The experience and aspirations of form 5 students attending ex-opportunity centres

Abstract

The aim of this study is to find out about the schooling experiences and the future aspirations of students attending Ex-Opportunity Centres. It tackles mainly the problem of disaffection and why some students resist schooling. 30 students of whom 15 are boys and 15 girls were interviewed, together with the administrative staff and guidance teachers, in order to get a clearer insight of their past, present and even of what they have in mind for their future. What has emerged from our study was that these students were disaffected with schooling because they have lived with the idea that they were 'failures' at school and didn't fit in at school with the other more-able students. Also, the fact that they knew they were in the lower-stream in the primary school had a negative influence on them which continued to lower their self-esteem. Some of them hadn't even found support from the primary teachers and the way in which they were brought up didn't help them to change their attitudes either. As adolescents, they were also exposed to peer pressures and their only concern was to leave school and start working in order to achieve their adult status. Our study concludes with the identification of the main causes which lead both boys and girls to their disaffection and resistance to schooling, together with some solutions which can be adopted in order to reduce them. Last but not least, we made some recommendations which can be the basics for research in future studies.