Schools should, alongside education, be preparing youth for active participation in the society, and helping them develop critical thinking and their personality, as well as emancipate them, through the process of education. Examining youth's attitudes toward education is crucial for determining whether schools are serving their purpose, and to which degree, so that school could adjust to the needs of its students, on the basis of that relationship. It is also important to examine the reasons why the students do not intend to continue their education so that the educational system can take measures to encourage young people to continue their education at tertiary level. The subjects involved in this study are all students in their final years of secondary school in the city of Sinj, and for the purpose of the study was used a questionnaire consisting of three parts. The first part examined the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, the second part examined their attitudes toward the role of school in their preparation for life, and the third part examined their intent to continue their education, their attitudes about people who affected their intent to continue education or not, and the reasons for which they do not intend to continue education at the tertiary level. The results have shown that the participants give great importance to school's role in their preparation for life and that there is a statistically significant difference in their attitudes with regard to gender and type of school they are attending. The results have also shown that more than half of the participants intend to continue their education and that this decision was influenced by their family, colleagues and teachers. Those that do not want to continue education said that they want to start earning and working as soon as possible and that they do not need further education to work in their profession. The role of the school should be to prepare students for their future life and to provide them with optimal conditions in which they can discover and achieve their full potential and acquire knowledge and competencies, so that they could contribute to the development of the society in the best possible way.