We live in a democratic environment, the main purpose of which is to obtain a better education for all students. These days, it seems like a disgrace for the youth to say they have a great opportunity for education, as the high school dropout rate has risen in a way that is not even easy to control. In previous years, it was likely for men to drop out of high school, but in our days, the scale is opposing that statement, both sexes are likely to experience the same. According to my view of society, it has come to my attention that high school dropouts are experienced in all countries in the educational system. Many researchers have conducted some studies to explore the reasons why learners drop out of school before obtaining their matric certificate. So, in this essay, I want to consider some of them.
Family conflicts are one of the factors contributing to students dropping out of high school. When parents work hand in hand in assisting their young ones concerning the issue of education, it creates positive results when it comes to the learners that are found in that household. Parents who are always fighting or having conflicts in front of their children don’t get enough time to be involved in their child’s school work, which mostly leads to the dropout of the learners. Some researchers have also emphasized that such an issue is more likely due to the issue of gender-based violence, for instance in South Africa. Some parents have a negative attitude when it comes to education, they neglect it a lot, so they never mind what they are doing in front of the children and how much it can affect the child’s mental health. Makwinja-Morara (2007) indicated that parents of dropouts showed little involvement in the academic and/or non-academic affairs of their children. Masitsa (2006) cited inadequate parental support as a frequent cause of learner dropouts.
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Teenage pregnancy also plays an important role in why students drop out of high school. During the adolescent years, most teenagers often get pregnant. Being a teenage mother is not an easy thing since firstly it becomes discrimination in public, school, and even at home, then the young person becomes under pressure that leads her to drop out of school. At some point when someone experiences the gestation period, they frequently become absent from school due to some complications that most pregnant women experience, and this leads to eventual school dropouts.
Socioeconomic status is a significant predictor of student performance at school, besides the other school, peer, and student factors. Parental education also has effects on student academic performance, while parental occupation has little effect on their child’s performance in studies than their education, so if a parent lacks all of what I have mentioned above, it is more likely for a learner to drop out of the school (Mweti, 2013). Students’ gender strongly affects their academic performance, with girls performing better in subjects of mathematics and English as while as cumulatively (Mweti, 2013). The low income of parents is a first-rate obstacle to instructional achievement and improvement on the part of scholars. Students’ academic overall performance can be predicted through a series of social-monetary elements resident in parents, circle of relatives, and community. The above-mentioned can cause stress, which could result in a person figuring out to go away from high school.
Substance abuse is the involvement of someone in drugs, so if a learner decides to involve him or herself in drugs, he or she is most likely to experience the issue of dropping out of high school. Many people between the puberty stage experience a lot of things, which also include substance ingestion, which leads to a high level of dropout when people are at the high school level. In most cases, school content needs someone who is motivated enough to tackle the school content in order to achieve the best results, while substance abuse inhibits that content, which stimulates the motive from the brain and results in poor performance, which ultimately lead to dropping out of the school.
And the last and most important factor contributing to students dropping out of high school is peer pressure. Some learners lack the fact that they are not coming from the same background, which results in someone wanting something that he or she cannot afford, which then leads to the pressure that causes anxiety and depression, and seeing yourself not being able to afford some stuff that your peers afford, and that can lead to dropping out of school. The findings of the study conducted by Jordan, Lara, and McPartland (1996) in the United States of America indicated that the influence of peers is the cause of school dropout because these children are dependent on their peer groups and adhere to the group’s deviant norms. In some schools, learners just suggest that a particular thing can be wise when everyone takes it, for example, substance abuse, due to peers some learners find themselves in trouble or in a position of dropping out of school for something that they could have prevented.
In conclusion, the answer to the question of why students still drop out of high school can be different. The most important factors, however, are family conflicts, teenage pregnancy, socioeconomic factors, substance abuse, and of course peer pressure.
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