ABOUT 20 400 pupils in the country dropped out of primary
school in 2018, some after being married off, statistics by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) have shown.
The Government has since put in place measures to ensure
every child has access to education.
Reasons for dropping out vary but the most dominant are
financial constraints and absconding, which accounted for 15 919 drop outs.
“Reasons for dropping out include absconding, death, expulsion, illness,
marriage, pregnancy and financial constraints. A total of 9 200 pupils
absconded school under unclear circumstances and 6 717 dropped out due to
financial challenges,” read the report.
“About 1 154 pupils died during the same year and 2 164
dropped out due to other reasons which were not specified during data
capturing. A total of 112 students were expelled while 180 dropped out of
school due to early and unintended pregnancy and an additional 231 dropped
after they were married off.”
According to Unesco, 624 primary school pupils dropped out
of school due to illness.
“According to the statistics, about half the boys who dropped
out had just absconded from school compared to girls. Of the total figure of
pupils who dropped out of primary school in 2018, boys accounted for 11 070,”
read the report.
In an interview, former Primary and Secondary Education
Minister Professor Paul Mavima said Government was already working towards
addressing the challenge. “First, I believe some pupils end up dropping out
because of the ignorance of their parents and guardians. According to
Government policy, no child should be excluded from school due to non-payment
of school fees and we have since reinforced that in the new Education Amendment
Bill,” said Prof Mavima.
He reminded members of the public that the Government runs
the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) which is still operational to help
the less privileged.
“It’s the duty of every parent and guardian to ensure that
less privileged children have access to free basic education. School heads are
also obligated to ensure that no child is sent home for non-payment of fees as
we have programmes like BEAM to cater for those with challenges,” the Minister
said.
According to Prof Mavima, the countrywide school feeding
programme was rolled out so that children do not drop out due to hunger or
poverty challenges.
“The Government has since provided resources to cater for
the protein component of the feeding scheme which includes beans, soya chunks
and cooking oil. Yes, we were having challenges with the programme due to grain
shortages but it is improving and we are happy that some schools are sourcing
the grain through various partnerships,” he said.
Prof Mavima urged schools to use their resources to source
grain while Government works on providing resources so that pupils have enough
food during lessons.
He said schools that afford to roll out the feeding
programme without assistance from the Government should go ahead so that the
number of drop outs is reduced.
“Besides these programmes, we recently launched a programme
meant to end early and unintended pregnancies as these account for a lot of
drop outs in both primary and secondary schools. Together with our partners we
are confident that when these projects are fully implemented, the number of
drop outs will go down,” said Prof Mavima. Chronicle
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