This work presents reflections about some key factors that help to understand the reasons why in Finland school dropouts are practically nonexistent, while in Puerto Rico they are a significant problem. Several reasons that explain this situation were found. Finland has good student support services, teachers have more academic freedom, social inequalities exist in a smaller scale, schooling including university, and health services are free, and teacher training is more rigorous. Based on the findings of this study, we developed a model to understand school dropout as a complex social system. To develop this model we used a causal diagram, a tool from the theory of dynamic systems.
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