Good news in early school leaving in Spain
The future of a country depends on its youth, and depends on the 'quality' of those young people who will one day be adults. Although there are many ways to measure that quality, education is a essential: We need well-educated adults who can work in the country of the future. Hence the immense concern that exists in Spain with the school dropout early, because this country has one of the highest rates in Europe.
The Active Population Survey (EPA) has brought good news in this regard: the rate of early school leaving (ie, those young people between 18 and 24 who have not completed compulsory education) has dropped to 19.4 percent in the third quarter of the year, which means that in 2016 it has fallen by 0.6 percent and by end abandons the psychological barrier of 20%.
A lot of work against dropping out of school
The school dropout rate has fallen by 0.6 percent in 2016 but, if compared to the figure for the same quarter of 2015, the decline is more remarkable: 1.2 points, as reported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports .
Despite this good news, the truth is that even There is much to do: Spain is still below the European Union average in this area, where the Community average is located in the 10 percent (that is, we almost duplicated it). Of course, little by little our country is close to the goal of 15 percent, which is the mark by the EU for 2020.
However, something that has already been observed in other school dropout data is repeated: this rate is higher in boys, where it reaches 23.2 percent, than in girls (15.4%).
Tell me where you live and I'll tell you your early school leaving
Despite the average drop in school dropout, the data is not the same throughout the national territory. Where else It has fallen it has been in the Canary Islands, Extremadura and the Valencian Community, but in other places it has increased: Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra. It has also risen, although a much lower percentage, in Madrid, Castilla y León and La Rioja.
The Autonomous Communities with better early school leaving data are in the north, since all of them have a lower percentage than the national average: País Vasco (8.3%), Cantabria (9.4%), Navarra (12%), Galicia (15.7%) and Madrid (15, 8%) are those that have less children who drop out of school.
On the opposite side of the table are the Southern and Balearic communities, all well above the national average: Balearic Islands (26.8%), Ceuta and Melilla (26.6%), Murcia (26.2%) and Andalusia (23.6%).
Damián Montero
