On Monday April 24th we will organise the Dutch EDDI multiplier event. The EDDI Project aims to help students to better understand the causality and consequences of leaving education in order to find the possible solutions to the Early School Leaving (ESL) problem. During the multiplier event we will showcase our platform, catologue and app.

In 2009 Eric van ’t Zelfde became director of one of the worst schools in Rotterdam. A school with only 34 new student registrations, dramatic exam results, tired teachers and crime. Van ’t Zelfde tackled the problems off the beaten track. No less than 56 teachers left, 34 of whom in his first year as director. He introduced the ingenious rule of conduct ‘you behave yourself’, which is brilliant in its simplicity. He expelled a number of students against the law and had to answer to the judge. After several years, his school began to score at or above the national average. From the worst school in the Netherlands to one of the best schools in the Netherlands in five years.

Superschool

The EDDI 4-day Learning, Teaching, Training activities were held in Thessaloniki, Greece at the offices of Stimmuli for Change. During the LTT-days informative seminars have been conducted by the experts from Universities and successful enterprises from the host country and also by the experts from the other partner countries joining at the location and via interactive tools like skype, zoom etc.

Stimmuli for Change

It was the first time that the EDDI partners saw each other face-to-face. Important feature of the LTT was getting some valuable feedback on the EDDi platform. Furthermore there were interview sessions planned about module 4 – Absenteeism. Overall discussions took place and future plans were made on the last day of the training.

What does the project EDDI do?

Absenteeism

All EDDI-partner organisations were interviewed on the absenteeism topic. All videos below are EDDI-videos are productions of the LTT-days. Below Masha Garibyan from the Aston University (United Kingdom) EDDI-project manager about ‘how absenteeism affects student performance:

Theofilos Poulipoulos, project manager Stimmuli for Change about tackling absenteeism in school. This video is an EDDI production.

More results of the training will be published and broadcasted by all the partners via videos on Youtube, the organiosation Websites and the website of the project.

Dropping out, also known as Early School Leaving (ESL) is a serious issue. It affects many young people across the globe. It is closely connected to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. In the 2020/2021 school year, there were 24,385 Dutch early school leavers. The “Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention (EDDI)” project aims to help improve student retention rates by helping teachers, families and students better understand the causes and consequences of ‘Early School Leaving’. An explanantion, from a Dutch perspective:

Definition Dutch Drop Out

A Dutch school dropout is a young person who:

• is between 12 and 23 years old;
• is not enrolled in a school;
• does not have a basic qualification (a diploma at a minimum of MBO 2, HAVO or VWO level);
• does not come from practical education or secondary special education

Why do Young people leave school too early?

Young people leave school too early for various reasons. Often it is a combination of causes that contribute to the school dropout, such as:

• A wrong choice of study;
• Would rather make money than go to school;
• Personal and mental problems;
• Not the same expectations about the education between school and the pupil or student;
• There is also the issue of the strong correlation between early schoolleaving and juvenile behavior. One possible explanation for this correlation is a lack of social bonding that causes adolescents to both commit crime and drop out of school;
• Poor school performance is the one that matters in the end: Targeting the poorest performers at an early age should therefore be advocated, as this would appear to be the most efficient means to reduce their sequential participation in all forms of risk behavior

Comparison on EU Level

In 2021, 9.7 % of 18-24 year olds in the EU had completed at most a lower secondary education and were not in further education or training (early leavers). On a European level the Dutch are doing pretty good. In 2021, the Member States that reported the lowest shares of early leavers from education and training were Croatia (2%), Slovenia, Greece and Ireland (all 3%) and Lithuania and the Netherlands (5%).

Impacts

Young people who start working without a basic qualification have a greater chance of losing their job than an employee with a diploma. And they more often have flexible jobs, which means that they also have little income as adults.

The Dutch national government wants to prevent young people between the ages of 12 and 23 leaving school without a basic qualification (early school leaving). Without a basic qualification, young people have less chance on the labor market. The government, schools and municipalities are jointly taking measures to help young people go back to school.

The most common measures preventing early school leaving in secondary school and senior secondary vocational education are:

• The national government encourages secondary schools with performance tools to prevent early school leaving. For example, a secondary school receives extra money if it has fewer than a certain number of school leavers. The national government has set standards for this. Secondary schools receive approximately €17 million annually.
• Quality Agendas: MBO institutions themselves take measures to improve the quality of education and appropriate supervision of students. These are in the quality agendas. MBO schools and the national government have agreed that attention will be paid to young people in a vulnerable position and equal opportunities. MBO institutions decide for themselves how they spend the money. An independent committee assesses the plan of each MBO school.
• RMC Function: Installed are regional reporting and coordination function of municipalities. The municipalities have a statutory duty to combat young people dropping out: the Regional Reporting and Coordination Function (RMC function). The people who perform this task are called RMC consultants (advisors). The RMC consultants guide school-leavers back to school. They seek contact by, for example, visiting, calling or sending a letter. And encourage the young people to get the diploma anyway. If this is not feasible, the RMC consultants guide the young people to work or another daily activity. Such as treatment in a care program or volunteer work. The counselors also seek contact with young people who often skip school. Because truancy is sometimes a sign of dropping out of school.

Regional Collabouration Dutch schools and municipalities

The regional plan states which measures schools and municipalities will jointly implement to combat early school leaving.

The most common measures are:

• Extra guidance at schools for young people who need more support. For example, by teachers, social workers or youth workers, who enter into discussions with the young people to give advice;
• Coaches ‘for Switching’ offer help to young people who find it difficult to make a good choice of study.
  Helping young people after school dropout. For example, with research into a new education or work. Or with personal problems;
• Regions provide training to young people in the field of self-knowledge, behavior and social experience;
• Dealing with school absenteeism. If a young person often calls in absent or sick, there may be more going on;
• Schools, municipalities, social workers and youth doctors work together to allow young people to go back to school as much as possible.

The EDDI (Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention) project aims to help teachers, families and students to better understand the causes and consequences of leaving education early. In turn this will help find possible solutions to the problem of Early School Leaving (ESL). Currently we are building a catologue with policy documents and good practices on Early School Leaving (ESL), a platform and an App.

Dutch Catologue on ESL

One of the articles which will be in the EDDI Catologue is the one about the significant reduction of Dutch Dropouts in VET: The number of students having successfully finished their VET course has risen to almost 84%, concluded the Inspectorate of Education in its 2019 report on the State of Education in the Netherlands. What more can be done to reduce the share of drop-outs even further, now since more than a decade a great number of policy instruments has already been applied?

In search of innovative methods the Ministry of Education allowed VET schools to experiment with homemade interventions. Subsidies were granted to three VET-schools under the condition of participating in an evaluation of the effectiveness of the instrument of choice. One VET school improved the intake procedure for prospective students under the assumption that the risk of dropout will be reduced by a careful match between the student’s expectations and competences and a study program. Another VET school introduced stricter policies in the event of a student’s unauthorized absence, as absence often precedes early school leaving. And the third encouraged parental involvement in the education of their children through the use of e-coaching for parents.

The aim of the EDDI Project is to prevent ESL in the partner countires and in the EU as a whole.

Objectives of the EDDI Project

The objectives of the EDDI Project are:

• Provide practical ideas and new strategies for classroom interventions
• Raise students’ motivation to learn
• Improve competences linked to the teachers’ professional profiles
• Provide teachers with a resource of ready- to-use materials to prevent ESL
• Involve students, families, health and social agencies
• Improve students’ and teachers’ knowledge and competences in English and ICT
• Promote social integration at school

EDDI Platform & App

One of the main outcomes of the project is the EDDI platform, which will provide an online space for teachers to develop a wide European network for institutions, teachers, trainers, students and parents to
share and exchange tips and suggestions in regards to fighting ESL. The EDDI app will be complimentary to the platform.

The project “Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention(EDDI)” aims to improve student retention rates. On 13-14 October we officially held our 3rd Transnational EDDI project meeting by a digital Teams meeting. The problem of early school leaving (ESL) affects societies, economies and higher education as underscored by UNESCO, Sustainable Development Goals (2019). With schools struggling with a significant number of students who give up on education before finishing secondary school, the aim of the EDDI consortium is to find a way to keep students in education.

EDDI e-Platform

After the feasibility study carried out in the project partner countries, the factors causing early school leaving were determined and effective strategies were determined. Currently the partners are developing content for the EDDI Platform. 4 models, with units and tools are in development. Read more about the EDDI Platform here. The initial testing of the platform will be done during Mobility in February 15-18th in Tahiti with help of local focus groups.

EDDI Catalogue

The EDDI catologue, c.q. Guide will consist of the contents below:
-Description of the methodology of the good practice about pedagogical model and the role of ICT in teaching to prevent early drop out
-Implementation stages of using the e-learning training programmes addressing the issue of classroom diversity used both in formal and non-formal education and using the adapted materials to an innovative system of teaching
-Evaluation of the ongoing quality improvement process, indicator monitoring and ongoing data collected and reviewed. Structure,process and outcome, evaluation relevant to early drop out.
-Strengths and weaknesses of the good practices by means of adaptation and implementation
-Sustainability strategy will comprise a summary of the courses developed during the project.

EDDI Android Application

The EDDI android application will create a typical environment that can be exploited by teachers, administrative staff to reach any possible signs of ESL. The application will have a flexible structure. In our next article we will tell you more about ÉDDI App Work in Progress: Click here

Training Mobility Tahiti

The Learning Mobilities in Tahiti will take place 15-18 February 2022. The 4-day Learning, Teaching, Training activity will include:

– Informative seminars to be conducted by the experts from Universities and successful enterprises from the host country and also by the experts from the other partner countries joining via interactive tools like skype, zoom etc.

– Role-plays that represent the NEET youngsters and the employers to give a message to possible drop-outs about the situation of the real world in case of leaving their schools. Those scenarios and role-plays would be distributed and watched by all stakeholder partner schools in participating countries that is about 1000 of schools in total.

– An overall discussion and future plans to be made on the last day of the training.

– at least 2 teachers/experts/trainers per partner will participate in the training.

– The results of the training will be published and broadcasted by all the partners via videos on Youtube, Website of the project, booklets, brochures, and the local media of the partner countries.

Reducing early school leaving to less than 10% across EU Member States by 2020 is one of the EU’s priorities in the field of education. The Commission is working with Member States to implement comprehensive strategies to prevent early school leaving and to engage early school leavers in education and training. The EDDI Project consortium members came together to develop early diagnosis methods for Early School Leaving and to support these methods with digital ICT opportunities. Currently the partners are working on the content development for the EDDI Platform.

Platform Content Development

After the feasibility study carried out in the project partner countries, the factors causing early school leaving were determined and effective strategies were determined. Currently the partners are developing content for the EDDI Platform. Four modules, each with 4 units are currently being developed:

Module 1: Failure in Classes

Module 2: Domestic violence, conflict and inadquate support for students…

Module 3: Inadequacy of social activities

Module 4: Uncontrolled absenteeisme

What’s the Problem?

Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, or a fragile socio-economic situation. The way the education system is set up, school climate and teacher-pupil relations
are also important factors. Since there are often complex, interconnected reasons for the students not completing secondary schooling, policies to reduce early school leaving must address a range of issues and combine education and social policy, youth work and health-related aspects. Some of these challenges are outlined in several studies provided by the Commission.

What has been done so far?

• Setting Up the EDDI Project by project partners: The EDDI project brings together innovative methods, digital interventions and pedagogies that are looking to identify and to address the reasons for early school leaving, and proposes approaches to early ESL diagnosis, prevention and intervention. The project will develop a digital EDDI e-platform, an EDDI Guidebook and an EDDI Android Application.
• EU countries have committed themselves to reducing the average share of early school leavers to less than 10% by 2020. The annual Education and Training Monitor provides data and analysis of early school leaving trends in the EU and in all the Member States.
• EU education ministers adopted a Council Recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving, which set out a framework for coherent, comprehensive, and evidence-based policies. They agreed to collaborate to exchange best-practices and knowledge on effective ways to address early school leaving
• A working group on early school leaving looked at examples of good practices in Europe and exchanged experiences in reducing early school leaving. The final report outlines 12 key messages for policymakers and translates them into practical tools through a checklist of comprehensive policies and an annex with examples of best practices from several EU countries.
• The Commission organised a conference on policies to reduce early school leaving. One year later, policy developments in eight EU countries were reviewed.
• The Working Group on Schools Policy created a set of policy messages identifying key conditions for implementing a whole school approach to tackling early school leaving, as well as an online European Toolkit for Schools.
• The Council has also adopted Conclusions on reducing early school leaving and promoting success in school.

Early school leaving (ESL) is a serious matter at individual and macro level since it is connected to unemployment, social exclusion, and poverty… Some more EDDI facts

Did you know that…?

• ‘Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, poverty and poor health.’: There are many reasons why some young people give up education and training prematurely: personal or family problems, learning difficulties, or a fragile socio-economic situation.’
• Besides economic and social mobility impacts, early school leaving has been linked to bullying, violence or micro criminality.
• Early School Leaving is a threat to the successful future development of the workforce and community prospects.
• In 2019, the share of children living in a household at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU ranged from 11.7 % in Slovenia to 33.9 % in Bulgaria and 35.8 % in Romania; the average for the EU was 22.5 %.

In line with the European Commission goals ( ETAT2020, EC 2018) to reduce the early education leavers statistics, the project “Early Digital Diagnosis and Intervention(EDDI)” aims to improve student retention rates. Today we officially kicked off EDDI by a digital Teams meeting.

Zoom Kick Off 20 January 2021

on January 20th we officially kicked off EDDI through Teams. The project is coordinated by the Aston University (UK). Other partners are from Greece (2), Turkey, Netherlands and French Polynesia.

The problem of early school leaving (ESL) affects societies, economies and higher education as underscored by UNESCO, Sustainable Development Goals (2019). With schools struggling with a significant number of students who give up on education before finishing secondary school, the aim of the EDDI consortium is to find a way to keep students in education.

Aims

The EDDI project aims to help teachers, families and students to better understand the causality and consequences of leaving education in order to find possible solutions to the Early School Leaving (ESL) problem. We believe that only a comparative analysis of practices and interventions between countries which do well in the ESL statistics and those at the opposite end of the spectrum would deliver a sustainable solution to the ESL problem. Besides economic and social mobility impacts, ESL has been linked to bullying, violence or micro criminality. ESL is a threat to the successful future development of the workforce and community prospects. In preparation to the project proposal, the literature review showed that the drivers to the ESL vary and can be countered by engaging a number of supporting stakeholder groups.

Target groups

This project is the first step toward developing a clear, holistic community-wide action plan providing early diagnostics to the ESL problem. The students involved in the project are 14-18 years old and they will work in mixed international groups. The target groups addressed are teachers working with and students who have the risk to leave the school during the school year for different reasons and students showing signs of risk. The target group will include students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds forming a representative sample of 300 in total from 5 different countries. The support of with the support of local social agencies, educational authorities and ICT solution partners has been secured ahead of the EDDI commencement.