19 as older people, the long-term health consequences of a Covid-19
infection in young people are still being researched, and some young people have died
from the disease.

Public health specialists, including White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony
Fauci, have said the best way to reopen schools is to contain the virus in the community.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said Tuesday that it's possible to reopen
schools safely with new protocols. She added that it will require "rethinking the role and
training of teachers."

UNESCO, UNICEF and the WHO jointly published Monday a 10-page document
that outlines guidelines to reopen and operate schools during the pandemic.
 "It is of utmost importance that education and health work closely together to
ensure that schools reopen safely as a matter of priority," she said. "When we deal with
education, the decision that we make today will impact tomorrow's world."

The United Nations agencies' guidelines detail a number of measures that

communities, schools, classrooms and individuals should weigh when deciding whether
to reopen or attend school. Some of the policy measures include encouraging students to
stay home if they believe they've been exposed to the virus and for schools to ensure
adequate ventilation in indoor classrooms.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday that "many

questions remain, but we're starting to have a clearer picture" about how the virus affects
children. He reiterated that the virus can kill children, though it's rare, and that kids can
become infected and spread the virus to others. Tedros added that more research is
needed to learn what increases the risk of death in children as well as the potential long-
term health complications from Covid-19.

Tedros said that the risk of reopening schools amid the pandemic will be
determined by each community's ability to bring the virus under control through proven
public health measures, such as mask wearing, social distancing, testing, tracing and
isolation. In places where there are no or only few new cases of the virus, "the decision to
close schools should be a last resort."

"Although children have largely been spared, many of the most serious health
effects of the virus they have suffered in other ways," he said. "Millions of children have
missed out on months of schooling. We all want to see children back at school, and we all
want to make sure the schools are the safe and supportive learning environments they
should be."

Students from disadvantaged sections are at a high risk as numerous families of

migrant workers have returned to their native places

Education of over 154 core students has been disrupted globally after schools
were abruptly shut down due to the pandemic, according to UNESCO. Now there are
concerns that not all may return to classrooms when schools resume. In India, several
experts have voiced concerns over rise in dropout rates in schools as new socio-economic
dynamic forms in a post Covid-19 world.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia stated that around 15% students
enrolled in Delhi government schools have been missing from the alternative classes
conducted online or through phones. There are around 15 lakh students enrolled in over
1100 Delhi government schools.

"Continuous efforts have been made to address this challenge. Two months back,
around 20 students of the 300 in our school were untraceable. Now the number has come
down to six. Teachers went to the houses of such children to find out their whereabouts.
Most were not attending classes due to lack of smart devices. These students are now
provided weekly workbooks so that do not fall behind or drop out," principal of a Delhi
government school shared with Education Times on condition of anonymity. The
remaining six students are those who have now gone back to their villages and are
incommunicable.

The full effect on the drop out can only be discovered once students return to
classrooms, says Budithi Rajsekhar, principal secretary, School Education, Government
of Andhra Pradesh, as several states have not been holding any online classes for
government school students. However, some other measures including educational
programmes on TV, radio and distributing workbooks have been taken to ensure that the
lockdown time does not go waste for these students. He adds that children in primary
classes are at a greater risk.

“Andhra government will provide a customized school-kit to all student of

classes’ I-X which will include full uniform, shoes and books. This will ensure that lack
of resources is not a problem for children to return to schools,” says Rajsekhar. The
Andhra government also conducted a survey to find out how many students lack
resources for online learning and found as many as one lakh students in the state do not
have any access to a television, smartphone or laptop. The state has around 35 lakh
students in government schools.
 “The students have been provided bridge workbooks containing activities from
the NCERT’s alternative calendar to help them learn. These have been particularly
helpful for students who have absolutely no access to online or TV learning through the
educational programmes broadcasted on Doordarshan, says Rajsekhar.

In July, the Education ministry, formerly HRD ministry, had asked states and
union territories to ensure that the names of children of migrant workers who returned
home during the COVID-19 pandemic are not struck off the school rolls. It also directed
the states to prepare a database of children who have left the local area for their homes in
other states or other parts of the same state. Rajsekhar adds that all central guidelines will
be followed to check dropouts (Mishra, 2020).

According to Al Tompkins (2020) The Washington Post has an important piece

about how college students, especially low-income students, can’t make a go of college
right now.

A recent Census survey said 16 million Americans have canceled plans to go to

college. The biggest reasons given were fears over contracting COVID-19 and not being
able to afford college given the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Students
from families that earn less than $75,000 a year are more than twice as likely to have
canceled college plans this semester.

The worst news is that history shows us that once a college student drops out,
fewer than one in five ever goes back to school. The downturn, especially among students
of color, stands to erase years of progress.

The Post’s opening paragraphs tell a story that is repeating around the country:

In August, Paige McConnell became the first in her family to go to college — and
the first to drop out.

McConnell, 18, could not make online classes work. She doesn’t have Wi-Fi at
her rural home in Crossville, Tennessee. The local library turned her away, not wanting
anyone sitting around during the pandemic. She spent hours in a McDonald’s parking lot
using the fast-food chain’s Internet, but she kept getting kicked off her college’s virtual
classes because the network wasn’t “safe.” Two weeks after starting at Roane State
Community College, she gave up.

“At my high school graduation, I told all my family I would go to community

college. I was trying to better my future,” McConnell said. “But the online classes really
threw me for a loop. I knew I couldn’t do it.”

McConnell’s situation is playing out all over the country. As fall semester gets
into full swing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, schools are noticing a
concerning trend: Low-income students are the most likely to drop out or not enroll at all,
raising fears that they might never get a college degree. Some 100,000 fewer high school
seniors completed financial aid applications to attend college this year, according to a
National College Attainment Network analysis of Free Application for Federal Student
Aid (FAFSA) data through August.

There are two trends moving at the same time. Students who were attending
higher-priced four-year schools have switched instead to taking remote classes at
community colleges, while community college students are most likely to stop attending
classes at all.

The Post said the students it spoke with cite virtual teaching as a key reason they
are dropping out. The students said they have no quiet, internet-connected place to study
and that they need the personal support of teachers and staff to be successful in school.

Inside Higher Ed reported last month that some community colleges were
boasting (yes, boasting) about only having a 5% enrollment drop this fall while others
predicted that they could lose a third of their students. The sad truth is that community
college enrollments around America have been in some decline for years despite being a
sensible alternative for students who want to tackle required courses while foregoing the
high cost of four-year schools.

At the same time, don’t be surprised when schools start talking about the need to
raise tuition rates next year to make up for what they are losing now.
 After the University of Notre Dame and Michigan State University became the
latest colleges to move classes online because of the coronavirus, President Donald
Trump urged schools to continue with in-person learning. (Aug. 19)

Jasmine Justice hit her breaking point during the last week of September.
Overwhelmed at the juggling act of three full-time gigs – as a community college student,
an employee and a mom – Justice crumbled. She ignored reminder emails from her
instructors to send in her assignments. “I wasn’t comprehending what I was reading. I
was looking at diagrams that made no sense.” On Zoom work meetings, she noted her
pale complexion and dark under-eye circles. Her appetite disappeared. She snapped at her
17-year-old daughter, Josiah, a high school senior also cooped up inside their small
apartment.

“Being a community college student, it’s a balancing act,” says Justice, 39, a
student at Pierce College in Lakewood, Washington, about 50 miles south of Seattle.
“And at any moment, the scales could tip.”

Across the country, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend normalcy and
infects Americans, students of every level are trying to adjust to virtual learning and
socially distanced schools. But the virus and the ensuing recession have taken a
particularly hard toll on community college students like Justice. They’re often older,
balancing school and full-time work. Many are single parents. Statistically, they’re often
the first in their family to pursue post-secondary education and likely to come from a
lower socioeconomic bracket – which impacts access to distance learning necessities like
high-speed internet.

And during the pandemic, they’re dropping out or sidelining their education
plans. For these students, delaying their education could have devastating consequences
(Schnell, 2020).

/JRP