School Based Factors and the Dropout Phenomenon: A Study of Zhomba Cluster Secondary Schools in Gokwe District of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to examine school related factors and circumstances that lead to students dropping of rural day secondary schools  from Zhomba cluster in  Gokwe district, Zimbabwe. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of twenty students who had dropped out of school in the past year participated in the study. These were purposively sampled from five schools randomly chosen from nine secondary schools in the cluster. Data were collected through administering a researcher constructed 16 –item Likert-type questionnaire to the participants. The data obtained was compiled and analyzed using simple numbers and percentages.  The study established that poverty and financial constraints were critical in the dropout phenomenon. The study also revealed that school dropout is primarily grounded in school problems such as schooldistance and inadequate teacher-student relationships, inadequate resources and facilities as well as an irrelevant curriculum that fails to meet the individual’s vocational and intellectual needs. The study therefore recommends that schools should widen and diversify their curricula to cater for students’ varied interests, needs and aptitudes to make school more relevant to the world of work and that parents, teachers as well as pupils should team up to work together to encourage and assist children on the verge of dropping out to remain in school.