DROPOUT RATE AMONG ITE STUDENTS

DROPOUT RATE AMONG ITE STUDENTS: 4.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the dropout rate of students in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE); (b) whether there has been any studies done to ascertain the reasons for such dropouts; (c) whether more teaching resources as well as related services such as counselling will help to reduce the dropout rate; and (d) what happens to the students who dropout of ITE and how they are being assisted to acquire relevant skills to be employable.

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The Senior Minister of State for Education (Mr S Iswaran) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, the attrition rate at the ITE has declined over the last few years, due to extensive efforts undertaken by ITE’s lecturers and staff. Latest data from ITE shows that 82% of the intake cohort from 2006 graduated from ITE with a full certificate. Of the 18% who left ITE prematurely, 69% obtained certification for at least one core module of study.

In 2006, a committee on ITE Student Success was formed to identify reasons for attrition as well as recommend measures to address these. The study showed that ITE students drop out for a variety of reasons: peer and family influence, lack of drive, not being able to cope with their studies, job opportunities, and personal or family issues.

Since then, several recommendations have been implemented to address the different causes of attrition. These include firstly, introducing a flexible curriculum framework to cater to students with different needs, abilities and aspirations; secondly, expanding student counselling and services to provide holistic support for students; thirdly, enhancing the professional development of ITE lecturers to improve teaching effectiveness; and fourthly, instituting team-building programmes to foster camaraderie and peer support among students. ITE closely monitors and assists the weakest students by giving them additional remedial lessons and counselling. With time, many of these programmes and measures should yield a higher success rate for ITE students.

ITE will maintain the rigour of its courses to ensure acceptability by employers and will not lower standards in order to improve completion rates. ITE’s current rate of non-completion is already among the lowest in the world for

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vocational institutions. Nevertheless, it will continue its efforts to help as many students as possible complete their course. For those who leave prematurely or without full certificates, ITE will continue to provide avenues for them to return to complete their training. Based on survey findings from the committee’s final report, more than half of the ITE students who leave early are, in fact, open to the prospect of re-enrolling sometime later. Assistance will also be given to help them pick up skills to be employable.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Sir, I thank the Senior Minister of State for the clarification but it seems to me that 18% dropout rate is indeed a very high rate. It is almost like two out of 10 students drop out of ITE. There had been measures implemented but I would like to ask for an assessment as to how effective are these measures in addressing this dropout rate problem and also whether MOE is considering other measures to do two things: one, to help these students to remain in school, at least to further reduce the attrition rate because helping to keep them in the ITE is better than trying to help them after they have left; and secondly, whether there are other measures to assist them once they have left ITE, in particular, apart from just getting them back into ITE, whether there are other programmes, eg, bridging programmes, so that they can acquire skills that they can use to enter the workforce. Because at the time that they dropped out, they were too young to make use of the adult training programmes that were available.

Mr Iswaran: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for her questions. I think we should be very clear. Our basic strategy for this group of students must be for them to enrol and stay in ITE for the full length of their course so that they

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complete their education in ITE, acquire a marketable and recognised piece of qualification which will then hold them in good stead when they enter the workforce. So the predominant focus of our efforts must be channelled in this direction and, indeed, that is what has been happening.

The Member says that 18% is high. It is relative, which is why I gave the comparison with international. In fact, when you compare internationally and across vocational institutions, our achievement is, in fact, quite remarkable and widely recognised as quite outstanding. But that does not mean that we cannot do more and, indeed, that was the objective of the review. The Member has outlined a range of ideas and possibilities to be undertaken and I think these are all embedded in my reply. If I can recap, for example, when you focus on counselling, peer group development, the idea is to create an environment within which the students will be able to develop greater rootedness in the ITE for the course because sometimes there are other considerations, like family and peer pressure and they need counter weighing factors. That is an important element and giving the lecturers the additional capability to also deal with this is an important factor.

In terms of skills acquisition, clearly if they finish their course and even if they do not finish everything, some of them, as I said, acquire certification in some core modules which is also quite helpful, I think that would be a big first step and what ITE is then doing is also facilitating re-entry because some may decide at a particular point in time that they want to discontinue for perhaps valid reasons but they would want to re-enter at another time when they recognise that they need skills upgrading and ITE is prepared to facilitate that as well so I think we have to look at this holistically. It is a bit too early I think to assess whether the more

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recent set of measures are yielding dividends because it has been only couple of years but I think in the long run if you look at it, based on our historical track record, we have done quite well but we should continue to press ahead so that we can help the 18% or so who dropped out.

Mr Speaker: Mdm Halimah, last question.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State how many counsellors are there being deployed to assist the students who faced problems in ITEs. Secondly, could the Senior Minister of State also inform the House what is the student-lecturer ratio and class sizes, and whether that is also one area to look into, in view of the fact that ITE students sometimes do need more assistance?

Mr Iswaran: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not have the specific number of counsellors deployed. I want to re-emphasise this point – it is not just about specific counsellors. I think it has to be an ITE-wide effort, that is why the emphasis is on the training of our lecturers because they have the greatest contact time with the students and they will be able to pick out where there are issues. If they can be an effective first line in interfacing with the students, that will make a big difference. On class sizes, this varies according to the disciplines but typically, if my memory serves me right, it is about 20 odd students per class. But of course, then you have the lectures and so on which will be in larger groups.

Mr Speaker: Ms Denise Phua, last question. Keep it brief, please.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): Thank you, Sir. I would like to ask Senior Minister of State, if he would consider a study on how much of the dropout rate incidence is due to pitching ITE at quite a high level as compared to the past. It

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appears to me that ITEs now seem to operate like polytechnics and the polytechnics are now operating like the universities. I would like his comment on that.

Mr Iswaran: Mr Speaker, Sir, I am not sure why the Member has this impression. How is our ITE curriculum developed? It is developed not just by the ITE colleges coming together and coming up with a course or pedagogy methodology. It is one that is worked out in close collaboration with industry, so the industry's feedback is the key element. In securing industry feedback, we are trying to establish where our ITE graduates would go out and fit in in the broader workforce. That is how we have to calibrate it. Now, if there are changes in our ITE system, it is not because of an arbitrary increase in standards or a desire to move unilaterally in a particular direction. But it is largely given by the fact that ITE is responding to the needs in our market. The needs in our marketplace are changing and Members would agree that it changes quite dramatically in some instances. So it is important that our ITE curriculum is dynamic, is able to, not just offer a variety of courses but a variety of courses at a level which will command respect and currency in the labour market. And that is the objective of the exercise. I think the fact that over 80% are able to complete their full course, it suggests that calibration is about right.

Mr Speaker: Ms Denise Phua, the next question, please.