Causes of Drop out

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 drop out, 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. 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, poverty6 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. Third, 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 drop out (Colclough, et al. 2000). These are seen as supply side causes of drop out, mainly driven at the school level.

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