School dropouts on the increase

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Thursday May 2, 2013 00:00

 Generally across all standards more males, dropped out of school than females.  In 2012, 65.1 percent of the total primary school dropouts were males. The report titled, 'Primary Education Statistics 2012' observed that over the past three years most pupils dropped out of school in Standard One; notably, in 2012, where 21.6 percent of the dropouts were Standard One pupils.  Moreover, of those who dropped out of school in Standard One, boys had dominated.

Chobe region registered the highest number of such cases, accounting for 40 percent, followed by Kgatleng with 28.6 percent, Kweneng with 25.8 percent and Gantsi with 23.3 percent.Reasons advanced for the dropouts include distance from school and parents withdrawing children from school because they feel they are not yet ready for  school.

The report further states that regions with the highest overall dropout rate were- Central region at 30.7 percent, followed by Kweneng at 15.7percent, then South at 14.1 percent and Gantsi 14.0 percent, respectively.'It should however, be noted that Gantsi region had a fairly low enrolment rate of 2.2 percent while the dropout rate is high,' it says.

In the wake of these dropouts, the report indicates that 2012 had the highest enrolment figures for both males and females.  'There has been an increase of 1.3 percent on enrolment between 2011 and 2012 from 332,971 to 337,206,' reads the report. Generally, a slightly higher upward trend in the number of males enrolled as opposed to their female counterparts was recorded in the year under review.  However, the report states that there has been a general increase in female enrolment over the period.

'The total enrolment in all primary schools stood at 337,206 in 2012. Government schools enrolled 93.9 percent of the pupils while only 6.1 percent were enrolled in private schools,' according to the report. Central region enrolled most pupils were accounting for 34.3 percent followed by Kweneng region with 14.4 percent and South region with 12.7 percent. Although South region had more schools than Kweneng region more pupils were, however, enrolled in Kweneng than in the South region.

The researchers explain that this could be due to various reasons; amongst them, the proximity of Kweneng region to the capital city could be a contributing factor to the disparity in enrolment figures in Kweneng and South regions. Chobe region recorded the lowest number of pupils constituting only 1.0 percent of the total enrolment.