Page 379 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 379
why is esl a problem for contemporary (eu) society?
form of education or training, i.e. behaviours that proved to be less present
in a non-ESL population.
Conclusion
This article aimed to investigate different personal and social aspects of the
consequences of ESL for an individual’s later life. Although there is no con-
sensus regarding the causality between ESL and various private and social
consequences, we may draw the conclusion that students at risk are individ-
uals with specific social, personal, educational and behavioural character-
istics who are more at risk of experiencing different negative consequences
of ESL throughout their lives. As evident from the European Commission’s
review reports on the consequences of ESL (2010 and 2013), lower education
levels are associated with negative consequences like lower earnings and
savings, lower labour market participation, worse health and lower health
insurance, lower quality of encouraging social ties, higher levels of pover-
ty and higher levels of criminal behaviour throughout an individual’s life.
ESL therefore holds important negative far-reaching effects for an individ-
ual’s overall well-being.
Sweeten and colleagues (2009) point to an important moment when
addressing the consequences of ESL. They state the effects of ESL depend
on the reason for leaving school early. Students sometimes leave school be-
cause they find it boring, sometimes because they discover they are aca-
demically far behind, while others drop out for family reasons or finan-
cial demands to start work in order to survive. However, according to the
authors the reason for ESL is an indicator of which developmental direc-
tion they are heading in and what will be their new identity. If ESLers form
a new, stable identity attached to another conventional institution (e.g.
work), this will mean an entirely different set of consequences than drop-
ping out with no direction, which often leads to increased crime and oth-
er maladaptive behaviours. And this is the point at which prevention and
intervention programmes should take action so as to avoid or at least ex-
tenuate the negative personal and social consequences of ESL that affect all
areas of an individual’s life. Potential solutions include greater collabora-
tion between governments, businesses, communities, families and educa-
tion and the implementation of a systematic approach to identifying and
assisting young people at risk of ESL (Business Council of Australia, 2003;
European Commission, 2013).
379
form of education or training, i.e. behaviours that proved to be less present
in a non-ESL population.
Conclusion
This article aimed to investigate different personal and social aspects of the
consequences of ESL for an individual’s later life. Although there is no con-
sensus regarding the causality between ESL and various private and social
consequences, we may draw the conclusion that students at risk are individ-
uals with specific social, personal, educational and behavioural character-
istics who are more at risk of experiencing different negative consequences
of ESL throughout their lives. As evident from the European Commission’s
review reports on the consequences of ESL (2010 and 2013), lower education
levels are associated with negative consequences like lower earnings and
savings, lower labour market participation, worse health and lower health
insurance, lower quality of encouraging social ties, higher levels of pover-
ty and higher levels of criminal behaviour throughout an individual’s life.
ESL therefore holds important negative far-reaching effects for an individ-
ual’s overall well-being.
Sweeten and colleagues (2009) point to an important moment when
addressing the consequences of ESL. They state the effects of ESL depend
on the reason for leaving school early. Students sometimes leave school be-
cause they find it boring, sometimes because they discover they are aca-
demically far behind, while others drop out for family reasons or finan-
cial demands to start work in order to survive. However, according to the
authors the reason for ESL is an indicator of which developmental direc-
tion they are heading in and what will be their new identity. If ESLers form
a new, stable identity attached to another conventional institution (e.g.
work), this will mean an entirely different set of consequences than drop-
ping out with no direction, which often leads to increased crime and oth-
er maladaptive behaviours. And this is the point at which prevention and
intervention programmes should take action so as to avoid or at least ex-
tenuate the negative personal and social consequences of ESL that affect all
areas of an individual’s life. Potential solutions include greater collabora-
tion between governments, businesses, communities, families and educa-
tion and the implementation of a systematic approach to identifying and
assisting young people at risk of ESL (Business Council of Australia, 2003;
European Commission, 2013).
379
