Orphanhood and primary education dropouts : an exploratory study of the causes and consequences of orphans' dropping out of primary education in Gweru City, Zimbabwe

Mastergradsoppgave i "Comparative social work" - Høgskolen i Bodø, 2006While the issue of primary school dropouts has attracted growing attention in educational research and social policy circles, very few researchers have directed their interests to explore in detail why orphans drop out of primary education and the consequences of such. The work of this thesis is grounded in the data that were generated using qualitative in-depth interviews and field observations in Gweru City, Zimbabwe. A purposively selected sample of 12 respondents was used, which included orphaned dropouts (aged 12- 16 years old) and 'other adult actors' (Le. adults who had prior experiences of working or living with orphans). To extract some of the features based on the data; orphans drop out of primary education due to farnily-related, community-related, school-related and policy-related factors. The analysis therefore denotes an institutional perspective as it mentions that, dropping out of primary education is as a result of the weakening of the vital institutions (external factors) rather than orphans' independent decisions. Based on the data; dropping out of primary education comes as a process and not as an event. Moreover, the consequences of dropping out of primary education were seen to be grave; street children, child labour, child abuse, teen substance abuse, teen pregnancies, single motherhood, child prostitution, STIs, HIV/AiDS, juvenile delinquency, illiteracy, poverty and a reduced life expectancy. That being the case, the way forward should be to enhance partnerships and to provide universal primary education