RATIONALE OF ENGAGING IN EARLY CHILD LEAVING

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Early Child Leaving is constantly the emerging problem in our society. This

usually happens when a student decided to leave the school and finish their studies

early to face the real world. Students involved in Early Child Leaving is also called

'dropping out' or 'dropout' by describing the event in which a person who has

abandoned a course of a study or the person has rejected conventional society to

pursue alternative lifestyle. Many teenager are engaged in this kind of problem.

Dealing with this kind of problem, his/her education. We know that education is

very significant to us to reach our goal and there is a possibility that they can't reach

their dream if they not pursue studying. Their lives can be possibly ruined by lack of

knowledge about the consequences of their decision. The factors why students leave

school may be tangled by home issues, school or by the community itself that triggers

the student to leave the school. It may be individual issues or mixed issues such as

poor junior high school preparation as it was pointed out by Times Higher Education (

2013) that other are disoriented by the change from the structured school environment

to the more autonomous Senior High School world. It can be conflict with work and

family commitments as according to L. Darling-Hammond (2019 ), they stated that the

main reason why students leave the school in the past year was the conflict between

school, job and family. In addition, it can be the lack of quality time with teachers and
counselor. It was explained by Willing and Johnson (2017) that the specific reason for

leaving the school include dissatisfaction and the feel of de-personalized school

environment. It include significant trend from the classroom environment with three

common trend: school environment, teacher and school problems.

Even Atimonan National Comprehensive High School is a tuition-free school, we

are still having students who are getting involved in Early Child Leaving. The student

should generate knowledge that will help them to find job that suits their personalities,

skills and specialization. The students who leave the school are more likely to be

engaged in child labor or worst, different kinds of addiction. Moreover, they can faced

social stigma, fewer job opportunities lower salaries, and higher probability of

involvement with the criminal justice system (Barton, 2005). Conducting this research

can help to take action regarding the factor that affects the student from leaving the

school that can prevent them in reaching their purpose.

Researchers have to know the reason or the main cause/s of the problem. It can

be the way for the school and society to be aware and knowledgeable about this

existing problem so they can provide an immediate action to reduce the number of

students involving in Early Child Leaving. However regardless of the reasons/factors it

should be immediately addressed and provide possible in timely manner with these

underlying problem. We can help them out by preventing them to feel isolation,

frustration, a loss of self-esteem, disconnection, confusion. Thus, they will not going to

decide to give up whereas if they proceed in dropping out, it is not just about the

students failing the school but the school failing the student.
Statement of the Problem

1.What are the common reason of the student why they leave from school?

2.How does leaving from school affect the student's life?

3.What did the student do after they leave school?

Significance of the Study

This study is conducted to determine the dilemma that the student who leave the school

met and believed that this study will be a great help in the following;

Community, this study will help the community to be aware and knowledgeable about

school leaving. This will also help to decrease the number of students who leave the

school and the possible involvement of student in jobless/unemployed citizen.

Minimizing the number of students who leave the school will lessen the unwell

consequences such as social disgrace, fewer job opportunities and participation in

criminal deed that will surely affect the community and involvement that will strengthen

the area of youth welfare and development.

School, this will help the school to have a better understanding about this issue and will

help the students and teachers work in harmonious way. The result may also the way

for the school to support high school graduates.

Family, the result may also help the family to support the student who leave the school

to pursue school (if have one) until they graduated and to understand their reason. The

family (if don't have students who leave school) may be aware so that they can give

guidance to their children.

Students who leave the school, for the findings will persuade them to resume

studying and to entrap good fellowship at the people around them.

Future Researchers, the result may somehow expand their studies about school

leaving. This can be a benchmark to have a better understanding about Early Child

Leaving and their connection with personal, family and school factors

Scope and Delimitation

The research took place at Atimonan, Quezon and it will be the source of

respondents in the study. The respondents are the one who get involved in Early Child

Leaving which is purposively chosen and to recognize the usual conflict that they

encountered and personal information that affects their school performance such as

parent's income and demographic profile. There are five respondents. The respondents

are the ones who stopped schooling from school year 2018-2020. Gathering of

information can be through interview and observations. The data/information will be

taken from the answer of the respondents in the questions included in the

questionnaire.
 Definition of Terms

Autonomous - existing or acting separately from other things or people; having the

power or right to govern itself. (Merriam-Webster)

Early Child Leaving - it is an act of departing/getting out from school before the year or

date that a student should actually discontinues attendances.

Family Factor - these are the problems faced by the students in connection with

family's situation or issues.

Isolation - the state of being in a place or in a situation that is separate from the others;

the conditions of being separated from the others. (Merriam-Webster)

Personal Factor - these are the problems encountered by the students that affects

themselves such as self-esteem, health, pregnancy, etc.

Problems - it refers to a question raised for an inquiry, consideration or solutions.

(Merriam-Webster)

Rationale - a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or a particular

belief. (Merriam-Webster)

School Factor - this is the factors in which school-related issues that affects students

from doing well in school.

Stigma - a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstances, quality or

person.
 Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY

In the 21st century, a basis for being a successful student is expected to graduate

from high school and college to be presentable for the workforce or any services and to

be proficient and productive citizen in our society such as voting, paying taxes and

delivering community services. Our country needs brilliant and determined youth

because the nation and the future growth of the country depends on them. The

phenomenon of Early Child Leaving is perceived as a process that is caused by a

variety of factors. Early Child Leaving has a direct implication in one's social life and

they are prone to be involved in various activities to make a living. Early Child Leaving

needs to be assessed with the involvement of individual, family, school and community.

According to Kristine Tucker (2019), leaving the school is a personal decision but

many students feel like it is the best option if they have personal or academic problems

that make school attendance a burdensome response. She also mentioned boredom

and academic struggle since high school and college students often leave school

because they struggle academically and don't think they will have a credits necessary to

graduate. Lack of parental support because lack of parental involvement leads the

student to leave school and money since they leave school just to work to earn more

money.

Hence, Gil et al.(2019) stated that the group of factors that most affect school

dropout is related to commitment and support for students. In addition, statically

significant relationships between the different groups of dropout factors are verified, and
no significant differences were observed between the responses of teachers with

teaching functions and those with management functions and they proposed various

strategies for preventing school failure.

Also, Smink (2013) stated that the young people consequently lack many of the

basic skills needed from future success. The anecdotal reasons provided by students

for dropping out of school, both before and after they actually leave school, are well

documented and have been consistent for more than a decade. He also mentioned the

most of the reasons focus on students' dissatisfaction with school policies and practices.

Students in high-risk circumstances such as poverty, demonstrate a high

disengagement with school and sometimes starting very early in elementary school or

even before enrolling in school.

It is indeed increasingly recognized that caution is required in interpreting such

correlation, as the decision to leave school may be driven by exogenous factors, or may

even result from systematic flaws, rather than factors intrinsic to dropout themselves

(De Witte et al., 2017).

The structural inequality may not only cause early school le having but also for

health problems or poverty that is turn may be at the origin of dropping out.

Furthermore, Kadil (2015), stated in his study that in the Philippines, one of the reasons

why number of dropout were very rampant is due to the conflict or war in the Mindanao

Region and due to natural calamities used to devastate the country which the common

is typhoon and earthquake. Philippines revealed 12 reasons as to why early school

leaving is present to their system. The 12 reasons were family feud, drugs, natural

calamities, lack of personal interest, high cost of education, employment/looking for

work, housekeeping, access to school, school are very far from the community or their

home location, no regular transportation, illness/disability and cannot cope up with

loaded school works.

The consequences of disengagement with school can be tangled with different

issues in different aspects. According to Koyalirie (2018), the student who are not

interested in studying or do not understand the relevant course, they will show no

interest in studies and they will be mostly likely to commit crimes, can start taking drugs,

their life will be spoiled.

Some students have negative attitude toward school, risk factor could be for the

family, individual, school or the community. They are likely to earn less than educated

people, their socio-economic status could suffer and people may not respect them or

cannot provide facilities to themselves and families. As narrates that one personality

could suffer a lot, as when he/she become dependent on the family or government. In

addition, there are two phenomenon needed to understand, the individual perspective

and the institutional perspective. Dropout can never compete with the one who is

educated.

Students who leave the school may be more talented but for the community and

country, they are not equal. Student who leave school have to face criticism from the

society and they can suffer a lot in their future life, government and society need to

understand their feelings, and try to seek out their problems. They are more likely to

suffer from pain, they could be going in depression and their mental and physical

capabilities may be affected. Koyalirie pointed out that students should remain in
school, staying in school can allow them to value learning and they can value the

learning path.

Besides, Liftof (2017) added that the number of students disengaged in high

school has fallen significantly since 1990. Many of today's young people still facing

troubles that put them in risk. Without completing high school, these students will have a

harder time in succeeding in today's workforce. Students who leave school also faced

higher unemployment rates because in 2015, the National Unemployment Rate for high

school graduates was 8 percent.

However, some find themselves in prostitution, drug selling, smuggling, robbery

and even practicing occultism and 'blood money' in order to have a living (Hunt, 2007).

This however, makes them unfit in the face of social rules of society which makes most

of them end their lives in prison while others got killed through robbery. Besides, the

individual strains and weariness related to dropout have social repercussions: dropout

make up uneven percentages of every nation's prison and detach row inmates (Hunt et

al., 2007).

William (2015) mentioned about one research study pointed out that 82% of

American's prisoners are high school dropout (as cited in Vermont, 2009). The serious

and worried situation is that, many of the young people used to be brilliant students

when they were in school but financial constraints among others compel them to duck

out schooling and get themselves involved in social vices. This destroys their bright

future which would have a good bearing on society but rather the opposite felt.

Furthermore, Witte et al. (2015) compared the lives of graduated peers to student

who early leave school. He stated that students who leave school are more frequently
associated with long term unemployment, poverty, bleak health prospects, sustained

dependence on public assistance, single parenthood (in females), political and social

apathy and juvenile crime.

But there is something naive about the use of such associations, as they do not

necessarily imply accusations. It is indeed increasingly recognized that caution is

required in interpreting such correlation. However, William et al. (2015) used the public-

use data from 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, it employed multiple

logistic regression with adjustment for complex survey sampling and compared high

school dropouts with graduates with respect to substance use, mental health, and

criminal behavior. After controlling for the effects of age, gender, race/ethnicity, family

income, receipt of government assistance, employment status, and metropolitan

population density, dropouts are more likely to meet criteria for nicotine dependence

and report daily cigarette used, and more likely to report having attempted suicide in the

previous year, been arrested for larceny, assault, drug possession or drug sales relative

to their high school graduate counterparts. This provides important insights and aninitial

epidemiologic portrait of mental health, substance use and criminal behavior of dropouts

during emerging adulthood.

In this sense, it seems that explanation of leaving the school provide prevention

and intervention efforts we should put accent on and it benefits both school and family

policies that emphasize the role of supervision of adolescents.

Suarez et al. (2016) emphasized that we should deal with the irresponsible

nature of participants that would probably reduce dropout rates like closer control of

time schedule, monitoring the homework or their recreational activities. Like wise, a
greater prevention and intervention effort aimed to provide parents with educational and

communicational tools that allow them to better monitor adolescents would probably can

lead to a reduction of number of students who get involved in early school leaving. In

addition, parents and teachers might palatable key role in prevention of substance

abuse, in so far as they promote alternative recreational activities which are

incompatibles with consumptions such as sport and develop tools that help them to

early detection of substance abuse. For instance, prevention efforts directed to address

substance use and related problems among students who are experiencing academic

difficulties would be needed.

Also, they also mentioned about continuing care monitoring systems to track

their progress and to provide more intensive supports are warranted while strategies

such as punitive methods should be avoided. Rather, parents should monitor and

supervise adolescents activities, expressing disapproval of drinking and other drug use

and communicating a zero-tolerance message.

There are many possible factors that affects that leads the students to get

involved with Early Child Leaving and can be a catalyst behind their decisions. Leaving

the school have many consequences, it might be good or bad depending on how the

student who leave the school cope up and alleged with his/her chosen path.
 Chapter III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

a. Research Design

The descriptive method was used in the research to know the rationale of a

student in engaging in Early School Leaving in Atimonan, Quezon. Descriptive research

is a scientific method which involves observing and describing the behavior of one

specific subject without the influence of others. Based in the method used in the study,

qualitative approach was used. In qualitative approach, an observation and interview

through questionnaire was used in gathering data from the respondents. After the

participant answer the questions, researchers describe the responses given. In order for

the interview to be both reliable and valid, it is important that the questions are

constructed properly. Questions should be written so they are clear and easy to

comprehend.

The use of this method will really give reliable ideas for the research. The

purpose of the study was to identify why students quit whether anything could have

prevented them from leaving. Throughout the discussions, the researchers look for

emerging themes relative to the research questions. Qualitative research methods can

reveal description and meaning that is useful to the research study. In fact, qualitative

research creates data that is descriptive and many times observable behavior and is

written in people's own words. Face-to-face interviews are beneficial to qualitative

research because it produces synchronous communication between the interviewer and

the person being interviewed. Thus, meaning that the communication is taking place at
the same time and place. The synchronous communication in a face-to-face interview

gives the researcher the advantage to view social cues such as voice, body language,

intonation, etc. It also allows the interviewer to ask additional questions in order to delve

deeper about a particular part of the interview.

b. Research Locale

This study was conducted in Atimonan, Quezon. The town is where the

researchers lived and the researchers focus was Atimonan National Comprehensive

High School who has a number of students who get involved in Early Child Leaving.

The researchers also knew a lot of students who leave school with the reason is still

unknown to them.

c. Respondents

The respondents of this study are the students who get involved in Early Child

Leaving and Atimonan National Comprehensive High School is the school where the

respondents that leave the school around 2018 - 2020. There will be no gender

preference and age limit in getting the data and information needed since the personal

information about the respondents will be treated in outmost confidentiality.

d. Data Gathering Procedure

There are five respondents that is selected through purposive sampling

technique. To gather the needed data the researchers secure a permission to get

interview outside the school premises as long as it is not too far away from the
researchers residence. After permission is secured, they are going will personally talk to

their research adviser to solicit his cooperation. The researchers will also notify and ask

the permission of the parent of the student. The researchers will encourage the

respondents for participation noting that the personal information are confidential. Once

it is settled, the researchers started to conduct interviews to the respondents using

questionnaire. The responses were tallied, tabulated and analyzed.

e. Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework shows the extent of the factors affecting the

students to leave the school that may be classified into home, community and/or school

issues. These factors affects life of the students and the student's family and how they

cope up and the alternative lifestyle they chose. The factors are going to be analyzed by

the researchers to get a liable result

Figure 1. Conceptual paradigm

Rationale of Engaging in Early Child

Leaving

Factors Affecting Students

Home Environmental Factors Community Environmental School Environmental Factors

Factors

Effects

Students' Family Students' Life

Alternative Lifestyle

Analysis

Result