School drop-outs: What options are there for youth to want to grow?

Artificial intelligence is one option for schools to pick up early warning signs of potential pupil drop-outs.

However, identifying a pupil at risk is only the first step.

“A pupil very rarely drops out overnight. It’s usually the end of a long, quiet trail: attendance that slips, marks that drift, a child who slowly disengages,” said Willem Kitshoff, CEO of education technology company d6 Group.

Schools generate much of the information needed to identify the warning signs through attendance records, academic results, behaviour and day-to-day pupil engagement.

The challenge, Kitshoff said, was that teachers often did not have time to connect all the warning signs, particularly when responsible for large classes.

That is where AI tools can play a role.

Kitshoff said technology could analyse changes in academic performance and attendance patterns and identify pupils whose marks were falling or who were becoming chronically absent.

It could also help schools communicate with parents and guardians through existing communication platforms, allowing concerns to be raised earlier.

“When declining attendance, falling marks in a particular subject and growing disengagement start lining up in the same child, that’s a pattern worth a second look,” Kitshoff said.

He stressed an AI alert should be the beginning of a conversation, rather than a judgment about a pupil.

“AI flags, humans decide,” he said.

The technology could identify something had changed, but it could not understand the circumstances behind the data.

“AI can see something has changed. It cannot see why,” Kitshoff said.

A pupil may be missing school because of hunger, bullying, transport problems, illness at home or a parent losing their job. “Those circumstances can be difficult to capture in a spreadsheet or attendance register, but they can determine whether a pupil stays in school,” he said.

Kitshoff cautioned that AI could deepen inequality if systems are designed around schools with fast internet, expensive devices and dedicated IT staff.

For technology to be useful across South Africa, he said, it needed to take into account the realities of under-resourced schools, including low bandwidth and limited resources.

“An alert is worthless if there’s nothing to do about it,” Kitshoff said.

“Schools need access to support such as counsellors, social workers, feeding schemes and parents and guardians who can be reached when a pupil begins to struggle,”

Head of AI at Standard Bank Nothando Magagula said South Africa could not focus only on technology without dealing with the people and social problems behind pupil disengagement.

Magagula said there is a danger in collecting data and identifying a pupil as disengaged without understanding what was happening in their life.

“If somebody is in class and is disengaged, what does that mean?” she asked.

“It’s going to be very difficult to apply a tool that doesn’t understand the context of where it’s operating.”

Magagula, who grew up in a township, said a pupil could be disengaged because they are hungry, struggling at home or had little information about the opportunities available to them.

“There are social problems we need to tackle.”

She said technology could help identify problems, but the government, businesses, schools and other stakeholders need to work together to address what happened after problems were identified.

Magagula said access to information is a part of keeping young people engaged with education.

She pointed to pupils who leave matric and enter university without understanding the career options available to them, sometimes choosing courses simply because there is space. Others may enter higher education already disengaged because they do not see how their studies connect to a future career.

As AI continues to reshape the workplace, she said young people need better information about the skills and careers that would be required in the future.

Summer Clifford Kotze, marketing and content director of next generation leadership for the JC brand, said businesses have a role to play in helping young people see opportunities beyond their current circumstances.

She said simply telling a teenager to “stay in school” could feel disconnected from their reality if they could not see where education could take them.

“Businesses could help by exposing young people to different careers, workplaces and people doing jobs they may not know exist, making representation make success feel possible,” Kotze said.

Role models do not have to be celebrities, she said.

“Sometimes someone who grew up in the same community and was only a few years ahead could help a young person believe a different future was possible.

“For the 16- or 17-year-olds considering leaving school because they cannot see a future ahead, know you don’t need to have your whole life figured out at 17,” she said.

“You need to keep moving forward to give yourself the opportunity to find out what is possible.”

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