Bridging the Gap: Open Educational Resources as a Tool for Reintegrating Dropout Learners in Public Sector Schools of District Lahore
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62997/psi.2025b-42062Keywords:
Dropout Learners, Open Educational Resources, Public Sector Schools, Reintegrating StrategiesAbstract
The ever-increasing dropout rate among students in the public sector schools across Lahore is passing an ordinary phase of problems. Students from diverse socioeconomic statuses, poverty, and labor disengage from formal schooling due to the flexible, approachable, and appropriate learning opportunities. In this regard, the integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) presents a well-built solution to sustain reenrolled students in educational institutions. The current research is grounded in the rationale of OER, bridging the gap for reintegrating dropout learners by ensuring flexible pathways are used to foster academic continuity in public sector schools of Lahore. The current quantitative research leading to the positivist paradigm was conducted on a sample of 129 students randomly selected from the 10 public sector schools of district Lahore. After ensuring content validity and Cronbach’s alpha reliability, a self-constructed questionnaire was administered among dropout learners. Data on dropout learners was obtained from schools after ensuring ethical considerations. The findings revealed that understanding through OER was the highest, and students’ motivation and engagement were the lowest factor; a significant and strong correlation existed between overall OER resources and dropout learners. Moreover, a strong correlation exists between understanding through OER, access to OER and technology, and dropout learners, whereas moderate correlations existed between teachers’ support and guidance, family and peer support, students’ interest and effort, students’ motivation and engagement, and perceived learning through OER and dropout learners. It is recommended that future researchers should explore the long-term effect of OER reintegrating dropout learners across other districts of Punjab.
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