«If we focus on dropping out of school as a situation at a given moment, it can be defined as the failure to complete studies below a level prescribed by law or social conventions.“, Writes Pierre-Yves Bernard, lecturer in educational sciences in Nantes. “There are three major levers of intervention“, Adds William Marois, rector of the Academy of Nantes:”prevention, detection, actions to restore confidence in young people“. A subject as essential for young people as for society: because, William Marois specifies, “fighting against dropping out of school also means promoting professional integration in which people are happy. ” 

The unemployment rate among young people with no qualifications is 49%. It decreases to 28% with the obtaining of a level V diploma… This is the observation made by the last Generations report, that of 2013, and it is clear: “Encouraging young people to obtain a diploma is essential to ensure them a good professional and civic integration“, As also confirmed by the rector of the Academy of Nantes, William Marois. Dropping out of school and dropping out of school are not inevitable. And we can act at different levels.

Pierre-Yves Bernard, researcher in educational sciences in Nantes, recalls that it was the end of the 2000s that saw this term prevail in France, which was present long before in the United States: that of “school dropout”. An expression which then imposed itself within “various institutional texts relating to educational policies in terms of school pathways ”, said routes being qualified as “Problematic«.

In fact, the law, through Article L. 313-7 of the Education Code, designates the population likely to benefit from public action in the field of early school leaving as “former students or apprentices who are no longer registered in a training cycle and who have not reached a level of qualification set by regulation“. And it is a decree of 2010 which fixes this level to be reached: either the general baccalaureate, or a vocational diploma registered in the national directory of professional certifications and classified at levels V or IV of the nomenclature.

«There are warning signs of dropping out of school, which may depend on the age of the children., explains Canadian educational psychologist Michel Janosz. The most frequent are a great demotivation, a withdrawal from studies, and very low grades, reflecting a situation of school failure.. ” Repetition is also an important risk factor but which, in fact, reflects existing difficulties. So much for the individual signs. Because there are other external signs. Among them: family life.

«Broadly speaking, the risks are linked to individual disengagement, to contextual factors, or to issues linked to competition in the labor market.“, Adds Michel Janosz. Anxiety or even depression can also be factors in dropping out.

This researcher specifies that dropping out is very often a multifactorial problem: it is linked to the young person, but also to school, to the quality of teaching, to the school climate… William Marois sums it up: “Programs that motivate and interest young people are good ways to prevent dropping out ! “

«Family factors weigh a lot, recalls Michel Janosz, and tensions within the family, conflicts, even relocations, mothers raising their children alone, poverty: all are risk factors. And when different factors combine, they induce a risk that is not only additional, but exponential ! “

In this context, universal prevention aims to provide all students with good educational support and improve the quality of education for all. As for targeted prevention, it tries to identify children at risk as quickly as possible, sometimes as early as CP. Because as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure …

As has been mentioned, the fight against dropping out of school takes place at various levels. The first is preventive, and is carried out first in the classroom, where its first signs appear. However, education must enable each young person to acquire skills: in the first place, those of “read, write, count, and respect others“. Another preventive element within establishments: having a dropout referent. This is already done in the Académie de Nantes: this referent can be a teacher, principal education advisor, social worker, etc. Thus, groups for the prevention of early school leaving, a sort of monitoring unit, meet regularly.

The second step is spotting and counseling. A tracking system, such as the platform for monitoring and supporting dropouts, combines information from various institutions, “to identify all the young people we have heard from“, Further specifies William Marois.

The third lever is the action aimed at restoring the confidence of dropouts, through national education systems but also local missions, regional councils… Like apprenticeship. Or, again, micro-high schools, these structures which allow to retake the baccalaureate and are aimed at young people in a situation of rupture: those who have sometimes completely broken up with their family, those who have failed their exam, chained the odd jobs, even some young girls who had early motherhood.

Dropping out of school should not be inevitable … And two new government measures provide concrete support for this fight, this imperative. The first: the possibility now granted to students to repeat at the same level when they have not obtained their diploma, while retaining some of their marks.

The second is enshrined in the Pénicaud Law, and consists in assuring any young person aged 16 to 18 who is neither in studies, nor in training, nor in internship, that he will necessarily be offered something. “It is not necessarily training. The text aims to integrate into society all young people aged 16 to 18, especially those who have nothing“, Affirms William Marois. As Pierre-Yves Bernard summarizes, educational policies have really been built in response to the problem of dropping out of school.

And yet: the struggle is not over. If school dropout has been declining for thirty years, and if Ségolène Royal’s New Chances program of 1998 was no stranger to it, this decrease has nevertheless slowed down since 1995. Researcher Pierre-Yves Bernard has already confirmed this in his work. thesis: “The treatment of early school leaving is difficult to impose in a societal configuration dominated by the academic educational convention, which favors competition between individuals on the basis of academic skills …This would explain the relative marginalization of the system to fight against dropping out, or even its weak integration within establishments. Can (still) do better.