Why do young people leave school early?

However, prevention is better and cheaper than cure. The age-grade distortion is an antecedent and determining factor of school dropout. In Brazil, the abandonment rate is 17% among students with two years or more of school delay in relation to the grade, and only 2% among students with a year or less of delay, according to INEP data of 2019 organized by the Institute for Mobility and Social Development (IMDS). Thus, the high school dropout stems from the school’s inattention to its most vulnerable students in the early years of elementary school.