Primary School Dropout Research Articles

A fair chance for acquiring literacy skills? Suggestions for primary school dropouts in rural Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT This study examines how school-level and student-level factors influence primary school dropout in Burkina Faso. School-level factors were found to have a moderate effect in grade three and a small effect in grade five, while student performance on end-of-term class tests significantly affected students’ decisions to drop out in both grades. Other factors were found to have limited or no effects. A researcher-designed test showed that many children dropped out before acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills. These findings seemed to suggest that basic skill acquisition was not a matter of concern among students and their parents.

The portrait of Uganda’s informal sector: What main obstacles do the sector face?

In this paper, using primary data collected from business owners, we examine the nature and obstacles in the informal sector of Uganda. We find that education level matters in the selection of enterprises. The bulk of businesses, like eating kiosks, fish selling, shoe shining among others that require no specialized skill to operate were mainly run by primary school dropouts and those with no formal level of education. Furthermore, we find evidence of a strong entrepreneurial spirit among secondary school dropouts than at any other education level. Across all businesses surveyed, secondary school dropouts run a high number of informal enterprises. Evidence suggests that their motivation is driven by two key factors, namely, wanting to take advantage of an existing business opportunity and failure to find employment in the formal sector. The empirical results show that access to finance, crime, theft and disorder, electricity, water, taxes, burdensome inspections, and informal gifts are robust and significant obstacles to the operations of the informal sector in Uganda. Policies should focus on a regulatory framework that supports the sector to create secure livelihoods and generate employment opportunities for the unemployed rather than viewing the sector as a source of “illegality.” Improving access to finance, providing regular power and water supply, and improving the tax regime would mitigate the obstacles faced by informal businesses leading to possible formalization. Informal sector businesses should not be perceived as “illegal entities” but rather complementary effort by an increasingly enterprising population in the country.

The Status and Contributing Factors for Students’ Dropout in Primary Schools of Pastoralist Areas of Sewena Woreda, Bale Zone, Oromia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status and contributing factors for students’ dropout in primary schools of pastoralist areas of Sewena Woreda, Bale Zone, Oromia. Pragmatism as a philosophical assumption was employed. The mixed research method more specifically concurrent triangulation design was used. Both probability and none probability sampling techniques were employed.13 primary schools were randomly selected specifically by using lottery method. 37 (30%) primary school teachers, and 36(30%) dropout returnee students were selected by proportionated simple random sampling technique and Kebele Education Training Board (KETB) members two from each primary schools were purposively selected for the study. 13 primary school principals, ten CRC supervisors and six educational experts were chosen using availability sampling technique. Questionnaires were distributed for 102(teachers, principals, Cluster resource Center (CRC) Supervisors, educational experts and dropouts’ returee students). Interviews were also conduct with 26 purposively selected KETB members. Questionnaires, interview, and document analysis were used as data collection tools; thereby validity and reliability were used to test the quality of instruments. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were employed. Descriptive statistics like frequency distribution, percentage, mean and standard deviation; inferential statistics ANOVA were used. The research findings concluded that there were six major factors contributing for students’ dropout in the target area. These are social factors, economic factors; school related factors; student related factors; climatic factors and political factors were identified as major and significant dropout factors.The study recommended with emphasis that the government as well as educational stakeholders should design the ways of improving the lives of pastoralists in contacting with different valuable NGOs. In addition, the Government should decide the exact and specific regional boundaries so as to solve the border conflict that brought community migration and displacement being the cause of students’ dropout in both Somalia Regional State and Oromia Regional State. Keywords: Factors, Dropout, Pastoralists, Primary School, Status, DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-34-07 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

The Status and Contributing Factors for Students’ Dropout in Primary Schools of Pastoralist Areas of Sewena Woreda, Bale Zone, Oromia

The Status and Contributing Factors for Students’ Dropout in Primary Schools of Pastoralist Areas of Sewena Woreda, Bale Zone, Oromia

Lusting, learning and lasting in school: sexual debut, school performance and dropout among adolescents in primary schools in Karonga district, northern Malawi.

Age at sexual debut is known to have implications for future sexual behaviours and health outcomes, including HIV infection, early pregnancy and maternal mortality, but may also influence educational outcomes. Longitudinal data on schooling and sexual behaviour from a demographic surveillance site in Karonga district, northern Malawi, were analysed for 3153 respondents between the ages of 12 and 25 years to examine the association between sexual debut and primary school dropout, and the role of prior school performance. Time to dropout was modelled using the Fine and Gray survival model to account for the competing event of primary school completion. To deal with the time-varying nature of age at sexual debut and school performance, models were fitted using landmark analyses. Sexual debut was found to be associated with a five-fold increase in rate of subsequent dropout for girls and a two-fold increase in dropout rate for boys (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] of 5.27, CI 4.22-6.57, and 2.19, CI 1.77-2.7, respectively). For girls who were sexually active by age 16, only 16% ultimately completed primary schooling, compared with 70% aged 18 or older at sexual debut. Prior to sexual debut, girls had primary completion levels similar to those of boys. The association between sexual debut and school dropout could not be explained by prior poor school performance: the effect of sexual debut on dropout was as strong among those who were not behind in school as among those who were overage for their school grade. Girls who were sexually active were more likely to repeat a grade, with no effect being seen for boys. Pathways to dropout are complex and may differ for boys and girls. Interventions are needed to improve school progression so children complete primary school before sexual debut, and to improve sex education and contraception provision.

Gender and primary school dropout in Sudan: Girls’ education and retention in Red Sea State

Within the Sudanese context, education retention and completion are major challenges that have not been seriously and sufficiently addressed. In order to understand in more depth how and why children drop out of primary school in Sudan, six empirical studies were planned as part of an EU-funded national programme focused on primary education and retention in the five states with the lowest basic education completion rates: Blue Nile, Gedaref, Kassala, South Kordofan, and Red Sea. This article discusses the second study (looking at the factors affecting the education and retention of girls in Red Sea State) with the aim of providing a deeper and more comprehensive understanding and analysis of the challenges that girls, in particular, face in accessing schooling, staying in school, and completing the primary cycle (grades 1–8). Specifically, the article provides insights into the processes of dropout and indicators of risk factors that one can use to predict dropout for girls.

Fractality of global primary school dropout rates

The significant number of dropouts of children from their primary education has directly contributed to a country’s high percentage of illiteracy and the huge wastage of government funds. The present study looks into the prevalent causative factors of the dropout rates in the primary school education among nations. The method of fractal analysis helped probe deeper the exceptional cases that are still prevalent in some countries all over the world which serve as drivers of dropout rates in the primary level of education. Out of the 152 countries included in this study, at least seven of them cause its non-fractality. These countries that cause non-fractality indicate common and exceptional contributing factors in the primary education dropout rate phenomenon in the world. The use of fractal dimensions in investigating global primary school dropout rates showed that aside from the perennial factors that cause high dropout rates in the primary education level among countries i.e. economic, other prevalent causative factors come into play such as educational system, social status and social climate which nations all over the world must address if they are indeed serious to their commitment to the MDG on education. This fractality has showed that a significant number of dropout rates of children from their primary education have directly contributed to a country’s high percentage of illiteracy and the huge wastage of government funds.

Measuring Gender Equality in Education: Lessons from Trends in 43 Countries

Measuring Gender Equality in Education: Lessons from Trends in 43 Countries

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PARENTAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON PUPILS' KCPE PERFORMANCE IN MWEA-EAST DISTRICT, KIRINYAGA COUNTY, KENYA

The purpose of this study was to investigate parental socio-economic contribution and its implications on pupils’ Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) performance in primary schools in Murinduko Zone, Mwea-East District. The objectives of the study included: to find out the extent to which the parents' level of income affects pupils performance, to analyze the effects of parents' level of education on pupils' KCPE performance in Murinduko zone, to investigate the manner in which the parents' political involvement affects pupils' KCPE performance in Murinduko Zone. The study employed descriptive research design while stratified random sampling was used to collect data. The data collection instruments were questionnaires, interview schedules and observations. The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using SPSS statistical package. The study was modeled by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of need theory. The study established that most of the learners hailed from poor backgrounds and hence affected the KCPE performance. Most of the parents had attained only the primary level of education and were primary school drop-outs. Political wrangles between parents and the administration also affected the performance of pupils. Child labour is very prevalent and had a very great influence in the KCPE performance where children are exposed to it in order to subsidize family income. The main recommendations include; the government should continue offering Free Primary Education (FPE) and increase funding for building facilities like computer laboratories and libraries, public private partnership should be encouraged to increase resources in the primary education sector, the government should also consider giving stipends to pupils in hard to reach areas such as those in slums and marginalized zones this area so as to reduce drop-out rates and boost participation rates, need to enact and enforce legislation so as to curb child labour. Article visualizations:

The Political Economy of Primary Education: Lessons from Rwanda

Summary When it comes to the state’s ability to deliver services to the poor, politics matter. This paper applies a political settlements framework to examine primary education quality in Rwanda. Formal education features prominently into the post-genocide government’s social and economic development project. Rwanda’s political elite have staked their claim in the development of the country, one which is relatively free from rent-seeking. But education quality remains surprisingly low. Enrollment has surged, but primary school dropout and repetition are high. Most children have not acquired age-appropriate literacy or numeracy skills. We sought to investigate why the education sector hasn’t done better in terms of improving quality than we might have expected. This paper draws from interviews and literature review to investigate how policy development and implementation shape the provision of quality education. Our study finds that education priorities were as much political as they were developmental. A lack of real opposition or pushback enabled the government to introduce profoundly transformative educational policies, such as switching the language of instruction from French to English. Often these decisions occurred outside the sector’s strategic planning processes. Performance-based incentives tended to focus on aspects of quality that are measurable, such as the construction of classrooms, rather than improving the capacity of the teaching workforce. We did not find evidence of an effective, sustained strategy to improve education quality. It is thus debatable to what extent Rwanda’s approach can be considered as inclusive development when quality for most children remains so low. This study makes an empirical contribution through evaluating how the education sector has been situated within Rwanda’s broader political settlement, what kinds of outcomes it has led to, and why. It also makes a theoretical contribution by understanding the nature of the relationship between the national political settlement and the education sector.

Primary and Secondary Education in Morocco: From Access to School into Generalization to Dropout

This article provides an overview of school wastage, namely repetition and dropout in primary and secondary schools in Morocco. It describes how this phenomenon has progressed since school was implemented in the 1960s. It shows that the fundamental principles of the education system established in the aftermath of Morocco’s independence in 1956 did not succeed in providing a clear, stable education program. The article concludes that despite the tremendous efforts made in enrollment, school wastage persists, and the educational system is still trapped in the idealistic principles of the 1960s, causing education to flounder in the dramatic triangle of schooling, generalization, and dropout.

Cultural and School Related Causes of Primary School Dropout among Girls In District Jaffarabad

The aim of the study was to find out the causes of primary school dropout among girls in district Jaffar abad. The data was amassed through the aid of the close ended questionnaires specially designed for teachers, dropped out girls, and their parents. A sample of 150People was chosen by using stratified random sampling technique. The amassed data was tabulated and analyse by using simple percentage method. The study explored the causes of school dropout by documenting the opinions of the teachers, dropped out student and their parents. The respondents displayed disparate opinions concerning girls’ dropout at primary level. They contemplated that area gives less importance to girls’ education. Gender disparity, linguistic related problems, custom of early marriage, cultural and religious beliefs influence of tribal leadership, untrained teachers and corporal punishment were also reported as major causes of school dropout. The findings of the study will be helpful for the government, parents and teachers to take measures in order to control high dropout rate and increase enrolment rate at primary level of schooling.

Grade Repetition and Primary School Dropout in Uganda

Research on education in low-income countries rarely focuses on grade repetition. When addressed, repetition is typically presented along with early school dropout as the “wasting” of educational resources. Simplifying grade repetition in this way often fails to recognize significant methodological concerns and also overlooks the unique insight that can be gained by focusing on repetition. In this article, Sarah Kabay uses mixed methods research to investigate repetition and its association with later school dropout in Ugandan primary schools. In a representative sample of pupils from 136 schools, Kabay finds that in spite of a policy of automatic promotion meant to limit repetition, 88 percent of pupils had repeated a grade and 11 percent had repeated three or more times. Kabay identifies age as a confounding variable for the association between repetition and dropout, and argues that attention should be drawn to the age of entry into schooling and language policy.

Examining Factors Affecting the Growth of Horticulture Sector in Kenya (Case Study of Rarieda District a long Lake Victoria)

This study based its findings on population of 681 farmers. The researcher opted for 10% of accessible population to facilitate a concise sample size which was belief to be more accurate for collecting the required information. Thus, 68 farmers of the accessible respondents were drawn to represents the entire population. The instrument used to collect data was questionnaires which were self administered. Research findings were; majority of the respondents were age 45 and above. Secondly, majority were form four levers and primary school dropout, this was attributed by lack fee to proceed to next level of education. Thirdly, majority of respondents strongly agreed that lack of credited facilities, initial capital to enable farmers make use of unutilized land, lack of ready market and lack of basic farming knowledge hindered horticultural growth in Kenya. On the other hand, majority of respondents strongly disagreed that perception and non lucrativeness affect horticulture growth. Recommendations made were Government should offer incentives to youth and women to encourage them to practice horticultural farming so that agriculture should not be left in the control of the older and aging farmers. Government and Non-Governmental Organization should offer incentives programme e.g. offering capital and credits facilities so that farmers can invest in agriculture and buy modern farming technology. To solve the problem of lack of ready market, both national and county governments should ensure that all farmers can access information of the market in foreign country and local. The country government should established processing plant to deal with excess surplus of farm products and do value addition of those products. Lastly, both governments should introduce a policy where land should not lie idle especial in areas where horticultural can be practised and provide initial capital for farmers so that they invest and start farming on those idle lands.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DROP-OUTS AND STAY-INS IN RELATION TO CASTE, OCCUPATION AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND OF THEIR PARENTS

The major thrust of this paper was to study the primary school drop-outs and stay-ins in regard to caste, occupation and educational background of their parents. The Present study was carried-out on the sample of 200 students comprising of 100 drop-outs and 100 stay-ins selected through stratified random sampling method from 80 primary schools of Poonch district. In order to measure the caste, occupation and educational background of drop-outs and stay-ins a standardized Socio-Economic status scale (SES) was used to collect the required information. The collected data was tabulated by using percentage method. The study revealed that majority of students who dropped-out from the schools before completing their elementary education belonged to low caste, occupation and educational background as compared to their stay-ins counterpart. In the end of this paper, some suggestive measures have been put forward by the authors. Article visualizations:

“I failed, no matter how hard I tried”: A mixed-methods study of the role of achievement in primary school dropout in rural Kenya

Initial access to school is nearly universal in Kenya, but many children who enroll drop out before completing primary school. In this mixed-methods study, we use quantitative data from a randomized control trial involving 2666 upper primary-grade students, as well as qualitative data from interviews with 41 schoolchildren, dropouts, and parents, to examine dropout. Poorer baseline performance on literacy and numeracy assessments predicted a higher risk of dropout. Interviews revealed that children are the primary decision-makers rather than parents. Together, these findings suggest that school quality interventions may be an effective means of reducing primary school dropout in this region.

A comparative study of health, nutritional status, and dietary pattern of primary school going and dropout slum children in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Background: Health affects not only current well being and future outcomes at individual and society level but also directly reflect the efficiency of health care system and the influence of surrounding environment. This is especially nutritional status of primary school age children which influence their health, dietary habit, cognition and educational achievement.Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to find and compare primary school going and dropout slum children (6-12 years) regarding their health, nutritional status and dietary pattern in four selected slums in Dhaka city, Bangladesh.Materials and Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 100 children. Nutritional status was measured by collecting anthropometric data (height and weight) using standard techniques and analyzed according to WHO guidelinesResult: Based on WHO standard mean of Body Mass Index (BMI), the prevalence of underweight was higher among school dropout group (76%) than school going group (54%). A statistically significant difference between two groups were found regarding prevalence of stunting (P-value=0.03) and their daily dietary habits, such as, pulses (P-value=0.007), rice, fruits, milk, and meat (P-value=0.00) and fish (P-value=0.002). This study also found that parent’s education, family size, mother’s occupation, and economic status of family have an important impact on children’s education and their nutritional status.Conclusion: Low education levels are linked to poor health and low quality dietary pattern. Lower socioeconomic condition and poor knowledge of parent’s about child education and nutritional diet makes this situation more worse.Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.7(4) 2016 59-63

An Analysis of Primary School Dropout Patterns in Honduras

ABSTRACTThis study hypothesized that repeating a grade is one reason why Honduran primary students drop out of school but not the main reason. Using longitudinal data, we analyzed student enrollment patterns up until students left school. The results revealed that many students dropped out suddenly without having previously repeated a grade, although many dropouts had also repeated a grade at some point, and repeating a grade experience was not among the most frequently appearing dropout patterns in any of the completed grades. The findings indicated that low expectations of education and the need to enter the labor market were causes of immediate dropout.

Return to general education and vocational education & training in Indian context

Purpose – Measurement of returns to vocational education has always remained a matter of controversy (Psacharopoulos, 1994; Bennell and Segerstrom, 1998; Ziderman, 1997). Based upon the return evidence many World Bank projects were scrapped (Middleton and Ziderman, 1997, Bennell and Segerstrom, 1998). However, there is again a growing interest for Vocational Education in different countries as well as in international body like UNESCO (Debroy, 2009; King, 2009; McGrath, 2012). Unfortunately there is little justification for this growth from the returns to Vocational Education literature. India is one among the countries where fervent around vocational education and training (henceforth VET) is quite discernible at present. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Standard Minerian, extended Mincerian and Heckman two-stage methods are used to measure returns to VET vis-à-vis returns to general education in Indian context while taking care of selection bias problem. It is measured at different levels of education since the characteristics of VET changes significantly at different levels of education. This work also considers different classifications of VET (Formal, Hereditary, On the Job). National Sample Survey (NSS) data which recently has included data on VET is used for this measurement. Findings – It shows that the returns to formal VET and On the Job training (OJT) are quite high in the primary level. There is a gradual decline in these returns when compared with general education at higher levels, namely, secondary and tertiary level. At tertiary level effect of formal VET or OJT on income becomes almost insignificant. On the other hand, hereditary training and other category of VET have significantly negative impact and insignificant impact on income, respectively. Research limitations/implications – This work suggests that the investment in VET in present context is justified however there is a requirement to focus on specific area within the VET for this investment. Investment in higher level of formal VET as well as in the OJT set up can provide better return to the individuals. However, NSS data does not provide income data for the self-employed persons. Hence, self-employed category remains outside the purview of this study. Practical implications – In general, formal VET and OJT are profitable for individual in wage employment. However, this profitability declines when the effect of the training is measured at a higher level of general education. Formal vocational training/OJT for the primary and secondary school dropouts are clearly profitable. However, OTJ seems to be providing a return similar to what is provided by formal training. A poor performance of formal VET indicates an institutional gap and reflects present cry from industry for “quality” manpower. Originality/value – To author’s knowledge there is no study on return evidence from various types of VET in Indian context. This study is a deviance from the existing literature on VET in following ways. First, this study suggests that investment in VET can be profitable. Second, many earlier works missed out to consider different types of VET and compare them with general education at different levels. Putting all types of VET into one basket and then analyzing returns has the risk to misleading the policies. Different VETs have completely different dynamics and hence it is required to treat them separately.

Who drops out from primary schools in China? Evidence from minority-concentrated rural areas

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure universal access to primary education by 2015. However, primary school dropout remains a challenge in many developing countries. While official statistics in China report aggregated primary school dropout of only 0.2 %, almost no independent, survey-based studies have sought to verify these dropout rates in rural areas. The primary objective of our study is to document the dropout rate in primary schools in rural China and compare the dropout rate of ethnic minorities and Han students. Using a first-hand dataset of 14,761 primary students in northwest China, we demonstrate that the annual dropout rate in poor rural areas is 2.5 %, suggesting a cumulative dropout of 8.2 %. Importantly, Hui and Salar minority students drop out at rates that are significantly higher than the official rates. Most noteworthy, 23 % of Hui girls and 22 % of Salar girls are dropping out by the end of grade 6. Our findings call for more attention to China’s primary school dropout issue—especially in minority areas. Policymakers should begin to examine new ways to increase the chances for minority students to succeed in the educational system.