MOE to review initiatives aimed at keeping drop-out rate
low
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education (MOE) will review
initiatives aimed at getting students to stay in school. It said
more will be done to help the schools keep their drop-out rate
low.
The ministry's target is to keep the drop-out rate in both
primary and secondary schools at 1.5 per cent in 2010. It achieved
that target last year and the figure was maintained this
year.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Masagos Zulkifli said
it is impossible to have an attrition rate of zero per cent.
About three years ago, the drop-out rate was about four to five per
cent. It went down to three per cent and then to 1.5 per cent last
year.
He said: "If you look at the 1.5 per cent, it is an absolutely
small number. In many countries where I have visited, when we tell
them our attrition rate is 1.5 per cent, they almost always fall
off their chair, because what to them is manageable is always
around five to seven per cent, which is what they're going towards
and find hard to achieve."
Even so, the ministry is not giving up on those who have dropped
out. But for now, the focus is to enhance the initiatives aimed at
keeping the drop-out rate low.
Mr Masagos said: "We want to ensure that the programmes that we run
in these schools do not get routinised, (and) students do not feel
that they are somewhat disadvantaged. We will look at and review
the programmes over time, get feedback from the ground.
"If we need to increase the funding, we will. If we need to
increase the number of programmes, we will."
One such item is the Time-out programme which targets students that
have poor school attendance. Some 80 schools have applied for up to
S$12,000 worth of funds each to start the programme.
Telok Kurau Secondary School is one them. Five of the six students
involved in the programme have been coming to school regularly.
Before they were put on the programme, they were habitual
absentees, sometimes staying away from school for months at a
stretch.
The school also started its very own initiative, known as SWISS or
School Within a School System, last year. Normal technical students
are able to take up courses in hairstyling and beauty, so as to
keep them engaged in school.
Mohd Taufiq Abdul Rahman, a student, said: "During Sec one and two,
I was not interested in school and was always late coming to
school. So after this programme was introduced to me, I started to
like coming to school. Sometimes after school I will stay back in
school and do my work too, so this place is like a home
already."
In fact, teachers said none of the 140 students involved have
dropped out from school so far. The school said it intends to
expand both the Time-out and SWISS programme next year.
- CNA/vm