Organizational Problems Challenging the Capacity of Open Vocational High Schools in Dealing with the School Dropouts

Abstract

Increasing the student enrolment in schools is very important in today’s knowledge economy, which makes education systems one of the most prominent factors of economic development for all the countries in the world, especially the developing ones like Turkey. However, school dropout is one of the major obstacles in front of the advancements. Every nation has got a kind of structure in their education system to deal with school dropouts, particularly in secondary education level in which major dropout issues occur. In Turkey, open high schools constitute of the major alternative for the students who left formal high schools early and want to continue their education or to get a high school diploma. The aim of this study is to examine the organizational problems of Vocational Open High Schools in Şanlıurfa, regarding these schools as a backup system for school dropouts, based on the opinions of the school managers. Using a case study design, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the managers of open vocational schools in Haliliye, Karaköprü and Eyyubiye counties. According to the results of the study, organizational problems can be categorized into three main themes as administrative, academic and legal problems. At the end of the study, there are some suggestions to the authorities.