CroCoos - Prevent dropout!

Every Student Matters!

2017 | Tanulmányok, kutatási eredmények, Angol nyelvű kiadványok

The publication contains the implementation results of a project titled “Crosssectoral cooperation focused solutions for preventing early school leaving” (CroCooS). It lasted from the spring of 2014 to the spring of 2017, and was co-funded by the European Commission. This was a three-year-long strong cooperation among three Eastern Central-European countries – Serbia, Slovenia, and Hungary – with the support of some Danish and Dutch colleagues.

The main objective of the cooperation was to develop an early warning system (EWS) on an institutional level in 15 pilot schools, and examine its applicability with a randomized controlled trial, with the aim of enriching the common European knowledge in the field of preventing early school leaving.

Why is early school leaving (ESL) or early leaving from education and training (ELET) such a serious political issue in the EU?

ESL is a social indicator showing the percentage of young people aged 18 to 24 in a country without having completed their upper secondary education, and not being involved in further education or training.

What does this indicator show, what is behind the rate?

There is evidence that lower education is generally linked to unemployment rate, poverty, health problems, and social exclusion, and it has a severe impact not only on the individual, but society as a whole – less tax income, more social expenses, increasing social inequalities, inactive citizens, etc. However, ESL rate is only a statistical data. There are many heart-breaking, real-life stories about people whose lives have been derailed soon after dropping out of school as well as success stories about some getting back on track that we, responsible for improving the education system (decision makers, school leaders, teachers, educational administrators, service providers, or even parents or students) can learn from. 

This booklet is about ‘what’ happened in practice on the school level, however, the final report of CroCooS provides a deep insight into the ‘why’, and shifts the focus from the implementation issues to the institutionalization of the new methods. In the complex, multilevel and multiactor nature of the education systems, which imply that the results of a policy measure or an institutional innovation are theoretically not predictable, the importance of this kind of policy experimentation and the subsequent policy learning is essential.

Download the booklet in English (PDF / 1,53 MB)

The booklet is available in Hungarian, in Serbian and in Slovenian, too.