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A feature of inclusive systems for students is provision of emotional supports in and around schools. A holistic approach to early school leaving prevention is needed through a focus on mental health, emotions and multidisciplinary teams in and around schools. Poverty may impact on mental health and mental health may impact on early school leaving. This is clear from even a brief overview of international research on this issue. Even apart from poverty-related depression, emotional distress contributes to early school leaving.

System-level supports are needed in consistent fashion across the EU for children and young people who have experienced emotional trauma such as bereavement, rape and sexual abuse, which hinder their capacity to stay in the school system. Such emotional support provision in and around schools also requires firm addressing of another issue regarding emotional needs, namely, bullying. Pervasive teasing and bullying in school may lead to disengagement and avoidance of school, distraction and inattentiveness in the classroom, and, ultimately, poorer academic performance. It is notable that bullying leading to non-attendance at school and heightened risk of early school leaving may not only be direct bullying of the individual but also come through an atmosphere or school climate of teasing and bullying.

The World Health Organisation’s (2012) research on young people’s well-being recommended modifications to school systems such as establishing a caring atmosphere that promotes autonomy, providing positive feedback, and not publicly humiliating students who perform poorly. It is well-recognised in the workplace that if a boss or manager criticizes an employee in front of colleagues this is embarrassing, demotivating and disrespectful to that employee. Adults tend not to tolerate such treatment. Why would we expect children and young people to tolerate criticism and humiliation in front of their peers by some teachers in school? What would we expect them to do except desire to leave such an environment? Such poor communicative practices contribute to early school leaving. It may be argued that students’ perceptions are only one perspective, but perceptions are important in their influence upon both motivation and behaviour.

The words of the one student, expressing a desire to leave school early, in Downes & Maunsell’s (2007) Irish study, bear further reflection: “Some [teachers] think they own the school”. This student’s response raises a fundamental issue: Who does own the school? Is it simply the teachers and principal? Where are students and parents to be situated in terms of power and ownership of school structures and processes? It is also frequently overlooked that criticism or public embarrassment from a teacher is not simply a comment upon a child from an individual, it is a comment upon them from an agent of the state (at least in state-funded schools) – this is an additional power wielded by the teacher as an exercise of the State’s power over its children as subjects.

The Roman Emperor Caligula’s words, ‘Let them hate so long as they fear,’ aptly express the mentality of the authoritarian teacher. However, the fear also resides in such a teacher. The authoritarian teacher projects his or her own insecurity and fear of the students back onto the students. Yet the issue is less one of issuing blame to individual teachers than of recognition that such old-style authoritarian teachers are not coping and are using outdated strategies and require support through professional development for conflict resolution skills. Obviously this is not to understate the immensely positive influence many teachers have on students to help keep them in the system when they might be at risk of early school leaving.

Further reading

• . European Commission, November 2013
• – Lessons ������Ƶed from Second Chance Education. European Commission, 2013
• . NESET Analytic report. Commissioned by the European Commission, 2013

Dr. Paul Downes is Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, St. Patrick’s College, Dublin City University, Ireland. He is a member of the Commission’s Network of Experts on the Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET I & II) (2011-15). His most recent book is Access to Education in Europe: A Framework and Agenda for System Change (Springer 2014). This text is based on extracts from his keynote presentation to the (QoC), 48^th Session, September 9, 2014.

EU countries have committed to reducing the average share of early school leavers to less than 10% by 2020. In June 2010 the EU education ministers agreed on a framework for coherent, comprehensive, and evidence-based policies to tackle early school leaving. They are working together and exchange best-practices and knowledge on effective ways to address early school leaving.