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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 23 APRIL, 2017
Everyone who has passed through
Trinidad and Tobago’s
school system knows someone who fell through the cracks.
Maybe their home life was less than stable, maybe they
had an undiagnosed learning disability, or maybe they just
couldn’t keep up with the fixed pace of the current school
syllabus. Dr. Priya Kissoon, Head of the Department of
Geography, has headed up a team to find out more about the
children who ended up dropping out of school throughout
the country.
Working in collaboration with the School of Education
(through Director Dr. Jeniffer Mohammed), the Geography
Department spearheaded a national research project on
primary and secondary school dropouts (or “early school-
leavers”).The project engaged with Government ministries,
NGOs and the private sector as they trained and employed
nearly 100 community-based surveyors to conduct
about 1880 in-depth surveys. The goal was to determine
empirically what obstacles primary and secondary school
early-leavers faced, what they achieved and what could be
learned from their experiences.
The project was funded by The UWI Trinidad and
Tobago Research and Development Impact Fund, an
initiative to support relevant research that addresses
society’s pressing developmental challenges and can achieve
a recognisable and sustainable impact in the short and
medium term.
“We trained about 100 persons to work with an in-
depth survey instrument that they could use to conduct
interviews within their own networks, turning communities
into experts studying themselves,” says Dr. Kissoon.
The collaborative aspect was crucial to the success of
a project because of its scale. There were hiccups along
the way, and all information had to be carefully combed
through andmonitored tomake sure the proper process was
followed. But even with what Dr. Mohammed calls “teething
problems,” the data turnout was a resounding success.
One of the more surprising and exciting aspects of
the research was the expansiveness of the Geography
Department’s data collection. This included spatial analysis
that showed the different educational outcomes between
urban and non-urban populations (although sometimes
the outcomes were very similar). This is a fresh approach
and an example of the benefits of multidisciplinary research.
According to official national statistics, about 0.17% of
primary-school children fail to sit their school-leaving exam
every year compared with 1% of secondary-school children
per year (about 1,000 students between Forms 1-5).
Dr. Kissoon and her team wanted to find out more
about these children: why they left, where they ended
up, how to help them. The project extended throughout
the country, with Kissoon herself venturing into prisons
to get more information on the dropouts who ended up
incarcerated.
Leaving or
left behind?
School dropouts research shows a more nuanced picture
B Y A M Y L I B A K S H
Amy Li Baksh is a writer, historian and visual artist. She is currently working for the UWI Campus Museums Committee and is
deeply invested in activism centred on the environment, marginalised social groups and animal rights.
“The term ‘
dropping out’
is kind of a misnomer,” says Dr. Mohammed.
“Most of them are being pushed out, or they fall out.”
RESEARCH
Despite the stereotypes of the “prison pipeline,” the
national sample found that only 13% of participants
had been in jail at some point. Discussions with those
participants even yielded a trend of being more socially
and financially stable than the general population of school
dropouts, leading the team to question whether or not there
was a correlation.
Among the study sample, there were a variety of
influences on students that would eventually drop out of
school. “The term ‘dropping out’ is kind of a misnomer,”
says Dr. Mohammed. “Most of them are being pushed out,
or they fall out.” Schools are often not equipped to give these
students the extra attention they may need. Dr. Mohammed
says that even though projects are being implemented by the
Ministry of Education to give teachers the right tools, there
are lots of issues limiting their effectiveness.
“Ultimately, reforms in education away from exam-
based assessment, investments in career guidance,
psychological and social counselling in school and
pedagogical training for academically qualified teachers are
all essential,” says Dr. Kissoon.
But even if the schools aren’t able to handle these
special cases, dropouts often end up returning to complete
some level of education or to get certification in some sort
of trade. “Almost every person we spoke to understood the
value of education,” says Dr. Mohammed. An overwhelming
majority (88%) believed that education is a priority for
their children. They acknowledge the constraints in the
world of work without secondary school certification, the
accomplishments of tertiary level studies, and the demands
of advanced industrial, service, and creative sectors for
educated employees and entrepreneurs.
The next step for Dr. Kissoon and her team is the
completion and release of a film to the public, giving some
information on the project and showing the stories as told
by the participants themselves.They will also publish a book
of findings and the story of how the project was completed.
Dr. Kissoon hopes that they can extend the study further to
make a dent in “the pervasiveness of social inequality and
the stigma associated with dropping out of school.” The
team believes that this project has the potential to move
the national conversation towards crafting a more inclusive
education system that strengthens and supports those at
risk of dropping out, so that one day we can close the cracks
these students fall through.
Results of this study are available online http:/sta.uwi.
edu/rdifund/projects/schooldropouts/. This website hosts
minutes, downloadable material, presentations, maps and
statistics.
