A Phenomenological Analysis on the Drop-Out and School- Leaver Incidences in the Schools Division of Surigao Del Norte

Confronting and unfading. This has been the dropout and school leaver incidences in the Schools Division of Surigao del Norte. The lack of comprehensive analysis of the situation and detailed exploration on the experiential accounts of those concerned served as basis for the conduct of this research; hence, phenomenology was employed to understand the occurrence according to the perspective of the participants, and on the process allowing the essence to emerge (Cameron, Schaffer & Hyeon-Ae, 2001).As such , participants from the the top five schools having the highest incidences of dropout and school leavers were purposively sampled. Semistructured interview was used to gather data, while Hycner’s (1999) five-step explicitation process was employed for the analysis. After bracketing and phenomenological reduction, delineating units of meaning, clustering of units of meaning, summarizing and validating each interview and extracting general and unique themes, six (6) themes surfaced namely: School Issues and Concerns, Out – of-school distractions and community issues, Familial issues, Prevention and Reduction Strategies/ Motivators, Distinct IP Culture, Behaviour & Process, and Isolated Cases: Death& Disappearance. Based on the findings, unconcerned School Heads and Teachers, lack of parent engagement, uncooperative learners, bullying, lack of facilities, computer addiction, armed conflict, distance, absence of parental support and guidance, financial constraints, and transfer of residence had been the specific causes of the problem. While all these exist in the internal and external environment of the learners, schools-initiated strategies to encourage students to stay in school, like provision of alternative learning opportunities, implementation of Dropout Reduction Program (DORP), school- community partnership and enforcing motivation. This study discerned that the dropout phenomenon is due to the conglomerate of issues mostly coming from the schools, community and family which have direct effect to the learners. Hence, top managers and school administrators need to closely monitor performance of the schools, reinforce parent engagement, employ special programs and projects that address the needs of learners, and craft implementation plan on the execution of Child Protection Policy. Local government units, on the other hand, has a significant role to play through the implementation of workable ordinances that would protect learners from environmental factors. Finally, learners from the Indigenous People community should be given primary attention and support to ensure attendance in school.