Theory On Primary School Dropouts Developing World

THEORY ON PRIMARY SCHOOL DROPOUTS Malawi has a free primary school education system which was implemented in 1994.
Upon implementation, primary school enrollment increased by 68% which showed the nations enthusiasm concerning education. In the following years to date, the education system has seen a 30% percent dropout rate of all enrolled pupils. This essay will build a theory explaining primary school drop outs. It will look at three major variables that are; barriers to education, parents commitment to education and the childs interest in education. It will examine how these variables are affected by social-economic, cultural, gender and structural factors and how these factors interplay to bring about the likely outcome of pupils not finishing the education cycle. The theory will be based on information researched in Malawi. However, the information used ranges from 1994 to date, and as such, any earlier developments will not be included.
Barriers to education include all factors that make access to and delivery of education problematic. It applies to all participants of the education process including teachers, pupils and guardians. In a study done by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (1998) it was found that poverty was a major cause of children dropping out of school with children from poor families showing higher dropout and repetition rates than children from the highest income levels (world bank 1996) . This is because the household is by no means exempt from education expenditure. Costs such as education materials and meals at school become expensive for some parents willing to educate their child to incur. In low income families, lack of adequate income leads to parents having to choose between educating a boy or a girl and in most cases boys are favored. Therefore leading to limited opportunities for girls. These gender based decisions are enforced by culture and the education attainment level of parents (Kadzamira and Chibwana 2000). Literate parents are more likely to send their daughters to school and less likely to let them dropout. Culture acts as a barrier to the proper performance of girls and boys alike. Initiation ceremonies which run concurrently with the school calendar lead to absenteeism for months which results in low grades, repetition and eventually dropping out. Another barrier is the effect of diseases such as HIV/Aids. These lead to absentee teachers and children alike due to illness or caring for their relatives (Universal Primary Education and Poverty Reduction 2004).The death of Teachers leaves a vacuum in an already understaffed
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education system bringing the quality of education even lower. The existence and possible interplay of the above factors make education attainment difficult which leads to dropping out, that is more barriers lead to high dropout rates.
Most of the factors mentioned above also affect the second variable which is parents level of commitment towards their childs Education. This includes the attitudes that parents have toward education, the potential benefits that educating a child will bring to them and the applicability of education to their setting. A high commitment to their childs schooling means the lower the likely hood of their child dropping out. According to a study by the ministry of education, sports and culture (1998) lack of commitment by parents ranked first where poverty was not a major cause of dropping out. This low education awareness is due to the high illiteracy rate, lack of role models within their communities as well as civil education .Therefore parents do not know the importance of education. This is enforced by the irrelevance of the curriculum. Parents for example want their children to be trained in carpentry, basic mechanics and business skills which they can use if they do not make it to higher education. Furthermore, the pyramid structure of the education system and its low quality reinforces negative attitudes towards education as only a handful of students make it to secondary and tertiary education. Even these are not guaranteed secure employment. As a result, children are socialized into income generating activities whose benefits are directly seen such as domestic labor, cattle herding, farming and fishing. These activities overlap with school leading to failure, repetition and dropping out. Low commitment to school explains why parents are more willing to invest in initiation ceremonies that run for up to two months as opposed to their childs education. These ceremonies are seen to have a higher return especially for girls who are prepared for marriage at as young as 8 years old .This leads to increased sexual awareness, early pregnancies and marriages and ultimately dropping out of school. Such results make educating boys better investments as boys have a higher propensity to persist in school. This also explains why Malawi has a higher dropout rate of boys than girls. That is to say parents yield more commitment to boys education than girls.
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This brings us to our final variable which is the childs interest in school. It refers to all factors that affect the motivation and attitudes of the child towards school. It is affected by the interplay of the aforementioned variables. Barriers to education and the parents level of commitment are reflected in the childs interest in school which determines whether that child stays in school or not. For instance, given long distances to school, some students would drop out of school while as others would not, showing that their levels of interest are different. Another factor that increases loss of interest includes poor quality education, a product of the inefficiency of the free primary education policy. This policy resulted in overpopulated classrooms with inadequate teachers. According to Blakemore and Cooksey (1981:63) high dropout rates also reflect certain school characteristics such as poor teaching and Supervision. This low quality Education which also leads to repetition can cause pupils being over age which may discourage their continuing with school hence dropping out. An additional factor is the demand for child labour. This is a result of weak child protection laws. As long as there is demand for their labour, children will dedicate their time doing piece work. In a study by Makawa J et al one of the reasons given by students for non attendance and dropping out was because they were doing piecework ganyu. On health
matters, the effects of HIV/Aids and other illnesses are that pupils will be negatively affected as they can lose interest in school due to problems at home or because frequently absent teachers are demotivating. It is clear to see that in areas where there are a lot of factors that reduce a childs interest in school, the result is dropping out.
There is no immediate factor variable that leads to children not finishing the education cycle but instead it is the combination of factors that come into play. Taking this into consideration, a theory that allows the vast amount of factors that lead to primary school dropouts has to be developed. At the same time it should allow generalization in explaining this outcome. I believe incorporating the three variables; Barriers to education, level of commitment by parents and level of childs interest in school tackles this effectively. To demonstrate the predictive ability of this theory, consider an increase in the level of commitment of parents through education awareness programs on benefits of educating the girl child. A reduction of barriers to education through incorporating equal opportunities to both sexes by eliminating gender barriers. An increase in the childs interest through more interesting, participatory lessons. The likely outcome of these
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combined will be a reduction in girls dropping out of primary school. Thus the theory offers explanation to this outcome as well as predictability.
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Theory On Primary School Dropouts Developing World

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THEORY ON PRIMARY SCHOOL DROPOUTS Malawi has a free primary school education system which was implemented in 1994.

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