Monday, November 12, 2007
Why is there a significant number or high school drop outs in Palau?
I don't know the exact statistics but I do know that in my neighborhood back home a majority of the youth are high school dropouts. This may not apply to all hamlets but it's obviously evident in most. Why do you think this is? Is it our communities (where we grow up at) or our schools? I've noticed that kids that go to private schools tend to follow through vs. going to a public school. What ought to be done about this (if there is in fact a possible solution?)
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12 comments:
I applaud MOE for doing a great job with our schools; however i think there are still some cracks, huge cracks. There needs to be more extracurricular activities that promote growth, learning, and bonding. It seems like the main activity that everybody focuses on is sports. This is good but not all youth members are ball players, and a lot of times they get involved with lets say basketball which is not a year round activity. What i'm trying to say is, there needs to be more than just sports. We need clubs that encourage different talents and interest and create a sense of bonding and belonging in order for our youths to succeed. I myself have been part of one a couple years back, and let me tell you, it was awesome! We all got real close, school was highly encouraged, and there was a sense of pride and ambition. We need committed and resourceful youth reps. The Committee of Youth and Cultural Affairs needs to step it up.
why is because teachers, families, and friends do not take the initiative to tell one to go to school..they don't lecture them and encourage them of the importance of education in one's life in the near future.
Not only that is because the schools are not striving to help students, take that extra mile with the student. I know because I have heard from other students that their teachers don't care if you are in classes or not. They don't take the time to let you know what your missing hws are or what you need to do. They are just in it for the paycheck or they just plain and simple, don't care.
Also what mengungau said is exactly right. Schools need to have extracurricular activities for every student. Not only activities that are fun and also that are academic. In that way students can have fun and learn at the same time.
So all we need to do to help our dropouts is to encourage, and walk the extra mile to help themand let them know the importance of education and what it can do to their future.
We see a lot of programs that are set up to help our youth populace; however the truth of the matter is, they don't work that well. Something more needs to be done. The govt. needs to find an effective solution to the problem. I mean in my "hang," if you're lucky you would make it to high school, if you are extremely lucky you graduate from high school, which is not typical at all. Is our govt to busy to notice this problem? Of course there's the Youth Congress and other organization but there not reaching deep enough. There needs to be formal training to these youth reps in order to bring motivation and inspiration to our youths.
alii, well, let see maybe we cannot blame the whole situation to the teachers. And expect them to go extra mile to teach our kids. I think t's also a parents responsibility to encourage and teach their kids,spend more time with them and advice them that to have a good education, they can have a freedom and successful life in the future. And also parents and teachers should come together and call the P.T.A meeting and try to find some strong foundation to solve this huge problem that we have for our generation to come. They should heve a program like tutor center that provide the tutor for math,science and also a reading and writing to really educate our kids and i'm sure there must be some kids who are having a hard time to learn this coures that i mention.They ashame to ask questions in class, but i'm hundred percent that,if they have a good tutor class i'm sure they will learn fast and they will stay in school.And and maybe that will ended this highschool drop out in years to come and then we all be proud of them.Remember they are still our kids so we all need to come together and ask the gov. to funds this tutor program.
Thank you.
I think another way of finding out why there are high school drop outs is to ask the drop outs and find out what it is that made them drop out of school. Once the factors are identified, then a solution can be proposed. If a teenager doesn't forsee the consequences of the lack of education, then he/she wouldn't take seriously their educational quest. So parents, teachers, and peers should preach the consequences of the lack of education.
How significant? Money is the issue here. The students that come from a poor family usually ends up leaving school to work and help. How can we build an economy to help the poor so that their kids can have peace of mind and attend school diligently. On the other hand, you see rich kids rubbing their noses on them so poor kids would rather run and hide.
Another problem is the ROP Admin. They need to create subsidized programs to help poor families and their kids. Otherwise the cycle will go on and on.
Sulang!
I agree with anon in trying to find out the root of the problem by asking the students themselves in why dropping out of school has become a commodity. I also think its the best way to find out and in helping student succeed. I would like to disagree with anon who said the money is the issue.
From experience, I am from a poor family but the importance of education taught to me by my family put light in the situation so I knew that education was the ultimate goal in achieving success in today's society. Ng mla mo diak el sebeched el di ngara blai e olengeseu ra rechad ra blid e expect el survive ra klukuk....
You know that we will always be short financially. Regretfully, I am afraid that our source of sustainability (chei ma mesei) won't always sustain us in the future.
Okay, I'm blabbing off into a tangent so I will leave it at that....
Have we all heard the saying that "It takes a village to raise a child"?..Then the responsibility lies on all of us including the student. Teachers do their job as best they can and the parents have to take the big chunk of it for the sake of their own children's future. Education is an opportunity but not a garrantee.
well, i think that there are many reasons and i do not believe that there is a right or wrong answer to this.. but, in my experience growing up back home was not unusual for many families.. i come from a broken up family, where i was going back and forth between mom and dad, and there was no such thing as a stable home for me.. and this was such a big influence in my wrong doings.. it caused me to be very angry and violent as a child, which would lead me to get in trouble and almost getting me kicked out of school.. and now that i am grown and out of that environment, i have realized that it was all at home where i kept my anger, and then took it out on my friends and teachers at school..
and its very sad that i am out here in the states, and my little brother is going through the same thing, but even worse.. i think that i might have influenced him, but still he doesn't have that structured family in the household to comfort that sadness.. PARENTS SHOULDN'T MATE IF THEY ARE GOING TO BE APART SOMEDAY!!!
Here is my 2 cents to the subject. You know before we did graduate from elementary and highschool with well educated and qualified teachers. Today most of the teachers in the elementary school are high school grad and taking classes from PCC. How can student be on track if they see the teachers like that. I am full believer that teachers, instructors should be a great example. They are the ones that I did look after them and wanted to be like them someday. But the examples we are showing to the kids today is not right. I hope you guys get the idea what am I am trying to say.
They should also the coaches and trainers in the game should make the criterea that theys should make certain GPA in order to play the games. This is just small but I think it can play a big part in the sitsuation..
God bless
I agree with some of your ideas surrounding this growing problem in our community and school.
Yes, there needs to be more axtracurricular activities.
Yes, some teachers just don't care.
Yes, our government needs to find reps and more funds to tutor our failing students.
And yes, we can ask the dropouts and find out why they dropped out of school.
I think the biggest problem starts at home. From when a baby starts to walk and talk. Even a two-year old toddler can sense and understand whats going on in the household.
I grew up with 9 siblings. My father worked making $2.00/hr for 20 years. My mom worked hard in the garden and taro patch to produce decent vegetables to sell at MAKIT. It wasn't much but they managed to put us all kids in private schools and we all graduated. Not once did we ever see our parents argue or fight about anything. Maybe they did, but never in front of us. That's respect, and taught us to respect everybody, young and old.
Parents need to listen to their kids and respect them and their opinions and vice versa.
When they go out to school or in community with this attitude, things would be much better for them and go on to hopefully live a successful and happier life.
Just one of my thoughts,
sulang
I am speaking as a product of both a public and private school system.
I attended a public high school in Palau after moving from Guam. I wasn't in the public school system for even a month before I started begging my parents to stick me into a private school here's why:
In the public school, my teachers hardly ever showed up. When they did, one thing or another inhibited them from doing their job. Some of my teachers weren't even certified to teach! We had a burnt out singer teaching computer literacy, a PCC Tourism student teaching English and so on. It was depressing! I wasn't getting the motivation I needed to stay in school. How could I be made to care about something that an adult (my teacher) apparently doesn't care about?
I agree that not all families in Palau could afford to send their children to private schools. My parents most definitely couldn't afford it but they FOUND A WAY. Education is the key to success and happiness and a fruitful future and my parents new that they couldn't deprive me of that.
Its true that some families hardly push the importance of education on their children but that wasn't true in my case.
I think the only way to fix this problem is to employ CERTIFIED teachers that CARE or at least monitor the work/performance of the current teachers and fire those who aren't up to par. That way these loser teachers aren't getting paid what they don't deserve.
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