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Technical education, a potential ally in the face of school dropout in times of COVID-19

August 25, 2020 por Gregory Elacqua - Sammara Cavalcanti Soares - Patricia Navarro-Palau - Maria Fernanda Prada Leave a Comment


School dropout, a persistent problem in Latin America and the Caribbean that will worsen

In 2018, only 64.4% of young people between 18 and 20 years old in the region had completed secondary, while in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries this value exceeded 86%. In fact, 22.5% of those between 18-24 years old did not even manage to start  upper secondary school. This problem is  worse for the poorest students who graduate from secondary school, on average, 44.5% less than the richest. With the COVID-19 pandemic, school dropouts are expected to increase even more, by around 17%. This implies that more than one million students could stop attending school.

Given the complexity of the panorama and the urgency to act, many of the policy alternatives that have been effective to reduce dropout rates are being discussed, such as: early warning systems that can detect youth at risk of dropping out, conditional cash transfer programs and scholarships, mentoring and support programs, etc. However, in these discussions, little is mentioned about the important role that technical education could play as an alternative to prevent students from dropping out of school. In this post we share the results of a recent study that highlights how useful technical education can be to prevent and mitigate dropout rates.

But how does technical education affect high school dropout rates?

Technical education, due to its focus on practical learning and proximity to the world of work, can increase students’ motivation and offer them opportunities to combine their studies with income-generating activities, which could improve their motivation and engagement, and a lower the probability of dropping out[1]. Thus, this type of education can offer solutions to address the main reasons for dropping out reported by students in the region, such as the need to work (34%), lack of interest (20%) and financial problems (16%)[2] especially in the last grades of high school.

Despite this, until now existing evidence in the region did not allow researchers to conclude that technical education reduced dropout rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the conclusive evidence was focused only on some particular cases in the United States.

New evidence shows that technical content in high school can reduce the likelihood of dropping out

Fortunately, new evidence in the region shows that technical education during high school could also be a possible solution to high dropout rates. This study finds that students who had the opportunity to enroll in technical secondary education have a 42-47% lower probability of dropping out before the last year of secondary education compared to those enrolling in academic secondary education[3].

The lower dropout rate is largely explained by the educational content, and the greater interest that the technical curriculum generates in students, and it does not seem to have a negative effect on learning in basic subjects, such as mathematics and language. This last result is very important, since one common critique of the benefits of technical education is that it uses valuable time that could be dedicated to support learning in core subjects.

The results of our study give way to optimism, since it suggests that technical secondary education can also be effective in reducing dropout rates in the region without affecting learning in core  subjects. Therefore, countries in the region should consider it as a possible alternative to reduce  dropout rates, and at the same time, prepare students for a more competitive and challenging labor market due to the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Do you think that technical education can help reduce dropout rates in your country? Leave us your comments below, or on Twitter mentioning @BIDEducacion #EnfoqueEducacion.


[1] For references on the effects of technical education on interest in school, effort, and academic outcomes in high school, see Dougherty, 2018; Brunner, et.al., 2019; Hemelt, et.al., 2019, Shernoff et al. (2003) or Carbonaro (2005).

[2] Source: IDB household survey databases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

[3] This study uses students with very comparable characteristics to obtain its conclusions (for whom being able to attend technical education is almost random) and benefits from the existence of academic secondary schools with characteristics very similar to technical secondary schools. These two characteristics allow to obtain reliable results on the effects of technical education.


Filed Under: Educación y trabajo, Education and work, English, Sistemas educativos

Gregory Elacqua

Gregory Elacqua es economista principal de la División de Educación en el Sector Social del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). Ha sido profesor de políticas públicas en la Universidad Diego Portales y en la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez de Chile. Tiene amplia experiencia en investigación en temas de educación y ha escrito libros, artículos académicos, monografías y reportes técnicos sobre educación en América Latina. También ha participado en reformas de política educativa. Ha sido asesor de tres ministros de Educación y de un senador en la Comisión de Educación del Senado de Chile. Tiene un doctorado en Políticas Públicas de la Universidad de Princeton.

Sammara Cavalcanti Soares

Licenciada en Ciencias Económicas por la Universidad Federal de Pernambuco. Realizó su doctorado en la Facultad de Economía de São Paulo (EESP-FGV) en 2017 y se unió al equipo de la iniciativa CLEAR (Centro Regional de Aprendizaje sobre evaluaciones y resultados - Brasil y África Lusófona) entre 2014 y 2017. Actualmente trabaja como investigadora en la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) en Washington, DC. Tiene experiencia en el área de Economía, con énfasis en economía de la educación, microeconometría, financiamiento de la educación y evaluación de políticas públicas.

Patricia Navarro-Palau

Patricia Navarro-Palau is a Labour Market Economist at the OECD in the Skills Team within the Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs. She analyses adult learning systems and how they adapt to labour market trends. Recent projects include the development of a skills profiling tool, the analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on career guidance systems and the identification of innovations in adult learning systems. Prior to joining the OECD, Patricia worked in the Inter-American Development Bank, CRA International and NERA Economic Consulting. Patricia holds a PhD in Economics from Columbia University and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Maria Fernanda Prada

Maria Fernanda Prada es economista y trabaja en la División de Educación del BID desde Mayo de 2016. Dirige y colabora en proyectos de investigación y operativos relacionados con educación y empleabilidad en la era digital, educación técnica y desarrollo de habilidades. Antes de unirse a la División de Educación, trabajó en la División de Mercados Laborales y Seguridad Social del BID. También ha trabajado en los Departamentos de Investigación del BID y del Banco Mundial en Washington, DC, y en el Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico de la Universidad de Los Andes en Bogotá, Colombia. Maria Fernanda tiene un Doctorado en Economía de la Universidad de Maryland, y es Economista con Maestría en Economía de la Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia).

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Education In Focus

"Education In Focus" is the Education Division's blog, a space where our specialists and guest authors share their reflections, experiences and knowledge to promote informed discussions on educational issues among policy makers, experts, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. Our goal: to provide insights to public policies that guarantee effective and quality education for all children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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