3. Secondary school dropouts have a harder time getting good, secure, and decent paying jobs, because more and more jobs require a minimum of a Secondary School Certificate.
4. Dropping out gives you a lot of free time, and this may make you more likely to get involved with the wrong crowd and begin to indulge in self destructive behaviour including using drugs and/or alcohol.
5. Pregnancy is also not a good reason to drop out and get a job. Look into your options before taking such a drastic step (take a year off if you must, but it is important to get back to school once the baby arrives).
6. Being a dropout is much harder than you think it will be. It will be harder to get a job, for people to take you seriously, and harder to establish a good life without the proper education.
7. Going back to school as an adult is not as easy as you think it will be because by then you will have other responsibilities to worry about. Also, it often costs money, while your current secondary school education may be free if you are attending a public school.
8. Dropping out is not cool, it does not make you tough nor does it mean you are grown up or mature. In fact, it makes you the exact opposite of all these things.
9. It is really hard to live a comfortable life when you are making minimum wage. If you don’t have at the very least a minimum education, you will likely only get paid minimum wage at the jobs that you pursue. This means that you may have to kiss your dream car, your dream house, and the good life goodbye because you may not be able to afford them.
10. You will miss out on a lot of things that are associated with growing up; like establishing social interactions, learning how to be a civilised member of society, the ability to come back from failure – in this case, academics and life challenges- and developing that special quality called resilience.
11. Also, you may never know what your full potential is because you gave up too quickly.
Yes, school is tough for some, but it is not the end of the world. You have your whole life to live after secondary school and if you don’t get to finish this stage of your life, you will be closing the doors on so many opportunities that exist after school – like being in possession of great skills and having a successful career.
