Dropout Reduction Program (DORP)

Why kids drop out from high school? This is the question that in many years the school- community is always asked why many of our learners when in high school they tend to leave the school portal. They seemed not to be minding their future and eventually go astray. Many of these young people still face troubles that put them at risk without completing high school. When these happen, these students will have a harder time succeeding in today’s workforce.

 

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) the number of students who drop out of high has fallen significantly. The reasons why students drop out of high school because of these common reasons:

 

   Researchers have connected many of these factors to socio-economic status. Students from low-income families are 2.4 times more likely to drop out from school than those from the middle-income neighborhoods. It is a call for the parents and school to look into the warning signs. This is the reason why the Department of Education issued guidelines on mainstreaming the Dropout Reduction Program (DORP) in the Public Secondary Schools on June 4, 2010 through Department Order No.74, s., 2010.


The Project ReACH (Find them, Reach them, Keep them and make them complete school) inspired the implementers of the Dropout Reduction Program (DORP) in the secondary schools to perform better. According to report, Project ReACH through the DORP is successfully reaching the 3.4 million youth aged 12- 15 years old. The effectiveness of the program in reducing dropout rate, in the attainment of zero dropout rates, in increasing participation rate and improving learning outcomes using formal and non-formal approaches has been proven in many schools across the regions.


To share the best practices of the program, the Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE), and the department encourages all school heads to mainstream and integrate this program in the schools through the Enhanced- School Improvement Plan (E-SIP). Anchored on the targets of the Education for All (EFA) in 2015 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 2015, the DORP aims to contribute to the attainment of improved performance indicators in basic education.


These approaches utilize the family, individual, community, and school (FICS) Analysis to facilitate the identification of students-at -risk of dropping out (SARDO) by introducing the approach interventions. The FICS Analysis encompasses the psychological, emotional, economic, culture and social dimensions of the risk factors for dropping out affected the students/learners.