Schools have several roles in society. One of them is to prepare the youth for their further studies and the labour market. Therefore, the education system needs to apply efficient selection mechanisms to distribute pupils to various types of schools. While in most European countries, such selection occurs at the age of 14–16 years, in Slovakia, there is no functional selection during the transition from year 9 to secondary schools. The reason is that the “filtering” occurred much earlier, when a group of students entered the 8-year grammar schools. In the Learning Makes Sense questionnaire survey, the career advisers at schools said that students proceed to secondary schools that do not match their abilities or interests. The selection of an inappropriate school can be caused by insufficient career advice, but competition for students among schools is another factor. Vacant places at secondary schools exceed the number of pupils leaving year 9 by a quarter. In order to fill the vacancies, secondary schools relax their admission criteria.

Competition for students among secondary schools can bring about positive results in certain regions, namely in enhancing communication between primary and secondary schools. The qualitative data suggests that secondary school principals are more active in their communication with prospective applicants. Secondary schools organise open days several times a year, they present themselves at public events in their towns, and seek opportunities how to best approach young people. They seek out presentation opportunities at primary schools, and their events have become more interactive. Several research interviews indicate that secondary schools started to pay attention to the quality of career advice at primary schools, and it can be reasoned that the marketing behaviour of secondary schools can exert pressure for more intensive co-operation with schools at earlier education levels. Still, the Learning Makes Sense research findings indicate that co-operation between primary and secondary schools has not yet been fully exploited, and that it is often reduced to the participation of pupils at open day events or secondary school presentations.

Another important issue related to the transition of students to secondary schools is early school leaving. Slovakia is among the 17 European countries where the proportion of early school leavers among people aged 18–24 is below 10%. However, Slovakia experienced a worrying increase in this figure during 2009–2017. Early school leaving is an issue more relevant for some regions than others. In other words, this phenomenon is related to poverty and social exclusion. The highest prevalence of these cases can be expected in areas with the highest poverty and unemployment rates. The worst situation is therefore in regions with the highest proportion of Roma population. As confirmed in the Learning Makes Sense interviews, early school leaving is a problem mostly concerning Roma pupils from excluded Roma localities.

Early school leaving is a complex problem with various causes and risks as pertaining to pupils, schools and the education system as such. The living conditions where these young people grow up are a significant factor. Despite the causes of this problem originating from difficult living conditions, these cannot be identified as the single critical cause. Early school leaving occurs mainly as a consequence of a failing education system, where little attention is paid to addressing this phenomenon. Little attention is paid to preventive measures, resulting in the lack of early childhood care programmes for children aged below 3 from disadvantaged backgrounds and their low participation in pre-primary education. This contributes to a differing starting position for at-risk children compared to their peers when they start schooling, and they are already at risk of grade retention during compulsory education. These children often enter year 1 at the age of 7 or 8 . The reason is that many of them start their schooling in the preparatory “zero” year, and some even repeat it. Multiple grade retentions at primary school are frequent especially for pupils from socially disadvantaged background. Often, these cases result in early school leaving. Both grade retention and early school leaving could be less frequent if schools addressed the learning needs of at-risk students more effectively. However, the Learning Makes Sense findings show that many school actors lack support from SEN teachers or psychologists. Survey respondents claimed that if schools had engaged more professionals, there would have been fewer early school leavers. Reducing class sizes would also help, according to survey respondents, enabling a more customised approach to learners. Although the fight against poverty is important in preventing early school leaving, only a third of survey respondents agree that there would have been fewer early school leavers had more of them received financial support. Qualitative data from the Learning Makes Sense project suggest that school actors see the solution to this problem in  more intensive work with families.

Due to the low emphasis on prevention of students failing in their education, there is a group of students leaving school without attaining basic education level. Most of these cases are in the Košice, Prešov and Banská Bystrica regions. If the education system does not compensate for the initial disadvantage of these people, they have an option to take a course to complete their basic education, the so-called second chance programme. Such courses are organised mostly by secondary vocational schools offering 2-year vocational programmes, so-called F-programmes (formerly “lower vocational schools”). The Learning Makes Sense survey results, along with available statistics, show that less than half of such schools provide this opportunity. Available data also suggest that only a small proportion of people without a completed basic education take part in the second chance programmes. Furthermore, the State School Inspection findings indicate that not all courses have the required quality. The low flexibility of this additional education poses another problem, because completing a second chance course is a prerequisite to applying for upper vocational education. The Ministry of Education prepared a draft suggesting that second chance course participants could complete their basic education while being enrolled on the study programme. However, this draft has not yet been approved. Students completing the F-programmes have very limited chances to enter the labour market. Upon completion of these programmes, they do not earn a vocational certificate, and therefore they possess no professional qualification. They leave school trained to perform simple auxiliary tasks and basic tasks in simple vocations. Moreover, in certain districts and regions, availability of 2-year F-programmes is very limited, as confirmed by primary school principals at the Learning Makes Sense project interviews. Three quarters of institutions offering 2-year F-programmes are secondary school subsidiaries located near Roma excluded localities. Perceived lack of 2-year F-programmes in certain regions can also depend on the willingness of secondary school principals to offer them. The Learning Makes Sense questionnaire survey suggests that school principals do not find it difficult to provide funds, time, spaces and staff for such studies. It rather indicates that they do not consider the offering of 2-year vocational programmes to be their priority. However, the analysis of the qualitative data suggests that schools might also opt not to provide these 2-year programmes due to weak state support, reflected in the lack of professional staff at schools.

Analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data from the Learning Makes Sense survey are examined in more detail in the following sections:

Student admission to secondary schools

Selection procedures at secondary schools replaced by student recruitment

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 Activities of secondary schools in a competitive environment

Competition for students motivates secondary schools to present their study programmes more effectively

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 Early school leaving

A group of students does not complete secondary education or does not even start it

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Second chance programmes in education

Lower performing students have limited opportunities for their return to education and acquiring of a qualification

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Conclusions

Schools play several important roles in society. They should develop the skills and abilities of each individual and contribute to the personal fulfilment and development of satisfied and happy people. Schools represent an important social policy tool, and to a large extent they influence labour market quality and flexibility. Selection procedures are an important tool for effectively distributing students to various school types and future professions. Excess capacity at secondary schools and the subsequent escalated competition edges out these procedures and schools cease to function as selection points, which is a legitimate and necessary function at certain education levels. Although selection by secondary schools has been replaced by recruitment of students, there are still groups of students who do not enter secondary education because they did not complete their basic education. Another group of students completes their basic education, but does not enrol at secondary school or does not complete their studies. Early school leaving is a phenomenon which requires careful attention, due to its many negative consequences for individuals and society. It aggravates economic and social imbalances in various countries, because many people leave school without having a chance to enter the labour market and live a successful personal and civic life.

Author:

Katarína Vančíková