Exploring Dropout Rates and Causes of Dropout in Upper-Secondary Vocational Schools

Background. Policymakers in many developing countries regard upper--secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as a key element in economic growth and overty reduction. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the quality of TVET programs in developing countries is low. Although there are a number of indicators of low quality, one indicator is student dropout. The overall goal of this study is examine one dimension of the quality of China's TVET schools by studying the dropout behavior of TVET students. To meet this goal, we have three specific objectives. First, we seek to produce quality estimates of dropout rates among students in China's TVET schools. second, we seek to identify which students drop out from TVET. Third, we test whether financial constraints, math and computer achievement, and parental education and migration status correlate with TVET dropout. Drawing on data from a national survey of 7,414 upper-secondary TVET students, we dropout rates of 10.7% across China as a whole and as high as 22% in poorer inland areas, suggesting major gaps and disparities in Chinese TVET quality. Furthermore, we find that baseline academic performance and maternal education and migration status are strong correlates for student dropout