On Wednesday, the Zero Dropout Campaign hosted a Twitter Space discussion on school dropout prevention with five other organisations. The discussion aimed to find possible solutions to prevent dropout.
According to the organisations, to deal with joblessness, we also need to plug gaps in our education system so that more pupils complete school.
In the previous year, research indicated that school attendance was at the lowest level than it has been in 20 years.
The National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey findings revealed that up to 750 000 pupils dropped out of school since the Covid-19 pandemic. Dropout rates are the highest they have been since household surveys started to monitor it in 2002.
Head of communications and advocacy at Zero Dropout Campaign Rahima Essop said there is no one who wakes up in the morning and decides to leave school.
“There is a period or a process of disengagement that happens before the learner eventually decides to drop out of school. There are push and pull factors from either school, home or the society that contribute to a learner dropping out of school,” she said.
According to the organisations, there is no single factor that contributes to the high rate of dropouts. Many children drop out before reaching matric because of pressure, the pandemic, social injustices, financial reasons or children-headed household responsibilities.
In response to the increasing dropout rate, communications and strategic information unit manager at Sonke Gender Justice Given Sigauqwe said we need to meet pupils at their level and respond to their needs.
“This issue does not only affects schools and teachers, it affects the whole society meaning that everyone in our communities to the government level need to get involved in trying to fight this issue,” said Essop.
Education and Civil society head at Kagiso trust Sizakele Mphatsoe said: “While we focus on teacher and learner empowerment programmes, we also need to build school leadership that does not only focus on compliance but leaders that will be able to identify other challenges in schools ”
Meanwhile, organisations raised concerns about not receiving enough funds to support these programmes.