Family commitment important for educational development

Positive encouragement within the family is a vital factor in the educational development of children. Education requires hard work and a certain level of commitment, and this may be difficult to foster if there is a lack of these values at home.

A report on a programme targeting drop-outs highlighted family-related factors as one of four potential risks which could lead to drop-outs, such as when families hold particular attitudes which either do not give education enough value or else live a way of life with little initiative and ambition. The other risks were school-related, student-related and community-related.

The report, written by Suzanne Gatt, was an evaluation of the Reach programme, which targeted young people approaching school-leaving age, particularly with a history of truancy and absenteeism. The programme, which was conducted during the last scholastic year, was coordinated by the ETC, Cottonera College, Access and Appogg. At least eight students in Form 4 and 5, who had not been attending school at all, participated in the programme and returned to their school desks.

Reach, which has previously been run as a pilot project on a smaller scale, was this year funded by the European Social Fund and launched on a larger scale. With the help of a management committee, family workers, learning mentors and teacher trainers, the programme provided support to these youths, their families and their teachers within two Cottonera schools. Their target was to keep youths at school as this was believed to increase their possibility to access further education and training, as well as decrease their chance of becoming long-term unemployed. The programme provided an alternative learning environment, and provided life skills training to prevent them from dropping out of school, and to help them identify potential career paths or opt for further education.

Another family-related aspect is the lack of parental control. "In many of the cases with student drop-outs, the parents of the students involved had great difficulty in exerting authority over their children... In some cases, the students identified within the Reach programme did not have any regard for their parents' views and/or wishes". Dr Gatt said it is important that children respect their parents' views and opinions and look to them for guidance. If this is not instilled at an early age the problem will continue to increase as the child grows older.

Many of the students targeted by the programme were low achievers who were already "unhappy" at primary school. The problem was accentuated in secondary school, especially with the larger range of subjects.

Garbiella Calleja, project manager at Access, said that 24 Form 5 students and 24 Form 4 students were targeted by Reach. However, more Form 5 students actually participated in the programme, and out of these 32 students, 31 sat for their final exams and obtained a school-leaving certificate. On the other hand, less Form 4 students than the targeted number actually participated. The number of boys worked with exceeded the target while the number of girls fell short.

Ms Calleja said: "Around eight students who participated in the programme were not attending school at all. The learning mentors and family worker held sessions with four of these students outside of the school building. This was mainly due to the fact that they had had experiences of bullying in the past and refused to enter the school. The other four participated in the programme in the school."

There were others reasons for absenteeism. "There were cases where the students were not going to school simply because they had employment (illegal as they are not yet 16) during school hours. In one particular case, a student admitted that the main reason for which he did not go to school was because he could go and help a relative at his shop.

"However, in this case, it was good to see that the programme has helped this student to understand the value of the school-leaving certificate as well as the value of the employment skills that the programme included. The student in this particular case had also learnt to value education."

Despite the difficulties encountered - the role of the "learning mentor" was not properly defined and created friction among teachers; girls were particularly difficult to collaborate with - a number of students returned to school, sat for their exams, and were awarded a school-leaving certificate. These students would have otherwise been "unofficial" drop-outs, that is, students who become habitual absentees within the school system.