2.2 The literature related
to causes of Dropout
It is clear that the number of children enrolled in school has
increased over time.
Nevertheless, a significant proportion of children who start
primary school are not completing this cycle.
There are many factors associated with this dropout, some of
which belong to the individual, such as poor health or malnutrition and
motivation. Others emerge from children's household situations such as child
labour and poverty.
2.2.1 School level factors
School level factors also play a role in increasing pressures
to drop out such as teacher's absenteeism, school location and poor quality
educational provision. The system of educational provision at the community
level generates conditions that can ultimately impact on the likelihood of
children to drop out from school. Therefore, both demand and supply driven
factors, are embedded in cultural and contextual realities, which make each
circumstance different. Nevertheless, it is possible to make general points
about the causes of drop out.
First, there is not one single cause of drop out. Drop out is
often a process rather than the result of one single event, and therefore has
more than one proximate cause (Hunt, 2008).
Second, distance to schools, poor quality of education,
inadequate facilities, overcrowded classrooms, inappropriate language of
instruction, teacher absenteeism and, in the case of girls school safety, are
common causes for school dropout (Colclough, et al. 2000).
These are seen as supply side causes of drop out, mainly
driven at the school level.
Within gendered social practices, school safety seems to be an
important factor for retaining girls at school, whereas availability of income
generating opportunities and flexible seasonal schooling could promote school
retention for boys (Colclough et al., 2000; Leach et al., 2003). Additional
factors affecting motivations and decision-making relating to educational
access are also keys to understanding of dropping out.
Perceptions of how education will influence lifestyle and
career possibilities/probabilities, life chances in the labor market are shown
to be factors in both early withdrawal and sustained access in different
contexts. The availability of options to access secondary school and beyond,
shape decision-making of parents regarding the continuation of children in
primary level.
Perceived quality of education and the ability of children to
make progress through the schooling system can affect the priority placed on
schooling within the household. It is also evident that children whose parents
have received some sort of schooling are more likely themselves to attend
school for longer. In particular, a mother's education level often influences
length of access for girls. For example in rural Pakistan, girls whose mothers
have some sort of formal schooling are less likely to drop out from school
(Lloyd, Mete and Grant, 2009).
2.2.2 Household (family) level
factors
Poverty also interacts with other points of social
disadvantage, with the interaction of factors putting further pressure on
vulnerable and marginalized children to drop out (Hunt, 2008:52).
In addition, poverty appears to influence the demand for
schooling, not only because it affects the inability of households to pay
school fees and other costs associated with education, but also because it is
associated with a high opportunity cost of schooling for children. As children
grow older, the opportunity cost of education is even larger, hence increasing
the pressure for children to work and earn income for the household as opposed
to spending time in education.
For example, orphans, migrants, lower caste/scheduled tribe
children and children from minority language groups in many, but not all,
contexts have disrupted access, and are more prone to drop out.
For example, around 15 to 20 percent of Roma children in
Bulgaria and 30 percent in Romania do not continue in school post Grade 4 in
primary school (UNESCO, 2010). Poor indigenous girls in Guatemala are far more
likely to drop out than non-poor, non-indigenous girls (UNESCO, 2010). Gendered
social practices within households, communities and schools, influence
differing patterns of access for girls and boys. In most contexts girls have
less access and are more prone to dropping out, but increasingly, often in poor
and urban environments, the pressure seems to be on boys to withdraw.
The study by Holmes (2003) found out that overall; females
receive less education than males, and they tend to dropout, or are withdrawn
earlier for both economic and social-cultural reasons. The study furthers
argues that the opportunity cost of sending female children to school in rural
areas, where girls are married quite early, is high because benefits of their
schooling will not accrue to their parental household. Similarly Kasente,
(2004), Kakuru, (2003) explain how early marriages influence children's
dropping out of school especially as regards the girl child as it is perceived
by parents that marrying off the girl child is an escape route from poverty.
Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment (UPPAP, 2000) indicates that marrying
off girls would benefit her family in terms of attaining bride price.
Odaga and Heneveld (1995), further note that parents worry
about wasting money on the education of girls because there are most likely to
get pregnant or married before completing their schooling and that once
married, girls become part of another family and the parental investment in
them is lost this therefore perpetuates parents discouraging the girl child
from continuing with school.
Findings with regard to the impact of parent's education on
schooling of children show that the children of more educated parents are more
likely to be enrolled and more likely to progress further through school.
Holmes, (2003) shows that this impact differs by gender, the education of the
father increases the expected level of school retention of boys, and that of
the mother's enhances the educational attainment of girls. Similarly other
studies by Behrman et al. (1999) and Swada and Lokshin (2001) reported a
consistently positive and significant coefficient of father's and mother's
education at all levels of education except at secondary school level.
United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF, 1999); MOES,
(1995); Government of Uganda (GOU, 1999) Horn (1992); all demonstrate that
Parental decisions do affect children retention. Students whose parents monitor
and regulate their activities, provide emotional support, encourage independent
decision making and are generally more involved in their schooling are less
likely to drop out of school (Astone and McLanalan, 1991; Rumberge et al.,
1990; Rumber 1995; Odaga and Heneveld, 1995; and Russel, 2001).
Taking into account of the gender dimension of dropouts,
UNICEF, (2005) notes that girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys
and that pupils whose mother's have not attained any level of education will
most likely dropout of school.
Russel, (2001); Bickel and Pagaiannis, (1988); Clark, (1992);
and Rumberger, (1983) demonstrate that communities can influence dropout rates
by providing employment opportunities during school.
While some researchers have found out that work can contribute
to a student dropping out, others have showed that student employment begins to
correlate with dropping out when the student regularly works over 14 hours per
week (Mann 1986, 1989). Other research place the critical level for employment
higher, at 20 hours per week (Winters 1986), with the likelihood of dropping
out increasing with the number of hours worked.
In an account for the gender disparity in primary school
dropout, Nyanzi (2001) put forward that marriage, pregnancy and sickness are
major causes of drop out among girl children while amongst the boys, they
include; jobs, lack of interest dismissal and fees.
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