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Abstract
Many factors influence students experiences in upper secondary education and beyond, including upper secondary curricula, programme design and support for students. But a good transition from earlier levels of education is the first, essential step in a successful journey through upper secondary education and into further education and/or employment. The design of transition systems can mitigate existing inequities in education, but it can also accentuate them. Transitions can also influence student well-being. They can have either a negative impact, for example through highly competitive systems that can be stressful for students and narrow their development, or a positive impact, for example by helping to construct young peoples sense of agency and ability to make informed decisions about their future. This paper looks at how countries manage students transition into upper secondary education and the main policy implications of each transition point and how they can influence student outcomes.
1. Introduction
Why do student transitions into upper secondary education matter?
An effective transition into upper secondary education may be defined as a transition that enables students to pursue programmes that match their interests and abilities and open up opportunities for their future. Many factors influence students' experiences in upper secondary education and beyond, including upper secondary curricula, programme design and student support. But a good transition from earlier levels of education is the first, essential step in a successful journey through upper secondary education and into further education and/or employment.
Systems where transitions into upper secondary do not function effectively create challenges for individual students, education systems and society by:
* Creating high barriers to enter upper secondary education: This means that not all students are able to make the transition at the theoretical age, resulting in repetition or perhaps even dropout.
* Orienting students towards programmes that do not suit them in some way: Some students, for example, may find that they are not well-prepared for the more complex and technical content in a specific programme, while others may end up in programmes that do not reflect their interests. Both situations can have an impact on students' motivation and learning outcomes, contributing to repetition, dropout, limited lifelong learning opportunities and decreased personal fulfilment.
* Orienting students towards programmes that do not enable them...