Socioeconomic and institutional factors contributing to high school dropout

Abstract

School dropout is characterized as the definitive interruption of a student’s educational trajectory, resulting in a total detachment from the educational institution and a failure to enroll for the subsequent academic year, regardless of whether they passed or failed the previous period. Consequently, the accumulated educational losses and the social liabilities generated by this estrangement directly impact the population’s well-being, the national economy, and limit the full exercise of citizenship. Given the aforementioned context and the issues presented, this study primarily aims to analyze the socioeconomic and institutional factors that contribute to high school dropout. To achieve this, a narrative review with a qualitative focus was conducted, aimed at carefully examining and discussing the scientific texts found on the subject. The search for articles took place on platforms of academic and scientific relevance, such as PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar, selecting Portuguese-language productions published between 2022 and 2026, with the exception of foundational legislation. The data reveal that school detachment is primarily driven by material constraints, with the need for early entry into the informal labor market to supplement family income accounting for a significant portion of dropouts at the end of basic education. Exogenous factors such as geographical barriers, lack of transportation in rural areas, ethnic-racial disparities, teenage pregnancy, and digital losses resulting from the COVID-19 health crisis operate in na interconnected manner in the exclusion of young people. Within the school environment, the precarious infrastructure of buildings, curricula disconnected from youth reality, wage devaluation of the teaching profession, episodes of violence, and the fragility of student assistance policies generate apathy and break the student’s bond with the system. It is concluded that mitigating dropout requires the formulation of integrated public policies that combine direct financial support to vulnerable families, structural modernization of schools, and pedagogical reformulations with active methodologies, bringing basic education closer to citizenship and the reality of Brazilian youth.