High school dropout rate ‘a cause of major concern’

Experts call for concerted action to make sure that youngsters are motivated to continue with their studies TIME TO ACT

MUSCAT: Oman faces a persistent school dropout crisis unless rigid measures are taken to curb the problem, education experts say.

Thousands of students between the ages of 12 and 18 drop out from schools across the country and experts call for a unified action to make sure that youngsters are motivated to continue with their studies.

“If the rot is not stopped now, then it will be widespread. We must look deeper at the problem and we should not start pointing fingers at anybody, but work together to encourage these kids to continue with their studies,” Fatma Al Jarradi, a veteran education expert, who worked for 26 years as principal of government schools in three regions of the Sultanate, told Times of Oman.

The Ministry of Education does not keep statistics of how many students drop out but out of nearly 500,000 pupils, at least 10,000 do not complete their education every year, said sources who did want to be identified.

Popular stage

“The popular stage of dropping out is at class six but the majority stop in the last three years when it gets tough for them to continue,” Al Jarradi added.

But what are the causes of the high rate of school dropouts?

Khamis Al Noobi, a government school teacher who has taught for 32 years, said the causes range from bad parenting, incompetent teachers, environment they live in, and reduced mental abilities.

“What I learned from three decades of teaching is that most of the time the students cannot be blamed for not completing their studies. They face these obstacles and there is nobody who understands what they go through. Without help and support, they find it difficult to continue,” Al Noobi explained.

Mohammed Saif was diagnosed late as a dyslexic and he was blamed for being negligent of his studies

Startling figures

Why do they drop out?

when it was not his fault.

“They realised I was dyslexic when I was 18 and three years after I dropped out from school. I was diagnosed by chance and it happened while I was already working as an electrician in an oil and gas company when my boss asked me to take a test,” said 23-year old Mohammed.

Rashid Al Muqaibly, who is now running a small grocery shop in Sohar, said that his aging parents were both uneducated and poor and he had to drop out from school to look after them. Abdulrahman Al Shikeli blamed his teachers for using bad teaching methods, refusing to help him when he needed extra classes.

“Teachers must spare some time to ask students why they are not performing well instead of scolding and finding faults with them. My problem is that I was bullied at school and all teachers had to do was to change my class,” Al Shikeli, who dropped out at the age of 15 and is now working as a car salesman for Bahwan Automotives, said.

Determined

Mohammed, Rashid and Abdulrahman are lucky that dropping out from school did not affect them. They were determined to make something of their lives and are now employed or running their own business.

However, for Badr Al Balushi, who dropped out in 2008 at the age of 16, is still looking for a job and so are many more like him.

“Nobody wants to be uneducated and struggle in life. All of us who dropped out would have stayed at school and continue to higher education if somebody understood our problems,” Badr, who is hoping to work for a supermarket chain, said.

Both Al Noobi and Al Jarradi say that a concerted effort, with the Ministry of Education taking a leading role, is needed to ascertain why youngsters drop out at an alarming rate.

“It is going to be a crisis if we don’t sit down and tackle it now. If not, we will be creating a class of underprivileged people that will slow the progress and development of the country,” Al Noobi said.