Adults Lower Secondary Education. Dropout paths among work experienced students

Abstract

This paper scrutinizes motives adult students state for dropping out when minors. They are work experienced people (they might be either unemployed or employed) and, as a consequence, are  able to disclose a relevant discourse about why they dropout and their eventual return to school via Adult Education School (CEPA in Spanish) to get a lower secondary education degree. Work  field is based on a hundred in-depth interviews being held in ten adult schools in the city of Madrid during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years. Most of students are in their late twenties or early thirties. The analysis of the interviews allows for guessing the many difficulties these students confronted during their childhood and adolescence. Most of the interviewees talk about harsh situations as those related to family matters (divorces, deaths of parents and low levels of  education and income), schooling in overcrowded classrooms or the fact of being an immigrant. Spanish economy has been able to thriv e till the beginning of the economic crisis in spite of high levels of early school leaving rates. Nowadays, secondary education degree is the minimum educational degree to enter the labor market.