In Parliament recently, Senior Minister of State for Education S Iswaran shared the numbers of ITE dropouts, and it stands at 18 per cent.
That means that every 10 students enroll in a course, nearly two will drop out.
Although Mr. Iswaran cites the figures is low compared to overseas vocational institutions, and improvement from three years ago, when one in four failed to graduate, it still says that our youth are disillusioned and not serious with their studies.
To tell you the truth, I myself was nearly a dropout back in ITE.
I’m still amazed that I graduated with my ITC certificate considering the numbers of times I missed and cut class.
It’s just that I wasn’t challenged enough, and I don’t have a vested interest in what I was studying. I wouldn’t be surprised that such dropouts are from broken and dysfunctional families.
How to counter such dropouts you might ask? Well for my case, it’s the teachers and lecturers who never gave up on me. There were times that they even covered for me when I was short of the passing mark in my modules.
I know that’s an unconventional teaching method, but rather than labeling me aside profiling me as a failure, and dropping out … such a nudge however unconventional it may be, it did made me realize slowly but surely of my own capabilities.
As I grew in confidence, I found that is if I were to put enough effort in my academia, I would be truly rewarded.
So all the teachers out there, there’s a few Uncle Sha in your class, unpolished, unmotivated, raw but full of potential. All they need is a listening ear, and a nudge in the right direction.
