North West Records 1,180 Student Dropouts
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Tuesday November 16, 2021 06:00
He shared the statistics with The Monitor when responding to a questionnaire on the number of students who have abandoned school in the North West region since the outbreak of COVID-19.
In his response, the North West region PRO said cases of students who quit school remain a challenge in their region.
Kehitile said the region has recorded 507, 334 and 339 cases of students who left school for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.
He pointed out that pregnancy, desertion, ill-health and death are some of the factors contributing to students quitting school in their area.
According to Kehitile, desertion is the most common contributor to the student dropout. He added that they have registered a total of 972 students who deserted school from the aforementioned years. He indicated that 609 males and 363 females absconded from school during the same period. Kehitile pointed out that 693 junior, 218 primary and 61 senior students abandoned school for no apparent reason.
He also highlighted that pregnancy cases are down by 43 between the years 2020 and 2021. Based on the provided statistics, Kehitile said their region has recorded 61, 69 and 26 cases of pregnancy for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.
He elaborated that this year; they registered one pregnancy case in primary, 12 in junior and 13 in senior schools. Kehitile added that last year, primary, junior and senior schools, registered three, 25 and 41 cases of pregnancy respectively. The North West PRO also revealed that death is the least contributing factor to students falling off the school system radar as only five death cases from the same period were registered.
He added that they are going to enforce school-community relations by engaging relevant stakeholders to minimise school dropout figures. “We are also going to enhance child-friendly schools and strengthen guidance and counselling programmes so that we curb cases of student dropouts,” he added.