Factors Influencing Rural Female Pupils Drop Out from Primary Schools, in Nkhata-Bay South District, Malawi

Factors Influencing Rural Female Pupils Drop Out from Primary Schools, in Nkhata-Bay South District, Malawi Grace C. Gondwe The problem of the study was to identify factors influencing rural female pupils drop out from primary schools, in Nkhata-Bay south district, Malawi. The research objectives sought to establish the school related factors and out of school factors influencing rural female drop out. To generate and refine the study ideas literature review was essential. The reviewed literature includes different studies focusing on female dropout. The study was based on two theories of motivation: Bernard Weiner’s attribution theory and Abraham Maslow’s theory on human motivation. The study adopted qualitative research design with some basic descriptive results in the form of frequency counts. The target population was rural female primary school dropouts and the study involved thirteen participants. Purposeful sampling and snowballing sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The instrument used to collect data was semi-structured interviews which was done through Skype technology. For refinement and validation, the interview protocol was piloted on five rural primary school dropouts from a different area with similar characteristics as the study area. The study data was analyzed by coding and grouping the emerging themes. The researcher translated all data into English from Chichewa, which was the language used during data collection. The study revealed the following school related factors that influenced dropping out; poor academic performance, grade repetition, overcrowded classroom and teacher’s absenteeism. Pupils’ own lack of interest in school, lack of financial support due to poverty, pregnancy, early marriage and taking care of sick relatives were out of school factors that the study established