What Limits the Access of Education for Out of School Children? Implications for Teacher Education

Abstract

Investigation of reasons for being out of school and how to overcome the number of out of school children by identifying some implications for teacher education is the focus of this study. Thematic analysis was used to explore these reasons by using semi structured interviews of 216 children. Views from social media (Face book) were also collected to get the clear picture of out of school children’s problems. The analysis was conducted with the help of N Vivo 11 plus software. Data highlighted many reasons of being out of school using codes, themes and subthemes. These reasons were unfriendly schools, poverty, illiteracy, gender, disability, and jobless fathers’, fear of sexual harassment, domestic conflicts, high inflation rate and family size. As some of the reasons such as gender bias, unfriendly schools, disability have direct implications for teacher education. Efforts, therefore, were made to identify the required changes in the teacher education. A strategic plan to overcome these barriers was defined at the end for teacher education programs.