The post-pandemic era has seen a significant exacerbation of educational abandonment in Albania, and this phenomenon is becoming especially concerning for females.
In 2022, roughly 10% of school-age girls are not pursuing the mandatory 9-year education program. To put this into perspective, in 2014, this figure was less than 2%.
According to data from the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the overall participation rate in compulsory education is 96.9% for boys and 90.4% for girls. Participation in secondary education also demonstrates a gender gap, with 95.7% for boys and 90.2% for girls. However, when it comes to university-level education, the statistics take a turn, showing that female participation is higher at 74.7%, as opposed to males at 51.5%.
Analyzing gender-based participation in different educational stages unveils evident disparities. There is a more substantial presence of male students compared to females in pre-university education, but at the university level, it’s the opposite, with 58.7% of students being female.
These statistics for the year 2022 signal that out of every 100 girls of the required age and obligation to attend the 9-year compulsory education, only 90 attend school, a stark contrast to the over 98 who were attending in 2014.
This decline in the school dropout rate, representing girls abandoning education, raises concerns about the nation’s sustainable development.
UNICEF has attributed this school dropout trend in Albania to extreme poverty, low levels of inter-institutional and community collaboration, negative societal trends, population movements, and migrations.
Several factors contribute to the high dropout rate, including parental educational levels, demographic shifts in the past decade, individual and familial emigration, single parenthood, domestic violence (within couples or towards children by one or both parents), the loss of one or both parents, parental attitudes towards girls’ education, blood feuds, and vendettas, among other issues.
Social issues are responsible for many students discontinuing their education. Children from various backgrounds, particularly those from Roma and Egyptian communities, although not limited to them, frequently remain unregistered in schools, avoiding attendance due to familial relocations, emigration by one or both parents, or even the entire family moving to neighboring or distant countries.
Studies reveal that violence within schools drives many students to drop out, especially those who are often victims of violence inflicted by their peers or those who perpetrate such acts. The latter group tends to get involved with adolescent criminal gangs that engage in theft and other unlawful activities.
The phenomenon of “hidden” dropouts further contributes to school abandonment. By neglecting a portion of students, particularly those with learning difficulties, schools inadvertently discourage students, eroding their self-confidence, making them more introverted, and ultimately preventing their engagement in academic or extracurricular activities where they could potentially express personal abilities and interests in learning.
