Persistent School Drop-outs Among Girls in Selected

Secondary Schools of Nakonde District in Zambia

BY

CECILIA CHAPONDA

A dissertation submitted to the University of Zambia in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of
Education in Educational Administration

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

LUSAKA

2016
 COPY RIGHT
All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the
prior permission of the author or the University of Zambia.

© Cecilia Chaponda, 2016, UNZA

i
 DECLARATION
I, Cecilia Chaponda (Sr.) do hereby declare that this dissertation represents my own work and
that it has not been presented in any other institution of learning for any academic credit.

Signature------------------------------------------------

Date ------------------------------------------------

ii
 APPROVAL
The University of Zambia approves this dissertation of Cecilia Chaponda as fulfilling part of the
requirement for the award of the degree of master of education in Educational Administration.

Examiners’ Signature:

Signed--------------------------------------------- date---------------------------

Signed------------------------------------------------ date----------------------------

Signed---------------------------------------------- date-----------------------------

Supervisor’s Signature:

Signed ---------------------------------------------- date----------------------------

iii
 ABSTRACT
Most studies on school dropouts in Zambia have concentrated on Primary and Basic schools.
Some studies and Ministry of Education reports have shown that in Zambia there are school
dropouts among girls in both Primary and Secondary schools despite interventions and measures
put in place by the Government. Furthermore, no study has been conducted in Nakonde District
to find out why the school dropout rate among girls has persisted. This study aimed at
establishing the factors contributing to persistent school dropout rates among girls in five (5)
selected Secondary Schools of Nakonde District. The objectives of this study were; to establish
the rate of dropouts among girls from grades 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to 2015, to determine
factors associated with persistent school drop-out rates among girls, to investigate whether the
attitude of girls towards school led to persistent school drop-out among girls and to examine the
views of the head-teachers, teachers and parents on persistent school drop-out among girls. The
researcher adopted a descriptive case study design. The target population was 130. This
consisted of five head teachers, 65 teachers and ten parents who were purposively selected while
50 pupils were selected by using Simple random sampling. Questionnaires, focus group
discussions and semi structured interview instruments were used to collect data. Qualitative data
were analysed thematically by categorizing related topics to the study, making themes,
interpreting and summarizing them according to the research objectives. While quantitative data
were analysed by using of SPSS. The findings of the study showed that there were still school
dropouts among girls in Nakonde District. The major factors were early marriages, poverty,
pregnancies, business ventures, distance, prostitution and the negative attitude of the girls. Some
recommendations from the research findings include: Government to construct at least two
secondary boarding schools in Nakonde District, Re-entry Policy needs to be revised,
Government should continue to sensitize parents and girls on the importance of education, to re-
enforce the law of punishing parents and guardians who force school girls into early marriages,
Government to work hand in hand with the community of Nakonde in protecting the girl-child
from human trafficking activities, the Ministry of General Education also to look at other factors
leading to school dropouts among girls, to establish colleges and skills training centers in
Nakonde District so as to motivate girls to continue with education. The researcher has
recommended for further studies on early marriages, the same study on persistent school
dropouts among girls to be conducted in other border towns, comparison of the performance of
female teachers in all girls’ secondary schools and co-education schools, and to investigate the
performance of young teachers between one and five years in the teaching service. The study
concludes by encouraging the Government to intensify the Education Reforms enshrined in
‘Educating Our Future’ in order to reduce on school dropouts among girls in Zambia.

iv
 DEDICATION
I dedicate this Dissertation to the congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady Queen of Africa
(SOLQA) (For the greater glory of God). I also dedicate it to my parents, beloved relatives, most
appreciated my beloved cousin Chashi Chifuta and friends, my siblings and to all men and
women of goodwill, living and dead, too numerous to mention, who have left footprints in my
heart. It is because of them that l have pursued this Master’s degree.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank God for His unbeatable generosity in granting me good health and grace to see me
through this research. I acknowledge the valuable work of my Supervisor Mr. Henry Msango, in
guiding me and correcting me with patience and understanding from the beginning to the end of
the research. I extend my gratitude to all the lecturers in the Department of Educational
Administration and Policy Studies for their assistance and support rendered to me during my
study. I also acknowledge their support of helping to validate my research instruments. Special
recognition goes to people who proof-read my work and offering helpful guidance, most
sincerely my cousin Chashi Chifuta. I also acknowledge the services of my friends and
colleagues in the Master’s program for their encouragement and guidance whenever l
approached them. I wish to acknowledge the support, patience and understanding of the Sisters
in my community of Isoka. Special mention here is made of the warmth and support of my
beloved late Sr. Gerward Haule for her encouragement before and during my studies, May Her
Soul Rest In Peace. To you all, I am truly grateful.

I also want to express my appreciation to Nakonde DEBS, head teachers, teachers, pupils and
parents for their generosity in providing information and time without making me feel
unwelcome on any single day, especially in schools where this study was conducted within
Nakonde District. May Good Lord bless you all.

vi
 Table of Contents
Copy right ___________________________________________________________________ ii
Declaration __________________________________________________________________ iii
Approval ____________________________________________________________________ iv
Abstract _____________________________________________________________________ v
Dedication ___________________________________________________________________ vi

Acknowledgements____________________________________________________________vii

Table of contents ____________________________________________________________ viii

List of tables ________________________________________________________________ ixi
List of figures ________________________________________________________________ xi
List of appendices _____________________________________________________________ iv
Acronyms and abbreviations___________________________________________________ xiiiv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ______________________________________________ 1
1.1 Overview _______________________________________________________________ 1
1.2 Background _____________________________________________________________ 1
1.3 Statement of the Problem __________________________________________________ 6
1.4 The Purpose of Study _____________________________________________________ 7
1.5 Objectives ______________________________________________________________ 7
1.6 Research Questions _______________________________________________________ 7
1.7 Significance of the Study __________________________________________________ 7
1.8 Theoretical Framework ____________________________________________________ 8
1.9 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW _______________________________________ 12
2.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 12
2.2 Global Perspective ______________________________________________________ 12
2.3 Africa’s Perspective _____________________________________________________ 13
2.4 Zambia’s Perspective ____________________________________________________ 17
2.5 Definition of Terms ______________________________________________________ 20

vii
 2.6 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 21
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY __________________________________________ 22
3.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 22
3.2 Research Design ________________________________________________________ 22
3.3 Target Population _______________________________________________________ 23
3.4 Research Instruments and Data Collection ____________________________________ 24
3.5 Data Analysis __________________________________________________________ 26
3.6 Limitations: ____________________________________________________________ 27
3.7 Delimitations ___________________________________________________________ 27
3.8 Ethical issues ___________________________________________________________ 27
3.9 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 28
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS ____________________ 29
4.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 29
4.2 Demographic information of the respondents __________________________________ 29
4.3 Factors that led to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District ________ 31
4.4 To establish the Rate of dropout among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to
2015 _____________________________________________________________________ 37
4.5 The third objective was to determine the attitude of girls towards education _________ 40
4.3 Factors that led to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District ________ 40
4.4 To establish the Rate of dropout among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to
2015 _____________________________________________________________________ 49
4.5 To determine whether the attitude of girls towards education led to persistent school drop
outs among girls. ___________________________________________________________ 50
4.6 The fourth objective was to establish the views from the head teachers, teachers, and
parents ___________________________________________________________________ 53
4.7 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 57
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS ___________________ 58
5.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 58
5.2 Factors leading to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District ________ 58

viii
 5.3 Establishing the rate of dropouts among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the period 2013-2015
_________________________________________________________________________ 70
5.4 Determining whether the attitude of girls towards education led to persistent school
dropouts among girls ________________________________________________________ 72
5.5 Establishing the views from the head teachers, teachers, and parents _______________ 74
5.6 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 75
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS _____________________ 76
6.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 76
6.2 Conclusions ____________________________________________________________ 76
6.3 Recommendations _______________________________________________________ 78
REFERENCES ______________________________________________________________ 80
LIST OF APPENDICES _______________________________________________________ 88

ix
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: School dropout in Nakonde in 2013 and 2015 ……….……………………….. …….05

Table 2: Number of pregnancies and re- entered ……………………………………………... 18

Table 3: Qualifications of respondents…………………………….…………...……….…….. 29

Table 4: Grade where dropout is high ……………………..…………………………………..38

Table 5: Drop out from 2013-2015 …………..…………………………….…………………. 51

x
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Sex of respondents………………………………………………................................. 27

Figure 2: Age group of respondents……………………………………………..……...………. 28

Figure 3: Period worked in school………………………………...………......………………... 29

Figure 4: Whether early marriage leads to school dropouts……………………....……………. 30

Figure 5: Whether pregnancy leads to persistent school dropouts…………….…...…………... 31

Figure 6: Whether cultural beliefs lead to persistent school dropouts……………….…………..32

Figure 7: Whether girls’ involvement in business lead to persistent dropouts…………….…….33

Figure 8: Whether distance lead to persistent school dropouts……………………………..……34

Figure 9: Whether human trafficking lead to persistent school dropouts ……………...………. 35

Figure 10: Whether poverty leads to persistent school dropouts ………………...……….……. 35

Figure 11: Whether prostitution leads to persistent school dropouts ………………….……….. 36

Figure 12: Whether the rate of dropout was high from 2013 to 2015………………….…….… 37

Figure 13: Whether dropout was high among day scholars ……………………………………..39

Figure 14: Whether dropout was high in co-education schools …………………….………..… 40

Figure 15: Negative attitude of girls lead to persistent school dropouts …………….………… 41

xi
 LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Consent form for respondents ______________________________________ 88
Appendix B: Focus group discussion for pupils ___________________________________ 89
Appendix C: Interview guide for teachers _______________________________________ 90
Appendix D: Interview guide for headteachers ___________________________________ 91
Appendix E: Interview guide for parents ________________________________________ 92
Appendix F: Questionnaire for teachers _________________________________________ 94

xii
 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
CAMFED: Campaign for Female Education

DEBS: District Education Board Secretary

EFA: Education for All

EU: European Union

FAWE: Forum for African Women Educationalists

FAWEZA: Forum for African Women Educationalists of Zambia

MoE: Ministry Of Education

MoGE: Ministry Of General Education

MoER: Ministry Of Education Report

MESVTEE: Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education

NCES: National Center for Education Statistics

SAARC: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences

UNESCO: United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNICEF: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund

UN: United Nations

UNODC: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

WCEFA: World Conference on Education for All

WEF: World Education Forum

ZANIS: Zambia National Information Service

xiii
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview
This chapter has presented the background to the study, statement of the problem, the purpose of
the study, objectives and research questions, significance of the study and a theoretical
framework. The chapter concludes with a summary.

1.2 Background
Education is a very important aspect in developmental issues in both developed and developing
countries. John Kennedy the 35th President of the United States described education as the means
of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream
which, fulfilled , can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation
(Mitchell, 2014). Education is, therefore, about improving and satisfying wants. It is not a
preparation for life but life itself. It opens new horizons, extends freedoms and creates
opportunities. As a means to other ends, it comes with a wide range of benefits for production,
distribution, economic growth, health, democracy and poverty reduction (Watkins et al, 1999).
This type of education is essential to both boys and girls as they are supposed to participate in
socio-economic development of society.

The importance of girl child education cannot be overemphasized as the popular saying goes
attributed to the Ghanaian scholar, Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey (1875-1927): “if you
educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family
[nation].” Women are the heart of most societies and they are very influential people in
children’s lives. Hence, empowering them will enable them to realize the importance of sending
their daughters to school. This adage is supported by President Barack Obama of the United
States while addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 when he remarked: “The
sustainability and progress of all regions depends on the success of women across the globe”,
(Stepp, 2012; 5). He further stated: “The future does not belong to those who bully women. It
must be shaped by girls who go to school and those who stand for a world where our daughters
can live their dreams just like our sons” (Stepp, 2012;5).
1
The World Conference on Education for All held in 1990 stated that every person has a right to
be educated to his or her fullest potential regardless of gender. The World Education Forum
(WEF) held in Dakar recommended that all children especially girls must have access to
complete education of good quality by the year 2015 (WCEA, 1990). UNESCO (2009) found
that in 1990, for every 100 girls of secondary school age, only 13 were in school. Those girls in
third level, Grades nine and ten, only 1-5 out of 100 were in school. This situation showed that
participation of women in the affairs of national development would be low as this required
education. It was observed that countries with smaller gender gaps in education had better
indicators of social welfare. For instance, lower fertility rate, lower infant mortality rate,
improved nutrition, increased life expectancy and better opportunities for their children in the
next generation are social benefits that would accrue from more females being provided with
proper education (UNESCO, 2009).

The fourth World Conference for Women held in Beijing in 1995, identified the persistent
discrimination against the girl child and violation of her rights as one of the 12 critical areas of
concern requiring urgent attention by governments and the international community. It was
recognized that in many counties, both developed and developing, the status of girls was
significantly worse than that of boys (UN, 2000). Furthermore, it was observed that at the
secondary level of schooling the gender gap widened as a large number of girls dropped out of
school earlier than boys, especially in rural areas or impoverished areas. It was observed that this
dropout among girls was a serious concern which would affect the achievement of quality, equity
and Education for All policy.

After the Beijing Conference, women’s movement came up with some priorities. These included
the call to readmit girls who dropped out of school because of pregnancy, and in the Jomtien
Conference, gender, equity and equality were prioritized as the fifth Education for All (EFA)
goal. Since then girl-child education has received a significant attention from 1994 to date. It
embarked on upgrading and building more schools in order to alleviate gender disparities and
promote equity by providing secondary schools (2000). FAWE (2009), argued that Education
for All (EFA) and the education targets of the MDGs were put in place specifically to address
concerns linked to education and development. Despite this, gender inequalities in education

2
persist in Sub-Saharan Africa to the detriment of girls. This is evidenced by disparities in access
to school as well as in enrollment, retention, completion and performance rates. Since then
FAWE seeks to address this through its advocacy and intervention work that aims to create
conditions for the elimination of gender disparities and to promote girls education and
development in order to reduce on dropouts among girls.

On the other hand, The World Bank being one of the many stakeholders of empowering girls and
women, recognized that one way of doing this is educating them whether in terms of
employability, income, health, or their own children’s development depend on what they learn in
school and addressing the multiple sources of disadvantages that girls and women face through a
systematic, evidence based approach (World Bank, 2014).

Ananga (2011) observed that girls’ education was beneficial as it contributed to both social and
economic development, intergenerational education, social equity, and sustainability of
development efforts. Hence, education is the shining beacon of light that can get girls out of
poverty. It can also give them power to look after their families and help their communities. It
can also give them the strength to be aware of the abuses and denounce them, for instance:
emotional, economic, physical and sexual abuses.

Girl-child education has continued to lag behind in Africa. According to educational statistics in
Africa, girls’ secondary school enrolment accounts for only 57 % of the school age population
compared with 75% to boys (WCEFA, 1990). The WCE reports that:

“Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for

development more effective than the education of girls. No other
policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and
maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health,
including the prevention of HIV/AIDS than that one for girls”
(WCEFA,1990;18).

With the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 4, governments have pledged to eliminate
gender disparities and ensure that every child is in school and learning by 2030. Yet one out of
eight children between the ages of 6 and 15 are denied a basic education, and girls are the first to
3
be excluded. More than 63 million girls are out of school and data suggest that the number is
rising (UNESCO Institute for Statistic, 2015; 3).

In the case of Zambia, girls’ education had not been emphasized since the introduction of formal
education in the country. There were inequalities in enrolments especially for girls and the
majority dropped out of school. When missionaries introduced Western education in the late 19th
century, men and adolescent boys were the majority admitted to schools. Snelson (1974) states
that in 1936 the number of pupils who were enrolled in 73 mission schools was 4600 nearly all
these were boys. He goes on to say that the parents were most reluctant to permit their daughters
to attend school and the opposition to girls’ education was deep-rooted and lasted for many
years. In addition, Snelson (1990) prostrates that the girls themselves often saw little point in
going to school. Instead they stayed home helping their mothers and preparing for marriage.
Furthermore, the curriculum for women was different from the men’s, women were offered
cooking, baby care, hygiene, serving and nutrition while men had a head start and they were
offered education that was superior to that offered to women. This trend continued well into the
Independence period, when there were more school places for boys, and technical subjects were
offered to boys only. In addition, there were, and still are more impediments for girls to access
education. Some of these included; school location girls used to walk long distances that tired
them out and exposed them to sexual abuse, poor sanitation that affected girls more than boys,
community duties which kept girls out of school and diverted their attention from learning and
pregnancy which made girls to be expelled from school and were not re-admitted into the school
system. These factors and others made girls to drop out of school.

In 1926, new schools for girls were opened at Kayambi, Chilubula and Mabumbu; Chipembi
was opened in 1927, and Mwenzo Girls’ School with the aim of supporting girls’ education
(Snelson, 1990). Despite the construction of these schools girls’ education lagged behind because
their mothers and grandparents were only interested in marriages. Snelson (1990) states that the
1963 census revealed that illiteracy among women was due to the fact that, as girls, they were
not allowed by their parents to take advantage of the educational opportunities which were open
to them.

4
Kelly (1991) states that in the 1940s, some girl’s secondary schools were built as one way of
retaining girls in school, but he says that there was a high wastage among girls as they dropped
out of school in the earlier grades and those who remained were taught elementary needlework,
house wifely, cookery and mother craft.

The Ministry of Education (1996) observed that there were a lot of drop-outs among girls in both
primary and secondary schools. This would affect women participation in socio-economic
development of the nation as it was noted that women’s education was a very important factor in
development. Furthermore, the ‘Educating Our Future’ document emphasizes educational
provision on access, equality and quality after discovering that there were a lot of drop-outs
among girls in secondary schools which would affect women participation in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) as they were related to women education and
empowerment. In addition, education is believed to be a key factor in the development and well-
being of societies. Hence, priority should be given to the education of girls and women on
account of the discrimination and marginalization they had suffered in the past (MoE, 1995).

It is in this vein that the government aimed at increasing high school provision, particularly by
the establishment of additional facilities for girls in order to rectify the existing large gender
imbalance in Grades 10 to 12, (MoE, 1996). However, despite government’s interventions and
other stakeholders to promote girl child education, persistent drop-out has still persisted in the
country. For instance, in Muchinga Province where Nakonde district is found, it was reported by
ZANIS that there was still school dropout among girls between 2013 and 2014, 289 girls
dropped out of school due to pregnancies (Times of Zambia, 2014).. There were others who
dropped school but other factors were not taken care of the concern was the number of
[Link] this was the harming situation in Nakonde.

Furthermore, the information of dropout according to the District Education Board Secretary’s
(DEBS) Office for the past three years was as follows;

5
 Table 1: Shows rate of drop-out among girls in Nakonde District in the years 2013 and 2015

Year Illness Economic Marriage Expelled Pregnancy Orphaned Deaths Other

2013 16 228 65 03 72 15 08 230

2015 10 223 70 01 46 10 12 238

Total 26 451 135 04 118 25 20 468

Source: DEBS Office Nakonde Report (2015)

For 2014 school dropout rates was looked at in terms of pregnancies only and it was observed
that the number of pregnancies was 116 and for 2015 was 109 dropouts among girls in Nakonde
District. It was for this reason that this research endeavoured to establish why school drop-out
among girls has persisted in Nakonde District.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

School dropout rates among girls in Zambia are still a big challenge (MoE, 1996). In order to
address this challenge, the nation through the Ministry of Education and other educational
stakeholders (e.g. FAWEZA and CAMFED) have introduced some interventions and policies
such as the re-entry policy and the provision of scholarships to vulnerable pupils to address the
problem after identifying some factors leading to school dropout among girls so as to retain them
in school (MoE, 1996).

Despite all these efforts and commitments by the government to uphold female education in
removing every obstacle that hinders girls’ education, dropout rates among girls in secondary
schools have continued in Zambia (Lumba, 2014). For example in 2014, 91 girls dropped out of
school in Nakonde District due to pregnancies (Times of Zambia, 2014). And the information

6
from the DEBS Office Nakonde also indicated that there were still dropouts from school among
girls in Nakonde District due to various reasons as it indicated in Table 1.

There seems to be a gap in terms of literature on the school drop-outs among girls in secondary
schools and to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no one had done a study on the school
dropouts among girls in secondary schools of Nakonde District. Hence, the need for this study.

1.4 The Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study was to establish factors associated with persistent school drop-out
rates among girls in selected secondary schools of Nakonde District in Zambia

1.5 Objectives
The objectives of this study were
1. to determine factors associated with persistent school drop-out rates among girls
2. to establish the rate of dropouts among girls from grades 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to 2015.

3. to investigate whether the attitude of girls towards school contributes to persistent school
dropout, and

4. to examine the views of head-teachers, teachers and parents on school drop-outs among girls

1.6 Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions;

1. What factors are associated with persistent school drop-outs among girls?
2. What has been the rate of school drop-outs among girls from Grades 10 to 12 in the
period 2013 to 2015?
3. Do the attitudes of girls towards school lead to persistent school drop-out among girls?
4. What are the head-teachers, teachers and parents’ views on school drop-out rates among
girls?

1.7 Significance of the Study

The findings of the study will contribute to the body of knowledge on the subject of persistent
dropouts among girls in secondary schools of Nakonde District in Muchinga Province. This
study is very important to the nation in various ways especially to the Ministry of Education,
Non-Governmental Organizations and other stakeholders interested in educational provision. It
7
may be helpful to them in policy formulation and find solutions to reduce on school dropout rates
among girls in secondary schools.

The head teachers of the schools may benefit from this study as they will be able to formulate
school based measures to address the issues of dropouts among girls in their schools and in the
implementation of the policies and delivery of instruction.

The teachers may also benefit from this study in that different findings may help them in policy
formulation and interventions to find solutions to persistent school dropouts among girls.

The findings may be helpful to secondary schools in developing policies to encourage girls to
remain in school from Grade 1 up to Grade 12 levels thereby reducing on dropping out of school
anyhow before completion of secondary education.

The findings may also be useful to parents especially in rural areas so that they may see the need
to encourage their daughters to go to school.

1.8 Theoretical Framework

This study was guided by the social feminism theory. This branch of feminism focuses upon both
the private and public spheres of a woman’s life and argues that liberation can only be achieved
by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women’s oppression (Kramarae and
Spender, 2000). Socialist feminism gained momentum during the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism
argued that women were being suppressed by a male dominated society both in education and
later life, and that the stereotypical views of women’s part in society of becoming housewife,
marrying early and having children contributed to low education levels and concentrate on
household chores ( Feminism and Education, 2014). Such beliefs discouraged girls from
remaining in school and concentrate on their studies. For many years, what they valued was
marriage and household works. It rejected radical feminism’s main claim that patriarchy was the
only or primary source of oppression of women but argued that economic dependence was the
driving force of women’s subjugation to men. It saw women’s liberation as a necessary part of a
larger guest for social, economic and political justice. The liberation of women or shift from
oppression would only be achieved through women’s empowerment and girl-child education

8
which in return would enable them to fully participate in socio-economic development of
nations.

UN (2015) pointed out that when more women work, economies grow, or reduction in the gap
between women’s and men’s labor force participation –results in faster economic growth.
Gender inequalities in time use were still large and persistent in all countries. When paid and
unpaid works were combined, women in developing countries worked more than men, with less
time for education, leisure, political participation and self-care. Hart (1992) argued for equal
valuing of knowledge, human intelligence, critical thinking and creativity, so that knowledge
does not lead to further marginalization for certain groups. He further stated that women were
seen as being down trodden as a result of their unequal standing in the work place and domestic
sphere.

Some feminists have argued that women would only gain equality with men when institutions
and social relationships are changed. Furthermore, education and work must be restructured in
order to eliminate male domination and other oppressions (Enns, 1997). This theory supports
equality for women and men. It was evolved from the ideas of Karl Marx, who blamed
Capitalism for increasing patriarchy by concentrating power in the hands of a small number of
men (Kimberly, 2015). Under the assumption that women are as intelligent as men, the feminist
movement has been demanding equal opportunities for women and equal pay for equal work.
Feminists have also turned their attention to the classroom, demanding equal education for both
boys and girls as well as encouraging girls to go into technical, scientific, and professional fields
that used to be the domain of males.

Feminists believe in expanding human choices, the idea that both women and men should be able
to develop their human traits, even if those go against the status quo. If a woman wants to do
mechanics, she should have every right and opportunity to do so. In addition, feminists argue that
in eliminating gender stratification, proposes that laws and cultural norms that limit the income,
educational and job opportunities for women should be opposed (Kimberly, 2015).

Socialist feminists proposed the complete eradication of all political, economic and social
foundations of contemporary society. Specifically, education, work, sexuality and parenting must

9
undergo thorough transformations (Enns, 1997). Full participation in national development can
only be achieved through encouraging girls’ enrollment, retention and completion of their
secondary education levels, in this way persistent school dropout rates among girls may be
reduced. Social feminist advocate for broad change that affects society as a whole rather than on
individual basis, they believe that the only way out of this situation for women is education
because without it, they will remain oppressed and exploited in society.

There is a relationship between the argument of socialist Feminists and factors contributing to
school dropout among girls, i.e. women think that their place is always marriage and concentrate
on house chores so they do not see the importance of education which can enable them to
participate in socio-economic development. In the same way girls tend to drop out of school due
to early marriages, pregnancies and other factors instead of remaining in school and complete
their secondary school level which may promote them to higher institutions of learning such as
College and University levels in order to participate in the development of their societies. In
order to empower women, girl-child education has to be promoted starting from their parents and
all levels of learning in schools.

The researcher used this theory because it interrelated to the concepts that supported the study.
Therefore, the theory provided the framework for interpreting the study, and reduced the
researchers’ dependence on personal experiences and assumptions. This theory had also helped
to establish factors leading to persistent school dropout among girls in Nakonde District, the rate
of dropout, the attitude of girls toward education and what views the head teachers, teachers,
parents and pupils have on the school dropout rates among girls in the District.

1.9 Summary
In this chapter the background to the study was discussed. It highlighted some factors which
contributed to girls’ hindrance to education. The background of girls’ education showed that
from the beginning or introduction of formal education, girls were being discriminated and there
were inequalities in enrollment more boys were enrolled than girls. Besides cultural beliefs made
parents not to send their daughters to school as they believed that girls were supposed to get
married.

10
The chapter introduced the study on the School dropout rates among girls globally and Zambia in
particular. The chapter also presented the background to the problem, the problem statement,
research objectives and questions, significance of the study and the theoretical perspectives
applied to the study. The background to the study indicated that girls’ education had not been
emphasized since the introduction of formal education. There were inequalities in school
enrollment and discrimination. In addition, parents were reluctant to send their daughters to
school instead they were made to stay at home and concentrate on household chores. In some
circumstances even those who were enrolled in schools dropped out due to marriage, housework,
traditional and cultural practices among others. The next chapter provides a review of literature
relevant to the study of school dropouts among girls globally, Africa as well as Zambia.

11
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
The previous chapter looked at the background to the study. It focused on the problem of the
statement, purpose of the study, objectives, research questions, the significance of the study and
theoretical framework. This chapter reviewed literature and other secondary sources of
information related to some factors associated with persistent school drop-outs among girls in
secondary schools. It has covered information from Global perspective, Africa and Zambia. It
has also given definitions of terms.

2.2 Global Perspective

Worldwide, it was observed that girls’ school attendance still lagged more severely behind than
that of boys due to workload, both within and outside the household. It was pointed out that girls
being exploited as child workers outnumber boys (UN, May 2000). UNESCO (2003) stated that
a large number of girls were denied the right to education, but many who attended school
received their education through under-resourced and over-crowded classrooms, poorly-trained
or untrained teachers, emotional and physical abuse through bullying, insults, physical
punishment and sexual harassment which influenced girls to drop-out of school. In America, it
was observed that 28% of females left school because of pregnancy and 12 percent did so
because of early marriage. In addition some girls dropped-out because they feared to be sexually
harassed at school by both male teachers and boys (NCES, 2009). Furthermore, the same NCES
(2009) reported that in 1972 the law was enacted in America to retain pregnant and parenting
students in school, but in some schools this law was not followed. The proponents of
readmission argued that if readmission was fully supported, girls’ education could have a
significant impact in lowering their drop-out rates.

In South Asia, girls’ education is not valued as they believe that girls are trained for a role as a
wife, mother, and daughter in law (Nisha, 2014). Furthermore, Nisha (2014) states that families
also think that the cost of education both monetary and psychological is wasted on a girl as she
will get married. Such ideas are seen as hindrance to girls’ education. In contrast, Canada’s
school dropout rate has decreased among girls since the 1990s. Statistics Canada’s Annual Labor
12
Force Survey (SCALFS, 2009) states that the rate of dropout decreased from nearly 17% to 9%
in the 2008 and 2009 school year. This is in line with all European Union (EU) member states
where men were more likely to leave education earlier than girls. For instance, in Cyprus,
Estonia, Spain, Latvia, Portugal and Italy early leaving or drop out of school was twice as high as
or more for men than for women (Europe educational statistics, 2015).

In Afghanistan, it was found that early marriage was the foremost cause of school dropout
among girls. When girls reach puberty, parents consider it as time for them to be married and
tend to arrange the marriage instead of continuing school, (Mansory, 2007). The author argues
that early marriage forced girls to drop out of school and concentrated on motherhood works. In
addition, in Tajikistan many girls attended only religious classes which provided relevant skills
for future married life as skilled wives (Falkingham and Baschieri, 2006). As a result, girls’
opted to drop out of school and got married.

In some societies, girls are not allowed to participate in sports as they are socially and culturally
prohibited. For instance, Muslim women face restrictions by their culture and religion to
participate in sports activities in school. Benn (2002) pointed out that Islam does not permit kit
requirement outdoor games such as wearing short skirts, shorts and tee-shirts and public
changing and showering. Such beliefs make girls drop out of school. In some societies social
exclusion is an additional barrier to girls’ going to school. Certain groups of girls are more likely
to be excluded from school on the basis of caste, ethnicity, religion or disability. For example, in
Nepal, Dalit girls are almost twice as likely to be excluded from as higher caste girls (DFID,
2005). In such societies people must understand that girls’ education has long been recognized as
a human right. There should be no discrimination of any kind because denying girls’ opportunity
to education is less like refusing to embrace national development.

2.3 Africa’s Perspective

The research findings by UNICEF (2004) indicated that girls’ dropout rate from school was
higher than that of boys. The vast majority of school aged girls in the Sub-Saharan Africa are not
in secondary schools. The report indicated that 83% of all girls out of school in the World live in
the Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific. For instance, in Pakistan, the

13
gross enrolment rate for girls in secondary education is 19 percent while in Niger, Tanzania and
Chad it is only five percent (DFID, 2005).

Research by Ainsworth (2005) found that in Tanzania school drop-out increases in areas where
distance to school is longer. For instance in rural areas there were no roads and vehicles; hence
children had to walk for long distances through difficult terrain and dangerous environment
which consequently affected their performance.

In Nigeria according to Malwa et al (2011), women still continue to be under-educated and the
girl-child does not have the privilege of a good education. Boys and men continue to have the
upper hand in education while the girl-child ends up being open to harassment and intimidation
owing to the patriarchal nature of the Nigerian society. Parents and guardians also do not see any
obligation to be involved in girl-child education as they are usually given off for marriage
immediately they attain puberty. All these practices in Nigeria make girls abandon school and
concentrate on house work.

Many scholars have emphasized the importance of education. They say education brings
freedom. Nelson Mandela said, “Freedom can’t be achieved unless women have been
emancipated” (Mokone, 2014). The argument is that there is need in African communities to stop
seeing women as tools for sex and creatures that can only succeed at cooking or other traditional
female activities. That has to stop if we really want development.

In some developing countries violence caused by civil wars, tribalism and other conflicts hinder
girls’ education especially in areas where there are constant conflicts as in the case of Rwanda
and Burundi. It is estimated that about 90 percent of child-headed households are headed by girls
who have been victims of violence in conflict situations. This promotes absenteeism due to fear
of violence, eventually children dropout of school (DFID, 2005).

Chege and Sifuna (2006) observed that in some parts of Kenya parents tend to discourage their
daughters from acquiring too much education for fear that they would have difficulties in finding
educated husbands or being good wives. Hence girls drop-out of school and are taught chores
like cooking, laundry and baby care by their mothers. Mokone (2014), argues that human beings
are quick to talk about crime against humanity and then point their accusing fingers in any
14
direction that pleases them, but the reality is that it’s also a crime against humanity to deprive the
girl-child of an education.

Millicent et al (2013) postulate that among the Masai community of Tanzania and Kenya
circumcision is said to be a rite of passage into womanhood. Once a girl is circumcised she drops
out of school to get married as school is for children. This is because among the Masai, women
are traditionally valued on the basis of how many children they can produce for their husbands
but not by how educated or economically successful they might become. It was observed that in
Kenya the estimated figures, between 10,000 and 13,000 girls’ drop-out of school every year due
to pregnancy (Osulah, 2007). The survey also discovered that enrolment rates were almost the
same at lower primary school for both boys and girls but the gap started to widen in upper
primary as more girls left school than boys in certain parts of the country.

In his study Okediji (2012) observed that drop-out rates of girls in Africa is still very high due to
cultural practices, vulnerability to violence and issues of sexual harassment from male teachers
and boys. On the other hand, UNESCO (2010) cited by Shahidual and Zehadui-Karim (2015),
indicated that traditional values were stronger in rural areas in developing countries compared to
urban areas and people often do not allow girls to leave home even for school. In addition some
parents were reported to be reluctant to send their daughters to school though in primary schools
because of belief that education and school could be a corrupting influence. In some
communities, there was the view that in co-educational school as most primary schools, girls’
morals would be corrupted because of the amount of time they spent with boys. Other views
were; fear for the physical and sexual safety of girls in school due to cases of physical and sexual
harassment and abuse from peers and teachers in the school. Where schools are situated long
distances away, parents also worried about their daughters’ safety while traveling to and from
school, (Hari, 2014).

In many developing countries, child marriage is a major barrier to progress on girl’s education.
Over 60 percent of child brides have no formal education. Many girls are not in education
because schools are inaccessible, expensive or because of the traditional role girls are expected
to play in the household, or simply because parents do not see the value of education for their
daughters. Adams (2013) in his study observed that the education of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa
15
in general and South Africa in particular has been impeded by the high rate of school dropout
due to pregnancies and a young age at first sexual intercourse.

In Uganda it was noted that Pregnancy is the leading impediment (34%), followed by poverty
(28%) and engagement in early marriage (11%). Girls who got pregnant while at school were
often rejected at home and sent away. They were labeled as useless, a burden, perceived as
sinful, abominable, outcasts, and a waste. They were denied assistance even when the family had
the resources. This led to large school drop-outs among girls (Theresa and Sossau, 2008).
According to Botswana Education Statistics (2007), pregnancy is the number one reason that
accounts for girls’ drop-out especially among girls from lower socio-economic families. Other
factors include; students’ ethnicity, home life, poor attendance, passive teaching methods and
poor conditions created by large school drop-outs.

On the other hand, many parents and community members believed that a formal education was
not necessary in order for girls to prepare for their expected roles as they can be learnt from their
mothers and others in the community. Hence, many parents did not enroll their daughters in
school or withdraw them before completion. Such attitudes deny girls an opportunity for formal
education (Hari, 2014). Furthermore, Hari (2014) found that the negative attitude of many
parents contributed to school dropouts among girls. The negative attitude was attributed to
traditional socio-cultural beliefs regarding gender roles and abilities; women were expected to
exclusively assume the roles of mother and wives, therefore, girls dropped out of school and
concentrated on household works. But with change of time girls and women have been
encouraged to participate in socio-economic activities in order to contribute to the well-being of
their families and communities. Girls are being encouraged to do science and mathematics to
enable them do works which were thought to be for boys.

Furthermore, Ondere (2012), found that discrimination, school environment and negative attitude
of teachers as major factors led to dropout among girls in Kasalani District, Kenya.

However, the perceptions of girls and women towards education have remained the same in
developing countries like Zambia. This is in line with (Hari, 2014), who observed that many
people have difficulty in accepting that there is a need to equip women with the skills and

16
knowledge necessary, through education to enable them to take up their new roles and function
effectively in the modern world. In addition, education enables girls to make their own decisions
and influence their families positively. It saves and involves the lives and provides them with
skills to contribute to their societies in economic, social and political development because they
also have got the right to education just like boys.

Kabesiime (2007) found that in Uganda the teacher’s attitude towards girls in the classroom was
crucial for retention of girls in school. It was observed that teachers who were keen on
encouraging equal participation of girls and boys in class increased the completion rate of girl’
education in secondary schools. It was further discovered that teachers who had been sensitized
to change any negative attitudes towards girls’ education and adopted new methods to promote
equality in classrooms had made a great impact in the performance and retention of girls in
school.

Available literature indicates that pregnancy is the major cause of drop-out amongst adolescent
girls in schools across the Sub-Saharan Africa. Because of this several countries have introduced
readmission policy that allows teenage mothers to complete school. Many countries have
focused their efforts to improve girls’ access to education.

However, Grant and Hallman (2006) argued that the re-entry policy to school after pregnancy
depends on some circumstances such as if they can get caregiver for their child and if they are
able to share or relinquish child-care responsibilities. This shows that re-entry in many countries
is not much higher as it was intended. That is why in African countries there are still many
school dropouts among girls at some levels of learning institutions.

2.4 Zambia’s Perspective

In Zambia dropping out of secondary school is a serious educational and social problem as it is a
drawback to the national goals and the Vision 2030 goals, as the number of girls dropping out of
school has been rising over the past decades due to pregnancies. For example, in 2011 there were
12,285 teenage pregnancies among school going pupils (MoER, 2014). Mwaba (2014), found
that the main factors for girls failing to attain education was poverty and parents failing to pay
school fees, pregnancy and early marriages. So girls were made to stay home while boys
remained in school. She argued that these factors would make Zambia fail to achieve the MDGs
17
of 50/50 participation of women in decision-making. But this study was not done in Nakonde
District and it was at Primary school level hence, it created a gap and attracted study in the
secondary context in Nakonde.

Early marriages are another factor for many girls drop out of school in Zambia especially when
families wish for the social and economic benefits the marriage brings. Besides, girls are also
more likely to drop out of school due to their domestic responsibilities and are often
discriminated against in terms of quality education they are sent to (DFID, 2005).

The Ministry of Education has introduced some interventions and policies such as the re-entry
policy after identifying some factors that lead to school drop-outs among girls so as to retain
them in school (MoE, 1996). On the other hand, since 2010 FAWEZA, in collaboration with the
Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE) has made
a long-term commitment to involve the local Community Action Groups (CAPs) in the decision-
making process in school as they are related to advancement of the Zambian child in education.
These groups support girls’ retention, performance and completion in the education sector
(FAWEZA, 2014). Furthermore, in the period 2013 to 2014, FAWEZA, with funding support
from UNICEF working with CAGs managed to reach out to 51,000 out of school children and
retrieved a total of 2900 girls who reclaimed their school after dropping out among them were
also teen mothers from Muchinga and Western Provinces. In addition, in 2012 there were 14,849
pregnancies only 6,000 were readmitted to school and in 2013, out of 14,928 only 5,829 were
readmitted (FAWEZA, 2014).

In addition, the MESVTEE Statistical Bulletin (2013) indicates that despite the re-entry policy
being in place for close to the 18 years, there are still less than 50% girls being re-entered after
giving birth. The table below shows the number of pregnancies and re-entered number after birth
from 2009 to 2013.

18
 Table 2: Number of pregnancy and re-entered

Years No. Pregnancy No. Re-entered

2009 15,497 6,679
2010 15,586 6,067
2011 15,707 6,030
2012 14,849 6,001
2013 14,928 5,829
Source: MESVTEE Statistical Bulletin (2013: 3)

On the other hand, MoE (2006, 2007) pointed to the existence of stigmatization of pupils who
are mothers, lack of support from both teachers and parents and a sense of shame and lost status
among the girls themselves as factors hindering teenage mothers from returning to school.

The available literature shows that, in Zambia many studies related to school drop-outs among
girls were concentrated on Basic and primary schools; little has been done on secondary level of
education. It should be noted that drop-outs among girls is still a challenge in both Primary and
secondary schools of Zambia (Mwale, 2014) and this situation needs attention if the country
wishes women to participate in economic, social and political development in order to achieve
the 2030 vision.

According to the above literature, pregnancy is the major factor leading to drop-out rates among
girls worldwide. Many countries have introduced the re-entry policy in order to make girls
complete their secondary school education but the drop-out rate has continued. For instance, in
Muchinga Province where Nakonde District is found, during the visit of former First Lady
Kaseba, ZANIS on 14th August 2014 reported that 289 school girls fell pregnant in 2014.

The unaddressed problem that needs to be answered is the continued school drop-out rate among
girls despite measures put in place to address the situation. This entails that there are other
factors which are yet to be known that lead to this persistent school drop-outs among girls. This
was supported by Mensch and Hoyd (2008) who argued that school girls’ pregnancy only
accounts for about 20% of school dropouts among female adolescents in the Sub-Saharan
African Region. They further said that the circumstances that predispose young women to have
19
premarital sex or to marry early, such as poverty, poor performance and other factors may
themselves lead students to drop out of school.

The study by Ondere (2012) was in the Kenyan context, The researcher recommended for further
studies in other districts in order to find other factors for school dropout among girls. However,
this study sought to establish factors contributing to secondary school dropout among girls in
Nakonde District.

The current researcher has observed that the study by Ondere was purely quantitative in
methodology and was little supported by qualitative input. Therefore, the current study employs
a mixed research approach. Ondere had no room for probing in order to have in-depth
information because the nature of study required a lot of interaction between respondents and
researcher in order to establish factors leading to dropout among girls. Hence, the present
researcher decided to use also interview guide for teachers and parents and focus group
discussion for students.

Furthermore, a number of researchers concentrated on school dropout among girls in Basic and
Primary schools. Little has been done on secondary school level this encouraged the researcher
to conduct a study on school dropout among girls in Secondary schools of Nakonde District. In
addition, the present researcher did not adopt the theories of institutional perspective
development by Rumberger (2004) used by the previous researcher because it focused on the
characteristics of school, policies and practices instead opted to use Social Feminism which
encourages equality for both men and women. It also advocates for change which can only be
achieved through change of institutions such as education in this way dropout among girls can be
reduced.
Besides, factors leading to drop-out of school in other areas may be different from the ones in
Nakonde district and this was what this study sought to establish.

2.5 Definition of Terms

Drop-out: refers to pupils who stop school from at any given grade level before completion
of Grade 12

Likert Scale: refers to attitude scale in questionnaires based on scaling from 1-5.

20
Rate: the number of pupils in percentage who stop school before completion (of Grade
12)

Factors: things that contribute to someone to leaves school before completion of education
Cycles

Persistent: process of continuous occurrence of school for a long period of time

Feminism uncovers the ways in which social and cultural factors, assumptions and
structures are shaped by gender

2.6 Summary
The chapter presented some literature available on school dropouts especially among girls
globally, in Africa and Zambia. The main focus was to look at factors leading to persistent
school dropouts among girls in secondary schools. The available literature has confirmed that
dropout of school among girls worldwide is still a challenge. The factors leading to the school
dropout differ from one country to another depending on their cultural beliefs. According to the
literature, the outstanding factor leading to school dropout among girls is pregnancy followed by
early marriages. In order to address the school dropout rates among girls, some policies like re-
entry were introduced so as to encourage young mothers to continue with school after delivery.
But some reviewed literature has indicated that many girls do not go back to school after
delivery. Furthermore, dropout rates among girls have continued despite the policies and
interventions to curb this challenge in secondary schools. This scenario attracted the current
researcher to embark on the research to establish other factors leading to persistent school
dropout rates among girls in Nakonde District of Muchinga Province. The next chapter presents
the methodology for the study. This has described research design, population, instruments,
sample size, data collection and data analysis.

21
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
The previous chapter reviewed literature relevant to the study. It discussed the factors leading to
school dropouts among girls in three perspectives that is, Global, Africa and Zambia. However,
this chapter presents the methodology used in the study. It further describes the research design,
target population, sampling techniques, study sample and procedure, data collection methods and
instruments, data analysis techniques, validity testing and ethical considerations.

Methodology is a way to find out the result of a given problem on a specific matter and it acts as
the nerve center of the entire research (Guba, 1981).The methodology was appropriate because it
assisted the researcher to produce information on persistent school dropout among girls, which is
of interest to policy makers and educationalists in Zambia.

3.2 Research Design

This study used a descriptive case study. Descriptive case studies set to describe the natural
phenomena which occur within the data in question. Taylor etal (2008) define case studies as
those research projects, which attempt to explain holistically the dynamics of a certain historical
period of a particular social unit. It excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue
or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous
research. This method ensures that the issue is not explored through one lens, but rather a variety
of lenses which allows for multiple facets of the phenomenon to be revealed and understood. In
order to have in-depth information on persistent school drop-outs among girls both qualitative
and quantitative instruments were used to collect data. By including both quantitative and
qualitative data, case study helps explain both the process and outcome of a phenomenon
through complete observation, reconstruction and analysis of the cases under investigation
(Tellis, 1997). The researcher opted for this in recognition of the fact that the strength of one
approach makes up for the weaknesses of the other approach (Creswell, 2009).

22
Preference was given to Qualitative instruments as it was found to be the most appropriate for
this study. It further allows for detailed investigation of issues, deals with human experience and
is suited for sensitive issues that might require probing for more information (Guba, 1981).

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches had inherent strengths and weaknesses. Therefore,
Onwuegbuzie and Frels (2013) argued that an increasing number of pragmatic researchers were
advocating for conducting studies that utilized both qualitative and quantitative techniques
within the same inquiry.

3.3 Target Population

According to Kombo and Tromp (2006) a population is a group of individuals, objects, or items
from which samples are taken for measurement. Therefore, this study comprised the head
teachers, teachers, pupils and parents in five selected public secondary schools of Nakonde
District. The target population contained members of a group that the researcher was interested
in studying because they all had significant traits in common. The target population for this study
was the current pupils in selected secondary schools.

Sample Size
The population sample was 130 respondents to represent the population under the study area.
These were 5 head-teachers, 65 teachers (13 from each school), 50 pupils (10 from each school)
and 10 parents in Nakonde District to represent the population under study. The sample size
criteria under the quantitative approach were done through the use of published tables which
provided the sample size for a given set of criteria. These sample sizes have been calculated
according to three combinations which are precision, confidence and variability levels (Singh
and Masuku , 2012).

Sampling Procedure
Five secondary schools out of twelve were selected. Since it was simple random sampling, to
ensure that there was no biasness names of schools were written on small pieces of papers and
were put in a box and then the required numbers of schools were picked. The head-teachers and
Grade teachers were purposively selected because of the position they held in schools. Parents,
who had children in schools were purposively selected. As Ball (1990) notes, purposive
sampling is used to access knowledgeable people who have in-depth knowledge about particular
23
issues by virtue of their professional role. While Pupils from Grades 10 to 12 were selected by
using simple random sampling. Class lists were appropriate for this method, Kombo and Tromp
(2006; 78) state that the researcher may simply obtain a list of residents, and then using a
sequence of numbers from a random numbers table may select say 10% or 20%, or some portion
of names on the list.

3.4 Research Instruments and Data Collection

The research instruments are tools that are used to collect the required data. The research
instruments that were used to collect data included: questionnaires, focus group discussions and
in-depth semi-structured Interview guide. From literature review, it was discovered that many
researchers had used these tools to collect data and they proved to be efficient. Therefore, these
three research instruments were selected.

In this study, semi-structured interview guide, focus group discussion and structured
questionnaires were used to collect primary data. These methods are cheap and quick as data
collection can be done in the shortest period of time. Questionnaires were used by teachers,
focus group discussion by pupils and semi-structured interview guide by head teachers, teachers
and parents.

Primary data were collected through face to face interviews with the respondents during
interviews. During interviews the researcher took some notes. The interviews were used to get
ideas and views from head teachers, teachers and parents on the factors that led to persistent
school dropouts among girls in Nakonde. Focus Group Discussions were used to collect data
from pupils and questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers. On the other hand
secondary data were obtained from reports, internet, dissertations, theses, books in the libraries
and documents from DEBS Office in Nakonde. The data collection was done according to
stipulated time.

i Interview guide

Interview schedule is a written list of questions or topics that need to be covered by the interview
(Kasonde, 2013). In this study interview guide were employed. It consisted of open-ended
questions which were used to collect in-depth information from the parents and head teachers.
24
This instrument was used for data collection because it enabled participants to discuss their
interpretation of the world in which they lived, and to express how they regarded situations from
their own point of view. This method is a flexible tool for data collection, enabling multisensory
channels to be used: verbal, non-verbal, spoken and heard. Interviews have a higher response
rate because respondents become more involved and hence motivated. At the same time, they
handle more difficult and open ended questions (Cohen, et al, 2007).

The interview guide for parents sought to solicit information on factors contributing to school
dropout among girls, how dropouts among girls affected their livelihood and community
development, the attitude of girls and parents towards education and measures to curb school
dropouts among girls in Nakonde District.

The interview guide for head teachers sought to solicit information on factors leading to school
dropout among girls, rates of dropouts for the past three years, attitude of girls towards
education, their views and what measures the schools had been put in place in order to address
the issues of dropout among girls in their schools.

ii Questionnaire:
The questionnaire was used to collect datum from teachers. Orodho (2009), recommended the
questionnaire as an effective instrument that had the ability to collect a large amount of data in a
reasonably quick space of time. In addition, the questionnaire has privacy. This encouraged
respondents to express themselves freely. The instrument comprised closed questions.
Confidentiality was upheld and it saved time.

The questionnaire for teachers sought to establish information from the respondents on the
causes of persistent school dropouts among girls, the rate of dropout and the attitude of teachers
towards girls. The records on school dropout rates were collected from the DEBS Office in
Nakonde District from the period 2013 to 2015 Nakonde District.

iii Focus Group Discussion:

Focus groups are a form of group interview, though not in the sense of a backwards and forwards
between interviewer and group (Cohen et al, 2007). Under this instrument data collection
depends on the interaction within the group that discusses a topic supplied by the researcher. In
25
this study, it was used to collect data from the pupils in the selected schools. The instrument
comprised open-ended questions and sought to solicit information on factors leading to persistent
school dropout, attitude of girls towards school and their views on school dropouts. This enabled
the researcher to generate and evaluate data from different subgroups of a population under study
area. It further allowed gathering data on attitudes, values and opinions (Bailey, 1994, Robson,
2002).

Pilot Research Instruments

The research instruments were tested before conducting the actual study. Gay and Alvasian
(2011) states that pilot testing is the practice of pre-testing research instruments and their
usefulness for identifying questions that are vague, with unclear directions and insufficient space
to write the responses. A sample of two schools, two head teachers, 6 teachers, 6 parents and 10
pupils were selected. . The schools where pilot research was conducted did not participate in the
actual study.

McMillan and Schumacher (2006) recommend at least picking 10 participants. This helps to
clarify the questions, ease difficult questions, eliminate ambiguities and identify redundancies
(Mugenda, 2011). Pre-testing also helped to determine the time to be taken to answer the
questionnaire so that the research would not disrupt the normal running of the school. This
exercise was important as it helped the researcher to assess the validity of questions in the
instruments.

3.5 Data Analysis

Thematic analyses were used in qualitative data after coding and arranging it in themes while
quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in form of frequencies and
percentages. Sandelowski (2000) states that in some qualitative descriptive studies ‘Quasi-
Statistical analysis methods are added using numbers to summarize data with descriptive
statistics. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to enhance the analysis where
Computer generated tables of frequencies and percentages which were used in describing the
variables in terms of tables, graphs and pie charts.

26
In analyzing qualitative data the researcher employed the method of organizing the analysis by
research questions. Cohen et al. (2013) advised that this was a very useful way of organizing
data, as it drew together all the relevant data for the exact issue of concern to the researcher and
preserved the coherence of the material. It returned the reader to the driving concerns of the
research, thereby ‘closing the loop’ on the research questions that typically were raised in the
early part of an enquiry. In this approach all the relevant data from various data streams
(interviews, questionnaires among others) were collaborated to provide a collective answer to a
research question.

3.6 Limitations:
Since the study was conducted in Nakonde District, the results of the findings may not be
generalised to other districts of Zambia as there may be other factors leading to persistent drop-
outs among girls in secondary schools. Some head teachers were not comfortable to give the
records of school dropout rates. Instead the researcher obtained the records that showed school
dropouts among girls in Nakonde District from three schools and DEBS Office.

3.7 Delimitations
The study was conducted in five selected secondary schools of Nakonde District in Muchinga
Province.

3.8 Ethical issues

Mugenda (2011) encouraged ethical issues to be considered in the planning of the study, data
collection and analysis, dissemination and use of the results. The principle of confidentiality was
adhered to as much as possible in the research. All the questionnaires contained a statement to
guarantee confidentiality in bold letters treated as confidential.

Respondents were assured of confidentiality and that the findings of this study were for academic
purposes only. The Forms of Consent were collected from the respondents. Permission was
sought from the University of Zambia Ethics Committee, District Education Board Secretary of
Nakonde and head teachers of schools where the study was conducted.

In order to maintain confidentiality during the research, respond names were not mentioned and
they were told not to write their names on the questionnaire. Nachmias and Nachmais (1992),

27
cited by Cohen, et al (2007) pointed out that the essence of anonymity is that information
provided by participants should in no way reveal their identity and this can be achieved by using
aliases, codes for identifying people and password-protected files.

3.9 Summary
The chapter presented the methodology used during data collection and the justification for the
method used. It described the research design, target population, data collection instruments, and
procedure and data analysis among others. The chapter also explained in details the meanings of
the research instruments and how they were being used by the respondents in the data collection.

28
 CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction
The previous chapter discussed the methodology used in the study. This study employed a
descriptive case study design. Both quantitative and qualitative instruments were used to collect
the primary data in the field. It further discussed sample size, sampling procedure, research
instrument used, limitation and ethical issues. This chapter presents the findings of the study
which aimed at establishing factors leading to persistent school dropout rates among girls in
selected secondary schools of Nakonde District. It is organised into two major sections. The first
section describes the demographic information of the respondents that participated in the
answering of the questionnaire and the second section presents the findings of the whole study.
The findings are presented according to the research questions and some emerging themes. The
presentation starts with the responses from the questionnaires of 59 teachers followed by the in-
depth information from five teachers, five head teachers, 50 pupils and those from ten parents.

4.2 Demographic information of the respondents

Teachers were asked to indicate their sex. Figure 1 below shows the SEX of the respondents who
participated in answering the questionnaire.

Figure 1: Sex of respondents

29
The table above shows that the majority of the respondents were males (34) representing 57.6 %
while female respondents were 25 representing 42.4%.

The number of questionnaires distributed were 60 but 59 were returned which was satisfactory to
make conclusions on the target population.

Regarding the age, respondents were asked to indicate their age group. Figure 2 shows the age of
the respondents.

Figure 2: Age group of respondents

The following responses were given as it is shown in figure 2 above. From the 59 teachers who
participated in answering the questionnaires in this study most of them were in the range of
between 31-40 years (30 in number) representing 50.8% followed by 17 with the range of 26-30
years representing 28.8% then those with 40 years and above were 11 representing 18.6% and
the least was 1 in the range of 20-25 representing 1.7%

Table 3: Qualification of respondents

Qualification Frequency Percentage

Certificate 2 3.4
Diploma 34 57.6
Degree 23 39.0
Total 59 100.0
Source: Field research (2016)

30
The respondents were also asked to indicate their levels of education. Table 1 above shows that
the majority (34) 57.6% respondents had a diploma, followed by 23 (39.6%) with degree and 2
(3.4) respondents had a certificate. Therefore, the level of education was satisfactory to answer
the questions accordingly.

Figure 3: Period worked in a school by respondents

The respondents were asked to indicate the number of years they had been working at their
respective schools. As it can be seen in figure 3 above, it shows that 25 (42.4%) respondents had
worked for 4 years in their schools, followed by 20 (33.9%) who had worked for 3 years while 9
(15.3%) respondents had worked for 2 years and 5 (8.5%) had worked for 1 year in their schools.
The majority were those who worked for more than 3 years, hence, this was satisfactory to know
the dropouts for the past three years in their schools.

4.3 Factors that led to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District
The first objective sought to establish factors that led to persistent school dropouts among girls in
Nakonde District. In response to this objective the following themes emerged; early marriage,
pregnancy, poverty, business ventures, prostitution, cultural beliefs, distance, human trafficking
and clearing and forwarding.

31
Early Marriage

In response to the first objective, 59 teachers participated in this study by answering the
questionnaire. Under the first objective teachers were asked to indicate factors led to persistent
school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District

Figure 4: Whether early marriage led to persistent school dropouts

Figure 4, above shows the responses. Early marriage was indicated as the main factor
contributing to school dropouts among girls. 56 respondents representing 95% agreed followed
by 2 respondents representing 3 % who disagreed that early marriages did not lead to school
dropouts while 1 respondent representing 2 % was undecided whether or not early marriages
contributed to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District.

Early Pregnancy
Early pregnancy was observed as the second factor that contributed to school drop-out among
girls in Nakonde District. Teachers were asked to indicate whether pregnancy among school girls
led to persistent school drop-outs.

32
 Figure 5: Whether pregnancy led to persistent school dropouts

According to figure 5 the majority of the teachers 27(46%) agreed that pregnancy led to dropouts
among girls, 21 (36%) strongly agreed, 5 (8%) respondents were undecided, 4 (7%) disagreed
while 2 (3%) strongly disagreed. These results clearly show that pregnancy was also a
contributing factor.

It was discovered during the interviews with the teachers that in Nakonde there were many
aspects that contributed to teenage pregnancies. Almost all the respondents who participated in
this study complained bitterly that their children were being spoiled by the majority of the
clearing and forwarding agents at the border. School girls were attracted by these agents by
giving them a lot of money at the end of the day girls were pregnant and were not even married.

Cultural beliefs and Practices

The teachers were asked to indicate whether cultural beliefs contributed to persistent school
drop-outs among girls in Nakonde District.

33
 Figure 6: Whether cultural beliefs and practices led to persistent dropouts

Figure 6 above shows the responses from the respondents. The majority of the respondents 33
(56%) agreed that cultural beliefs contributed to dropout while 18 (30%) respondents disagreed
and 8 (14%) respondents were undecided.

Business and Trade

Business and trade were the other factors which were revealed as hindrances to girls’ education
in Nakonde. As regards to business and trade, teachers were asked to indicate whether or not
business and trade led to school dropout among girls

Figure 7: Whether or not involvement in business and trade led to drop outs.

34
In response to this question figure 7 shows the responses from 59 teachers who participated. The
majority 28(49%) respondents indicated that business contributed whereas 21(36%) did not and
9 (15%) were undecided.

It was also observed that the border town had highly influenced girls’ education in a number of
ways. For example many school girls involved themselves in business of ‘ifyamba’ (marijuana)
as they believed that it could give them a lot of money.

Distance
Distance from home to school was another impediment for girls’ education in Nakonde.
Teachers were asked to indicate whether distances from home to school contributed to school
dropouts among girls in Nakonde District.

Figure 8: Whether distance from school led to persistent dropout

It was noted that some secondary schools were located in far off places and a question was asked
as to whether or not distance from school led to persistent dropouts among girls in Nakonde as it

35
is shown in figure 8. Most of the respondents 26 (44%) agreed, 25(42%) did not agree while the
least 8 (14%) remained silent.

Since Nakonde is a border town, the researcher wanted to know if there was human trafficking
and whether it affected girls’ education.

Figure 9: Whether or not human trafficking led to school dropout

Teachers were asked to indicate whether or not human trafficking led to school dropouts among
girls in Nakonde District. Figure 9 shows that 43 (73%) of respondents disagreed, 9 (15%) were
undecided and only 7 (12%) agreed that there was human trafficking in Nakonde District.

Poverty was revealed as another hindrance to girls’ education. Therefore, teachers were asked to
indicate whether poverty led to school drop outs among girls.

Figure 10: Whether or not poverty led to school dropout

36
Figure 10 shows respondents’ views as regards to whether or not poverty led to persistent school
dropouts. Figure 10 above indicates that 39 (66%) of respondents agreed that poverty contributed
to school dropouts among girls while 11 (19%) disagreed and 9 (15%) were undecided.

With regards to prostitution, teachers were further asked to state whether or not
prostitution contributed to school dropout among girls in Nakonde. The responses
were given as it shown in the figure below.

Figure 11: Whether or not prostitution led to school dropout

Figure 11 above shows that the majority of the 30 respondents representing (51%) agreed that
prostitution led to school dropout while 19 representing (32%) disagreed and 10 representing
(17%) were undecided.

4.4 To establish the Rate of dropout among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to
2015
This was the second objective of the study

Teachers were asked to indicate whether the school dropout rates among girls in the period 2013
to 2015 was high. Figure 12 below shows the responses.

37
 Figure 12: Shows the rates of school dropout from 2013 to 2015.

Figure 12 above shows that 29 respondents representing 49.2% agreed that the rate of dropouts
from 2013 to 2015 was high whereas 24 respondents representing 40.7% were undecided and 6
respondents representing 10.2% disagreed that the dropout rates during that period was high.

The researcher further asked the teachers about the Grade in which majority of pupils dropped
out of school (in their schools). The table below shows the responses.

Table 4: Shows the Grade where dropout was high

Grade Frequency Percentage

Grade 10 16 27
Grade 11 23 39
Grade 12 20 34
Source: Field research (2015)

Table 4 above indicates that 23 (39%) the respondents said that the rate was high in grade 11
while 20 (34%) said that the dropout rate was high in grade 12 and the least 16 (27%)
respondents indicated that the dropout rates were high in grade 10. This suggests that the school
dropout rates among girls were high when they reached grade 11 level.

The researcher also wanted to find out whether or not the rate of dropouts was high among the
day scholars in Nakonde District. Thus, teachers were asked to indicate whether or not the
dropouts were high among the day scholars. The responses are shown in figure 13 below,

38
 Figure 13: Whether or not the rate of dropout was high among the day scholars.

Figure 13 above shows that the majority 48 (81%) respondents agreed that the rate of dropouts
was high among the day scholars, while 6 (10%) were undecided and 5 (9%) disagreed.

In addition, the respondents were asked to indicate whether or not the rate of dropouts was high
in co-education schools.

Figure 14: Whether or not the rates of dropout was high in co-education schools

29 (49%) teachers indicated that the rates of dropout was high in co-education schools
whereas18 (31%) disagreed and 12 (20%) were undecided as shown in figure 14 above.

39
4.5 The third objective was to determine the attitude of girls towards education
With regards to girls’ attitude, teachers were asked to indicate whether or not the attitude of girls
led to persistent school dropouts among girls.

Figure 15: Whether or not the negative attitude of girls led to drop outs of school

Figure 15 above shows that most respondents 39 (66%) agreed that negative attitude of girls led
to dropouts then 10 (17%) disagreed and 10 (17%) were undecided.

4.3 Factors that led to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District
The researcher wanted to have wider knowledge on the subject matter as a result, the same
objectives were used to collect the in-depth information by employing interview guides to 5 head
teachers, 5 teachers 10 parents and focus group discussions with 50 pupils as is presented below;

The first objective sought to establish factors led to persistent school dropouts among girls in
Nakonde District

In order to have in-depth information on factors led to school dropout, interviews and focus
group discussions were conducted. In response to this objective all the respondents who
participated in this study said that there were some factors in Nakonde District which led to
dropouts among the girls, early marriage was cited as the major factor that contributed to the
persistent school dropout in Nakonde District. Two teachers argued:

40
 “The mentality of the community on the education of girls leads to
a lot of dropouts among girls. The communities have higher regard
for marriages than education. They think educating a girl-child up
to Grade 12, ‘ninshi konaula abana’ (spoiling the children) and is
seen as wasting time to go to school instead of doing other things
or just getting married”

One teacher went on to say that girls lacked education or sensitization when they got mature.
They thought that they were old enough to get married especially to truck-drivers, taxi-drivers
and clearing agents who attracted them with a lot of money. It was also observed that, “eloping”
a strong traditional practice of the Namwanga people was a barrier to the majority of girls more
especially in Nakonde rural areas. This was common if an elderly person was being observed
going out with a school girl. At one time the parents would chase their daughter from home to
the same man that they had been seeing him with their daughter several times entering in his
house or with him and they would force this man to marry their daughter.

In addition, one teacher observed:

“In Nakonde district there are no colleges where pupils can go

after completion of Grade 12. Their dreams are shattered after
school. Therefore, many girls think that when they reach Grade 10
or puberty, to them is enough and they decide to stop school and
get married.”

It was further revealed that in rural areas of Nakonde parents shift to farmland areas leaving their
children alone. One teacher explained:

“Many girls drop out of school during rainy season when their
parents go to farms. They stay there for about two to three months
leaving children alone. Due to poverty levels children go to
Tanzania to source for money. In the process, they end up in
marriages.”

41
In an interview with the head teachers, one head teacher had this to say:

“Namwanga people do not seem to have boundary of who should

marry their daughters. Even those girls who are on CAMFED and
Government support, once the girls start looking well parents
withdraw them from school and force them into marriage as they
are more interested in ‘mpango’ (bride price) than in girl-child
education. He further said children sometimes lacked vision due to
uncompetitive environment in Nakonde to attract girls, as a result,
they drop out of school.”

Dropouts became higher because parents considered girls' schooling of no benefit when they left
their own family after getting married. It was found that early marriage was the foremost
cause of early school drop-outs among girls in Nakonde.

Focus Group Discussions were conducted with girls in all five selected secondary schools. From
the discussions with 50 pupils the following emerged:

Girls in all five schools (50) agreed that there were school dropouts among girls in Nakonde
District. The main factors according to the girls were early marriages, poverty, pregnancies, peer
pressure, drug abuse, love of money and lack of support from the parents. One girl from one
school said:

“We enter into marriages at a tender age; sometimes our parents

are not even aware that we are married. But in most cases our
parents withdraw us from school and force us into marriage
because marriage is more valued than education”

The researcher had interviews with ten parents, five males and five females. These respondents
were selected from Nakonde Township because all schools where the study was conducted were
day schools and the majority of the pupils came from within the town. The parents were also
asked their views on factors that led to their girl-children to drop out of school.

42
The parents complained that the location of Nakonde had a lot of impact on school going
children and had highly contributed to school drop-out among girls in the District. They
observed that many girls had been spoiled by the so called ‘Clearing and Forwarding Agent’
boys. The girls were being attracted to agents who gave them a lot of money which led to
pregnancies. Once they impregnated them, they did not even marry them. Such girls found it
difficult to go back to school but to dropout.

It was revealed by 10 parents who participated in the study that the Re-entry Policy was one of
the factors which had contributed to school dropout among girls in secondary schools of
Nakonde District. One female parent argued:

“Re-entry Policy nayonaula abana elyo taisunga na buvirgin

bwabo, balenga ukutila nabanabo abashakwata abana
ukonaikilamo,” (Re-entry Policy has spoiled the children and is
not helping them to treasure their virginity even those without
children are copying from them).

Furthermore, they said that teaching of family planning and giving contraceptives to school girls
had contributed also to school drop-out among girls in secondary schools. These encouraged
girls to engage themselves in sex or prostitution which ended up either in HIV/AIDS infections
or pregnancies, which in turn resulted into the increase in absenteeism, deaths to some, and
dropout of school.

When parents were further asked to comment on girls’ dropout four parents said that technology
had contributed to dropout among girls. They argued that children were in the habit of watching
bad films up to mid-night on television and phones. At the end they practiced what they saw.
This affected the performance of the children in schools because children had no time to study
but to watch television throughout. Girls were also involved in clearing and forwarding of
vehicles entering into Zambia at Tanzania-Zambia Boarder, and business and trade. Beer
drinking and smoking and group influence were also common among girls of school age in
Nakonde though minimal.

43
Effects of dropout among girls on their livelihood and community development
Parents were further asked to state the effects of school drop-out among girls in Nakonde District
and the following were the responses:

i. When girls dropped out of school there was an increase in cases of theft.

ii. Girls broke marriages of other people.

iii. Girls involved themselves as sexual workers in some places within the township.

iv. Less presentation of women in socio-economic development of the country.

It was further revealed by some teachers and pupils that in some schools of Nakonde there were
some teachers and school boys who also impregnated girls. These teachers were protected by the
parents of the girls so it was difficult to control the situation.

Re-entry Policy

The researcher asked the respondents to comment on the re-entry Policy since pregnancy was
one of the main causes of school drop-out among girls in Nakonde District.

Views of head teachers on the Re-entry Policy

The head teachers had different views concerning this Policy. Three head teachers said that the
re-entry Policy was working well in their schools because the number of girls who continued
with school after delivery was bigger than those who did not come back. Whereas, one head
teacher argued that the Policy was not good at all because pregnant girls came to school with
divided minds which reduced concentration in school and the end result was dropping out of
school. The other head teacher stated that in his school the Policy was not working well as the
number of girls who continued with school was smaller compared to those who did not come
back. He continued to say that the Re-entry Policy was being abused by the majority of the
victims, many girls had been oriented but they did not take it seriously because they knew that
once they got pregnant they would go on leave and later on they would continue with school
hence, pregnancies continued.

44
Parents’ views on Re-entry Policy

All 10 parents pointed out that the re-entry Policy had contributed to school drop-outs among
girls in Nakonde District. It encouraged girls to involve themselves in bad behavior such as
prostitution, beer drinking and so on which led to pregnancies because they knew that after
delivery they would continue with school. It was discovered that there was fear among some
groups that the Re-entry Policy had led to the increased cases of pregnancies among school girls
that’s why there was a lot of dropouts among girls.

Views of girls on Re-entry Policy,

In Focus Group Discussion with the girls, almost all girls said that the Re-entry Policy was not
working well and did not support morality among some girls. They said that the number of
pregnant girls who continued with school was very small. To the majority, it marked the end of
their education sometimes even the parents who had resources refused to continue supporting
their daughters after they fell pregnant as they thought that they were just wasting their
resources.

Cultural beliefs and Practices

In support of this during the interviews with five head teachers, it was discovered that among the
Namwanga people many parents still had strong beliefs in cultural practices like ‘Ukusemya’
(eloping) which contributed to dropout among girls. This was common in rural areas of
Nakonde. Sometimes a girl may made an arrangement for marriage with a man without the
consent of the parents or sometimes they were aware of it. But at the end parents arranged the
marriage and asked for other requirements and the dowry from the man instead of encouraging
their daughter to continue with school.

Business and Trade

Business and trade were the other factors which were revealed as hindrance to girls’ education in
Nakonde. It was revealed that the border town had highly influenced girls’ education in a number
of ways. For example many school girls involved themselves in business of ‘ifyamba’
(marijuana) as they believed that this business would enable them to get a lot of money at the
shortest period of time. One head teacher lamented:

45
 “In Nakonde area children are exposed to money at a tender age,
so they know how to handle money that’s why they do business of
‘ifyamba’ (marijuana) because it gives them a lot of money. He
further said that this activity has been becoming a serious concern
especially that Nakonde is located at the border town, therefore,
Children take school as a time waster.”

It was also found that due to girls’ involvement in business and trade they engaged themselves in
smoking dagga, beer drinking, and clearing and forwarding activities. In focus group discussion
with the pupils, one girl said:

“Some girls drop out of school due to drug abuse and to peer
pressure. Once a person is addicted to drugs she thinks that, drug
is the only solution to everything. This encourages or leads to
absenteeism and finally to drop out of school

Distance
In order to have an in-depth information, head-teachers were asked to comment on the school
distances since many schools had been up-graded to enable more children to had access to
secondary school education. In response one head teacher complained:

“Pupils who come from distant places rent small houses in nearby
compounds where they stay as weekly boarders. This makes girls
to become vulnerable to men especially to clearing agents, truck-
drivers and taxi-drivers who attract them with a lot of money. This
encourages pregnancies and dropouts among girls”.

Furthermore, it was explained that the whole District had no public boarding secondary school
except one grant aided Girls’ school. The rest eleven secondary schools were day and co-
education schools. The majority of the pupils from distant places rented small houses. It was
noted that pregnancies were common on girls who were renting small houses than those who
were coming from their homes.

46
Human trafficking

In addition, two head teachers bitterly complained that though human trafficking was minimal it
was common in the area. They said that if it was not taken seriously, it would be worse as it led
to school dropout among girls especially those from poor families. One head gave an example of
five girls from one school who were sold by their parents to the ‘Swahilis’ in the year 2015.
These girls were taken as far as Dar es Salaam. Fortunately, the case was reported to police and
the Government came in to help and the girls were rescued.

It was also revealed by parents during the interviews that human trafficking was becoming a
serious threat to vulnerable children in the area. One male parent argued:

“Some parents are selling their daughters to Swahilis and when

these daughters are sold they go for good unless the case is
reported to police or Victim Support that’s when they can be
retrieved if not it becomes the end. Parents are just interested in
money they do not care or worry about what would happen to their
daughters. The majority of the victims of human trafficking are
girls.”

Poverty was another factor which 50 girls in all five schools (10 from each school) pointed out as
a hindrance to girl-child education in Nakonde. They said that many parents in Nakonde failed to
pay for their children. This made parents to pay for the boys rather than girls’ education because
they thought that girls would get married, hence, educating them was the wastage of money.
Furthermore, lack of financial support was also indicated as a factor leading to dropout among
girls. One girl said:

“The parents have no enough money to support their children to

school and the majority of the parents are ignorant of
organizations that support girls’ education. At the same time the
conditions put in place make it difficult for vulnerable children to
access it. As a result they drop out of school.”

47
Another girl pointed out that:

“Competition is common among us, so you can find that those who
come from poor families also want to compete with others. At the
end, they start going out with sugar daddies or clearing agents.
This contributes to pregnancies and dropout of school.”

In addition, almost all girls that participated in focus group discussions complained that some
girls stopped school because of being orphans. The guardians and step-parents failed to pay
school fees and they didn’t treat them well. One girl said:

“When our parents die we face a lot of challenges in a number of

issues. Sometimes they say that they would pay for us in school for
one year. So it becomes difficult to source for our school fees and
other requirements. Limo limo balatucusha no kututana ifyakulya
panganda (sometimes they mistreat us and deny us food at home)
in the end we stop school.”

When asked further why some vulnerable pupils dropped out of school when there were
organizations which sponsored girls. One head-teacher revealed that in some schools of Nakonde
district, parents did not accept the Non-Governmental Organizations such as CAMFED,
FAWEZA, Social Warfare and others to sponsor their children to school. In an interview with
one head-teacher, he explained that:

“Some churches in the outskirts of Nakonde town do not accept

their Children to be sponsored by Non-Governmental
Organizations and other stakeholders because they believe that
these organizations work under the influence of Satanism.
Therefore, sponsoring their daughters is one way of initiating them
into satanism practices. Hence, parents opt to withdraw their
daughters from school and marry them especially when they fail to
pay for them”

48
Parents interviewed in this study also complained about school girls’ prostitution in Nakonde
district. They argued that the children had been spoiled in the area as there were many girls who
engaged themselves in sex work. Parents said that in some parts of Nakonde there were women
who rented out their houses specifically for sex workers as their business. So some girls had put
themselves in this work in order to earn some income in the end they stopped school and
concentrated on this business.

Effects of school dropouts among girls on school development

The researcher wanted to find out whether dropout among girls had some effects on the
development of the school. In response to this question all five head teachers said:

i. Dropout of school reduced school income e.g. if the school were collecting let’s say
K60, 000 from pupils the income went down.
ii. Purchase of school items were affected due to low income from pupils.
iii. School pass rate went down if the girls who were performing well stop school.
iv. Reduction in school enrolment.
v. Participation by girls became low.
vi. It had negative effect on the remaining pupils in school.

Human Rights
In an interview with the 10 parents they complained about human rights. The parents argued that,
it had been difficult for them to control their children in homes. Whenever they tried to discipline
their children, they threatened them that they would report them to the Police or Victim Support
Unit. As a result children misbehaved, for the girls it even led to pregnancies and finally dropped
out of school and other bad behaviors.

4.4 To establish the Rate of dropout among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the period 2013 to
2015
The second objective sought to establish the rate of dropouts in the schools, three head teachers
were interviewed. The table below shows the information extracted from school records on the
rate of dropouts among girls,

49
Table 5: School dropout rates among girls from 2013 to 2015

Year School A School. B School C

2013 18 (28%) 79 (43%) 11 (28%)
2014 26 (31%) 62 (36%) 09 (23%)
2015 57 (37%) 47 (26%) 14 (43%)
Source: School records from three schools (2015)

The table above indicates that in school A the dropout rate was high in 2015; the rate was 57
(37%) while for school B the rate was high in 2013 and it was 79 (43%) and for school C the
dropout rate was high in 2015 and it was 14 (43%). Factors led to drop out in the above table
based on early marriages and pregnancies.

4.5 To determine whether the attitude of girls towards education led to persistent school
drop outs among girls.
For in-depth information from teachers on attitude of girls, one teacher observed that:

“Many girls are not so serious with school. Being a border town,
when boys bring them in cars to school they think that ‘balifika’
(they have arrived) and they like a luxury life in the way they
behave hence they stop school before completion of Grade 12”

On the other hand, one teacher said:

“Girls have negative attitude towards school. When they come to

school they behave as if they are being forced by someone. But
there are some who value education as they see it as one way of
fighting poverty”.

Attitude of teachers towards girls

Head teachers were further asked under the same objective whether the attitudes of teachers
contributed to persistent school dropouts among girls. In response one head teacher had this to
say:

50
 In my school some teachers are not interested in girls’ education,
others are not concerned whether girls come to school or not. He
explained that the new generations of teachers who are coming
want to compete with pupils. For example, during civilian days,
female teachers want to be like girls in the way they dress. In most
cases they do not even caution the pupils, there is less guidance
from the teachers. Female teachers are not concerned with the
discipline of girls and only few male teachers are well disciplined
and concerned about children (especially ‘old timers’). This has
contributed to school dropout in my school.

Another head teacher from another school contended that:

In Nakonde District it is common to find teachers quarrelling with

pupils. Sometimes even on trivial matters they get offended more
especially girls. Some girls even drop out of school. In my school
the relationship between female teachers and girls is not good,
male teachers understand girls’ problems better than females.

With regards to the same objective, it was discovered that in some schools in Nakonde some
teachers were still proposing and impregnating school girls. The majority who did this were
protected by the parents of the girls. At the same time the boys also impregnated girls. Pregnant
girls were being laughed at, bullied by the boys and looked at as mothers; one head teacher said
“The pregnant girls in my school are told by boys to find a school for mothers.”

In focus group discussions with girls it was discovered that the majority of the girls had negative
attitudes towards school because they did not show seriousness in learning and studying. Some
girls thought that going to school was a matter of wasting time instead of making money. One
girl stated that:

“Some of our friends say ukwikala musukulu kuposa nshita”

twalibelesha ukwikata mpiya (staying in school is a waste of time,

51
 we are used to having money) while some fear Science Subjects
that’s why they stop school.”
Girls were further asked their views on the attitude of teachers towards girls in their schools. One
girl from one school said:

“Female teachers discourage us in a number of ways, sometimes

when they see us with male teachers they think that “twalikwata
icibeleshi no kutila tulebalansha” (we like over familiarity and we
propose to them). When we dress well they say we are competing
with then. Such words make some of us to lose interest in school
and drop out of school.”

In addition, in all schools girls revealed that the male teachers treated them equally when it came
to learning in class but again there were some who discouraged them by their words like. One
girl said:

“Imwe mulifikopo tamumfwa nalimufunda na mailo,( you are lazy

even yesterday l taught you the same thing) idiots is better you stay
home than coming to school’

Furthermore, girls argued that there were some teachers who proposed girls and impregnated
them. This applied the same with the boys. After girls were pregnant they were being bullied by
boys, laughed at them and told them to find a school for mothers. These and other factors forced
girls to abandon school before completing Grade 12.

Parents’ views on the girls’ attitudes towards education

In response to the above research question, parents pointed out that the children had negative
attitude toward education because among the Namwanga people marriage was more valued by
the parents than education. In addition, they said in Nakonde District there were no job
opportunities to attract girls therefore; the parents thought that educating them was wastage of
resources. One parent said:

52
 Our daughters value marriage more than education. Ifwe
fwebafyashi bambi tulafwaya abana basambilile pakutila
bakesetusunga nomba tabomfwa. Limbi kumulandu wa gender
iisile kuti bacinja baposa mano kusukulu, ( some of us parents we
want our daughters to get educated so that they can take care of us
when we are old, but they don’t understand may be they will
change because of gender)

Another parent said:

“ifwe fwe bafyashi tulabeba abana ukutila isukulu enoko kabili

ewiso Nomba tabomfwa” (us parents tell our children that school
is your mother and father but they don’t want to listen”

4.6 The fourth objective was to establish the views from the head teachers, teachers, and
parents
Teachers’ views on school dropouts among girls;

In response to this objective one teacher stated:

“Drop out of school among girls does not augur well because these
are the future leaders who can help to develop this nation but if
they stop school at an early stage, we are not going to have
representations of females in all areas of developmental aspects”

Another teacher argued:

“In order to reduce on school dropout among girls, there is need

of a task force and committees in schools to look into issues of girl-
child education. At the Same time the Government also should
intensify the law especially to parents who force their children into
marriages as they are contributing to low educational Levels of
girls in Nakonde District.”

53
During the interviews with the teachers it was revealed that in Nakonde, trade of all forms
increased the dropouts. These included; child labor, prostitutions, early marriages, unwanted
pregnancies which were as a result of poverty, children engaged themselves early in these
practices resulting in them dropping out of school at a premature age. One teacher said:

“Girls are not given the necessary attention needed by parents or

care givers, Hence resort to go into prostitution and being married
off early, in most schools we have less sporting activities to keep
these girls busy and focused in life”
Another teacher pointed out:

“The dropouts among girls were usually high due to negative

attitude the girls had about education. Some girls would prefer to
get married than going to school. In addition, traditional beliefs of
viewing marriage to be very important in society also affected the
girls to had negative attitude towards school.”

Furthermore, one teacher added on to say:

“Motivation talks should be extended to the communities where

girls are coming from and not to leave this responsibility to the
teachers only. Public and other stakeholders should continue to
sensitise girls on the importance of education by telling them the
reality of live.”

Views of the head teachers on school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District,

One head teacher said:

“It was important to have programs of taking pupils to towns to

see some important female figures like doctors, lawyers, members
of parliament, and others or calling them to the District to have
talks with them and see them so that they can be motivated. This

54
 can encourage girls to remain in school up to grade 12 hence
reducing dropouts among girls.”

Besides, some head teachers said that building of public boarding secondary school would have
been of great help to the District because all pupils who were renting small houses could be in
the boarding hostels which could reduce on pregnancies among girls who were renting and those
coming from distance places.

One head teacher explained:

“The community lacks education information, hence, it needs

sensitization. Parents also need balance in paying for their
children both boys and girls. The aspect of valuing boys’ education
only should be looked into it not a situation whereby girls are
expected to get married, thus, not valued in terms of education.”

Another head teacher argued:

“Re-entry policy was not clear to some parents especially in rural

areas, the government would come in to educate parents about
this because some think that the establishment of this policy has
made the children to be the property of the government”.

One female head teacher strongly wishes her school to be free from school dropout among girls
to enable them to complete secondary level of education.

Measures put in place to curb school dropout among girls in Nakonde District

Head teachers in five schools were asked about the measures which their schools had put in place
to curb persistent dropouts among girls in Nakonde District. Their responses were as follows;

i. three head teachers said that their schools were sponsoring some vulnerable girls on
school bursary scheme by paying school fees for them in order to retain them in school

55
 ii. all five head teachers pointed out that Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Executive
followed those who stopped school and absentees in their homes and talked to their
parents intensively so that their children could go back to school.
iii. head teachers said that the mentor teachers educated pregnant girls who were about to
stop school in order to understand the re-entry policy
iv. in all five schools it was found that once the pupil was pregnant the parents had to be
talked to so that they could encourage their daughter to continue with school up to the
time of delivery or come back after delivery
v. In case of human trafficking two head teachers stated that if they were aware of .the cases
they involved police officers and victim support groups who followed up the cases.
Sometimes head teachers followed wherever the pupils were taken such Tanzania.
vi. In all schools matrons talked to the girls on several issues as one way of motivating
them.
vii. Sometimes pregnant girls after delivery were transferred to other schools in order to
protect other girls in school from ‘bad’ influence.

Teachers were asked to suggest measures that could be used to curb school dropouts among girls.
They stated the following:

i. to sensitize both the girls and parents especially those showed some signs of
dropping out from school.

ii. the government to introduce free education from Grade one to twelve

iii. to turn someday schools into boarding schools in order to reduce on a distance

iv. to build more colleges for training girls in life skills to reduce poverty levels

v. to punish both boys and girls who involve in sexual relationships while at school

vi. involving the Chieftainess to sanitize the parents on the importance of education

vii. feeding pupils in day schools to be taken seriously

56
Parents were asked to suggest measures to curb school dropout rate among girls. Parents
suggested the following:

i. Government to build a girls’ boarding secondary school in Nakonde district

ii. Skills Center to be opened in Nakonde in order to attract girl-child

iii. Job creation in the District

iv. to educate parents on the importance of girl-child education

v. Re-entry Policy should be revised because it did not serve its purpose.

4.7 Summary
The findings of the study presented in this chapter indicated that there were several factors both
from the community and schools which contributed to school dropouts among girls in secondary
schools of Nakonde District. The findings revealed that the main factor was early marriage
followed by pregnancies, poverty and business ventures among school going children. Other
factors included long distance to school which forces children to be renting small houses as
weekly boarders, clearing and forwarding activities, human trafficking, lack of support by the
parents, and others. It also revealed that the negative attitude of girls themselves towards school
led to dropping out of school.

Community environment was also a factor as parents had higher regard for marriages than
education. It was noted that parents withdraw their children from school when they reached
puberty or just in grade 10 or 11 and married them off so that they could benefit from bride price.
The majority of the parents especially in rural areas of Nakonde thought that educating a girl-
child was just a matter of wasting the resources thus parents educated more boys than girls. Re-
entry Policy was also found to contribute to dropouts as girls who fell pregnant did not take it
seriously. After delivery the pregnancies continued. There were some measures which the
schools had put in place which if intensified would reduce on the dropouts among girls in
Nakonde District.

57
 CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS

5.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, the findings of the study were presented. They were presented according
to the research objectives. The main factors contributed to school dropouts were early marriages,
pregnancies, poverty, business ventures and distance to and from school among others. These
factors were presented using the charts. In addition, the chapter outlined the measures put in
place by the schools to address the issue of school dropouts among girls in the District. However,
this chapter presents the discussions of the research findings of the study that aimed at
establishing factors that led to the persistent school drop-outs among girls in selected senior
secondary schools of Nakonde District. It was discussed in relation to the objectives. The
objectives of the study were; to determine factors associated with persistent school drop-outs
among girls, to establish the rate of dropouts among girls from grades 10 to 12 in the period 2013
to 2015, to investigate whether the attitude of girls towards school led to persistent school
dropouts among girls and to examine the views of the head-teachers, teachers and parents on
school dropouts among girls.

5.2 Factors leading to persistent school dropouts among girls in Nakonde

District
From the findings of the study it was shown that in Nakonde District there were persistent school
dropouts among girls in the period 2013 to 2015 and that there were various factors that led to
girls’ dropping out of school. The findings of the study were almost the same among all the
respondents who had participated in the study. The main factors discovered were early
marriages, pregnancies, poverty, distance, prostitution, cultural beliefs and business across the
Zambia-Tanzania Border. Minor factors included; human trafficking, clearing and forwarding,
competition and peer pressure.

This study had revealed that among the Namwanga people marriage was more valued than the
education of a girl-child. It was believed that educating a girl-child was the wastage of the family
resources as she would get married. This is in line with Malwa et al (2011) who argued that in

58
Nigeria women still continued to be under educated and the girl-child did not have the privilege
of a good education. Parents and guardians also did not see any obligation to be involved in girl-
child education as they were usually given off for marriage immediately they attained puberty.
All these practices in Nigeria made girls abandon school and concentrated on house work

This is in agreement with Nisha (2014) states that in South Asia, girls’ education is not valued as
they believe that girls are trained for a role as a wife, mother, and daughter in law. Furthermore,
Nisha (2014) states that families also think that the cost of education both monetary and
psychological is wasted on a girl as she will get married. Such beliefs should be discouraged in
Zambia if the country is to develop through women participation in the aspects of socio-
economic development. Forced early marriages are a big threat to the human rights and well-
being of children. It denies the young an opportunity to grow and empower themselves. It
hampers the basic rights of these children to education, health, protection and development. The
girls were forced into it a lot more in comparison with their male counterparts. This impacted
adversely on girls particularly in rural areas and much more those who came from poor families.
Statistically, the vulnerable girl-child of Nakonde District was twice more likely to be married
early than the girls who came from higher income groups.

This is in line with what the theory of feminism stated that women were being suppressed by a
male dominated society both in education and later life, and that the stereotypical views of
women’s part in society of becoming housewife, marrying early and having children contributed
to low education levels and concentrate on household chores ( Feminism and Education, 2014).

It is important for the various Government Ministries and other stakeholders to combine efforts
and combat the scourge of early marriages and its inherent consequences. In contemporary times,
parents should also learn that men want to marry women who are educated enough with a
reasonable income which should be able to supplement the husband’s earnings. Perpetual
dependence of women on the menfolk has several consequences one of which is the increased
number of divorces in Zambia and the so many street children lingering around towns and cities.
It is time that parents and guardians begin to fight for the rights of the girl-child.

59
The situation in Nakonde district was similar to what Chege and Sifuna (2006) observed in their
study that some parents in some parts of Kenya tended to discourage their daughters from
acquiring too much education for fear that they would have difficulties in finding educated
husbands or being good wives. It is also in agreement with Hari (2014) who observed that in
some parts of Ghana many parents and community members had the attitude that educating girls
was a waste of time and money, because they would eventually be married off and their
education would therefore only benefit their husbands and the families they marry into. Money
spent on the girls’ education would thus be considered a loss to the girls’ families. Since there
was also the expectation that boys would become the "breadwinners" of their future families,
many parents and community members felt that boys should for this reason be provided with
every opportunity to help them fulfill this role, this includes educating them as far as possible.
Girls, on the other hand, it is expected, will have husbands who will provide for them and an
education is therefore not essential for them.

It should be noted that not all educated women would fail to get married and sustain their
relationship; there are a lot of highly educated women working in very high institutional
portfolios who are married with flourishing relationships. In our communities there are also a lot
of uneducated women who are not married and a lot more of them who have drastically failed to
sustain their marriages. Thus, the situation also poses a challenge because both the uneducated
and the educated women are able to marry and sustain marriages and vice versa.

It is time that African countries should refrain from such beliefs and practices and remove the
notion of placing the woman in the kitchen. Society is dynamic and it needs a woman who is
empowered in all the spheres of life so much so that she should be able to surmount all the social
setbacks that might arise. Over and above, women participation in socio-economic development
is vital. After all, women constitute a larger population as compared to men hence their
empowerment through education is critical.

Generally, forced early marriages have affected the girl-children in all the areas educationally,
socially, economically and physically. Most of these young girls with teenage pregnancies end
up having Vesical-Vaginal Fistula (VVF). VVF is the abnormal connection between the urinary
tract and the vagina that there is an uncontrollable leakage of urine into the vaginal tract. It is
60
usually caused by prolonged, obstructed labour, without timely medical intervention. The
sustained pressure of the baby’s head on the mother’s pelvic bone damages soft tissues, creating
a hole or fistula between the vagina and the bladder or rectum. Once the dead tissue comes away,
leaving a fistula, it causes a constant leaking of urine and / or faeces through the vagina (Roush,
2009). This disease was common among the young mothers who were forced into marriage
while they were still young. It was observed that fistula was global problem with an estimated 14
million girls with the highest rate of child marriage were in Africa. It was further found that the
toxic combination of a young girl having sex, getting pregnant and going through childbirth
when her body was not developed enough accounted for at least 25% of known fistula cases.
Fistula could only be prevented by discouraging early marriages through sensitization to both
girls and the parents who force their children into marriages at the tender age. It should be noted
that when a young mother is affected with this disease it may be difficult for her to sustain her
marriage as she may be divorced or just abandon because she cannot perform her duties. Hence,
the best is to refrain from early marriages or involvement in sexuality at a tender age. The World
Health Organization estimated that more than 2 million women live with obstetric fistula and up
to 100,000 new cases occur each year in Africa (Wall, 2006).

The study also revealed that in Nakonde District there were no playing parks, cinema halls,
public libraries, colleges, trade schools or any training institution where the young girls including
school leavers could go and engage themselves. Respondents complained that this had affected
the girl-child because they knew that even if they did well they would just remain at home. They
had seen many of their friends who finished secondary education doing business or get employed
as clearing agents and at times ending up on the streets. This unfavorably made them think that
going to school was a sheer waste of time and resources. This situation implied that the
community was looking for immediate results of investing in education which was not always
the case hence the need for continued sensitization on the importance of education. This is in line
with Social feminist who believe that without education women will remain oppressed in society
hence, it advocates for equal education opportunities for both boys and girls in all areas of life
(Kimberly, 2015).

61
The study revealed that pregnancies among school girls were common in Nakonde District. This
was because girls involved themselves in a number of activities such as beer drinking,
prostitution, smoking Duggar and part time jobs as clearing agents which exposed them to sugar
daddies who gave them a lot of money in exchange for sex. This is similar to Botswana
Education Statistics (2007), who found that pregnancy was the number one reason that accounted
for girls’ dropping out from school and was common among girls from lower socio-economic
families. Snelson (1990) also observed that pregnancies among school going girls had been the
main hindrance to girls’ education since the introduction of formal education. This led to the
introduction of the Re-entry Policy by the Government in 1997. However, the MESVTEE (2013)
argued that despite the Re-entry Policy being in existence for close to 18 years, there were still
less than 50% of girls being re-entered after giving birth as it was shown in table 1 of Chapter
two. This clearly indicated that there was still a lot to do concerning this policy as many people
still had questions on its effectiveness. For instance, in 2012 there were 14,849 pregnancies only
6,000 were readmitted to school and in 2013, out of 14,928 only 5,829 were readmitted
(FAWEZA, 2014).

The Policy aimed at encouraging pregnant girls to continue with school after delivery. However,
this study revealed that in Nakonde District the majority of the girls did not go back to school
after delivery and some who went back fell pregnant again. This was in line with Mbolela (2010)
who found that in Chongwe District the re-entry Policy contributed to low completion rate of
girls in Basic education. She observed that girls indulged themselves in sexual activity because
they knew that even if they became pregnant they would still go back to school after giving birth.
But once they went back to school, they became pregnant again.

This behavior of girls suggested that the Re-entry Policy was being abused by the majority of
those who got pregnant while they were at school. This means that the policy was not working
well if the same girls continued getting pregnant even after being re-admitted into school after
the first pregnancy.

On one hand, some respondents pointed out that the Re-entry policy was working well in their
schools while on the other hand it was considered to be a hindrance to the education of the girl
child. It was considered that girls became complacent that they would still be re admitted once
62
they fell pregnant again. It was evident that there was need to revisit the Policy as observed by
one Civic leader, Mr. Mwamba that Government should revisit the re-entry policy for girls,
arguing that it had contributed to increasing numbers of school drop-outs and early marriages in
our country ( Kambilima, 2015).

Mr. McDonald Mwamba, Kabwe deputy mayor said the policy promoted immorality among
children and caused more harm than good in society (Kambilima, 2015). On the other hand,
Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education, Sydney
Mushanga said it was sad that the re-entry policy was being abused despite efforts by the
government to give an opportunity to the girl-child to return to school after being pregnant. But
the question being asked by many people is, should the government abolish the re-entry policy?

Girls who were given a second chance should see re-entry Policy as a golden opportunity to
finish their education and become independent and successful in future. However, this study
revealed that some School authorities were not taking the policy seriously. This is in agreement
with NCES (2009) found that in America some schools did not implement the law of re-
admission which was introduced in 1976 to promote girl-child education.

This is supported by Nyoike (2015) who said that teenage pregnancy was a prevalent problem in
many countries. Young school going girls had relationships with boys and older men (sugar
daddies) in order to sustain themselves and they ended up falling pregnant, worse still being
infected with HIV. She further stated that in Kenya there were a lot of campaigns going around
about "Books first babies later", which they taught young girls to concentrate on their studies
first before engaging in sexual relationships but pregnancies among girls had continued. In order
to encourage girls’ education, Kenya Government had allowed girls to go back to school after
giving birth. The challenge rose after child birth because without the support from parents and
guardians these girls ended up putting their education on hold so as to care for their children.
Hence, the majority of the girls did not continue with school.

The situation was similar to Nakonde District, it was discovered that some girls failed to
continue with school in Nakonde because most of their families were poor and could not support
the girl and her child. Some who were lucky went back to school depending on the financial

63
strength of their parents. The girls that did not have resources to support themselves started
leading miserable lives and did not continue with school. This is in line with the study in
Afghanistan where it was observed that motherhood was a significant obstacle to girls continuing
their education after delivery. It was argued that in schools there were no facilities where to keep
their children, it would be an extra burden for someone else in the family to take care of the
child, and then the family might not support the girl to go to school (Shayan, 2015).

In Nakonde District Government and the community need to come up with some form of
education and empowerment mechanisms of these girls by giving them information that would
help them abstain as taught by some religious groups or Churches. If they cannot abstain and
avoid these unwanted pregnancies other measures such as using contraceptives and condoms
should be encouraged among school girls.

Distance from home to school was another obstacle to girls’ education in Nakonde District. The
findings of this study revealed that renting of small houses was common to pupils who came
from distant places. It was revealed that in Nakonde District there was no Government boarding
school and this compelled pupils to rent small houses in compounds as weekly borders. This
posed a big challenge to school girls as they fell pregnant and stopped school. Nekatibeb (2002)
noted that school distance was the foremost obstacle for girls' education in many countries
in Africa. In Afghanistan, it was observed that harassment of girls on their way to school,
kidnapping, elopement and cases of sexual assault appeared to have a dramatic effect on school
attendance. These behaviors made parents to keep their daughters home than to walk long
distances to school (Shayan, 2015).

This is in agreement with Ainsworth (2005) who found that the likelihood of attending
secondary school for girls decreased with the greater the distance compared to the nearer
secondary schools. He further observed that in Tanzania school dropout increased in areas
where distance to school was longer. For instance, in rural areas where there were no roads and
vehicles; as a result, children had to walk for long distances through difficult terrain and
dangerous environment which consequently affected their performance. In addition, DFID
(2005) found that school environment that may be acceptable to boys may be hostile to girls. The
physical and sexual violence against women that is common in many societies is reflected in the
64
school environment in a number of countries. Physical abuse and abduction are not only a major
violation of girl basic human rights; they also present a major practical constraint in getting to
school. Parents feel a duty to protect their daughters and may decide to keep them at home if
they feel the school is too far away.

Distance was not supposed to be an issue of dropping out of school especially in areas where
schools have been built and upgraded to secondary schools which aimed at increasing the
accessibility to education regardless of gender. This could be used by some parents as an excuse
for not sending their daughters to school. However, this study revealed that in Nakonde girls
were forced to walk long distances to school, this promoted dropout among girls. This is similar
to Ainsworth (2005) and Nekatibeb (200) observed that school distance could discourage girls
from being educated for two major reasons. One of them was the length of time and energy
needed to cover the distance for children with empty stomachs. Another was parental
anxiety about sexual safety of their daughters

Wainaina (2009) concurs and explains that building schools near homes and making them
girl-friendly increases the feeling of safety in school. This agrees with the World Bank (2005)
which in addition contends that building secondary schools near homes reduces walking
distances and brings about relief concerning girl safety on the way to and from school. This
is closely related to sexual harassment for the reason as revealed by Ruto (2009) that
considerable amount of sexual harassment occurs on the way to and from school.

Parents need to develop interest of educating the girl-child because harassment and violence
sometimes are happening within households. 90% of child sexual abuse victims knew the
perpetrators in some way 68% are abused by a family membe (Saffron Centre, 2015).

Human trafficking was another factor which was revealed as a contributing factor in Nakonde
though it was minimal. Human trafficking was basically trading in human beings. Most girls sold
in this context were taken into brothels where they were involved in commercial sexual activities
others were taken into forced labour (UNODC, 2011). Human trafficking was a crime against the
person because of the violation of the victim's right and this could occur within a country or

65
outside. During the study two head teachers, a teacher and parents argued that human trafficking
was becoming dangerous in the area though it was minimal.

It was revealed that human trafficking was common in Nakonde District especially among poor
households. Parents sold their daughters to Tanzanians who took them to various places for
different purposes. According to the respondents, sometimes when the cases were reported to the
police and the victim support unit, they pursued cases until children were retrieved from
Tanzania. Now the concern was that relevant Government institutions should intensify
sensitization campaigns so that parents who failed to report such cases to the police the members
of the community should take it up and have the matter reported.

The issue of human trafficking should not be left in the hands of schools and victim support
groups alone but requires consented effort from various stake holders for the scourge to be
brought to a halt. This global problem requires a global, multi-stakeholder strategy that builds on
national efforts throughout the world. To pave the way for this strategy, stakeholders must
coordinate efforts already underway, increase knowledge and awareness, provide technical
assistance, promote effective rights-based responses, build capacity of state and non-state
stakeholders, foster partnerships for joint action, and above all, ensure that everybody takes
responsibility for this fight. This can be achieved by encouraging and facilitating cooperation and
coordination of other stakeholders.

For instance, in India, the trafficking in persons for commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor,
forced marriages and domestic servitude is considered an organized crime. Because of this the
Government of India applies the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, active from February 3,
2013, as well as Section 370 and 370A IPC, which defines human trafficking and "provides
stringent punishment for human trafficking; trafficking of children for exploitation in any form
including physical exploitation; or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery, servitude or the
forced removal of organs." Additionally, a Regional Task Force implements the South Asia
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention on the prevention of Trafficking in
Women and Children (UNODC, 2011).

66
Zambia can also re-enforce the existing pieces of legislation to bring to a halt human trafficking.
The Zambian approach in fighting human trafficking may not be as rigorous as the case is in
India due to the rate at which the crime is committed. However, any vices and practices that
underestimate the value of any human being before another constitute a criminal act and
appropriate legal actions against the perpetrator. Institutions such as the Zambia Police Service
and the Human Rights Commission play a critical role to ensure that human trafficking cases are
kept to the barest level.

Though sometimes traffickers in school girls may take advantage of the parents' extreme
poverty, Parents may sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income, or they
may be deceived concerning the prospects of training and a better life for their children. They
may sell their children into labour, sex trafficking, or illegal adoptions, people of Nakonde need
to be educated on all these issues in order to protect their children as they may be ignorant of
what is involved in human trafficking.

It was argued that in Nakonde children were exposed to business at a tender age so they thought
that sitting in class learning was wastage of time instead of making money. Trading in marijuana
was common among girls after copying from boys who were believed to be making a lot of
money from the illicit marijuana business. This was of a great concern especially that it led to
school dropouts among girls, putting their lives in danger and other consequences. This needed
to be dealt with so as to protect girl-child.

Prostitution was another factor revealed in this study. It was complained by the parents and some
teachers that prostitution was becoming a serious concern among school girls in the area. Some
girls engaged themselves in prostitution in order for them to obtain some income this made it
difficult for them to concentrate on school. It was revealed during the discussion that many
school girls involved themselves in prostitution. There were some who did prostitution on the
streets, night clubs and others as sexual workers. Some school girls involved themselves in sex
by working in some unregistered brothels which operated as guest houses in order for them to
earn some income. Education became difficult especially to the sex workers as it resulted into a
number of issues such as early pregnancy and contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. This
tended to push them out of school.
67
Benzault et al (2012) state that prostitution is a multi-faceted phenomenon: victims of
exploitation and networks, housewives in precarious situations, female students, children, men.
Who prostitute themselves in the streets, on the Web, in bars, in massage parlors, along the
roads? The situations are diverse. However, whatever the political, economic, or cultural
contexts are, all of these situations relate to the same phenomenon: sexual exploitation.

Benzault (2012) observed that prostitutes suffered from moral collapse and lost their status
and position which other respectable men and women enjoy in society. Respectable people
hated them, avoided their company and wanted to isolate them in society. As a result, the pimp
and the prostitute became ‘hated and isolated islands’. They led a life with their own
definition of promiscuous sex conduct and immoral principle.

Cultural beliefs were revealed as other hindrance to girls’ education in Nakonde. Among the
Namwanga people there were some people who strongly believed that educating a girl-child was
wastage of resources thus they opted to educate more boys than girls. It was revealed that many
people especially in rural areas valued marriage rather than education so that they could benefit
from dowry. People should not always cling to some beliefs especially those which continue to
marginalize their way of living but it is very important to respond to change. The general
misconception of people to say the place of a woman is in the kitchen should change with time,
the girl- child should be supported to attain tertiary education so that she can also contribute to
the development of the country. Feminists support this by arguing that to eliminate gender
stratification, laws and cultural norms that limit the income, educational and job opportunities for
women should be opposed (Kimberly, 2015). Girls and women need to be empowered from their
childhood through education as this is the only way of liberating them. This is in support of
Nelson Mandela who said, “Freedom can’t be achieved unless women have been” emancipated”
(Mokone, 2014).

This is in agreement with Sandhu, et al (2005), Bunyi (2004) and Idabawa (2004), who observed
that the belief that education made women to look down on men negatively impacted female
education and the old customs, traditions, caste systems, rural community and wrongly
understood religious knowledge, had denied female children quality formal education. There is
need to shift and try to abandon cultural practices which discourage girl-child education. This is
68
in support of Feminism and Education (2014) who argued that the liberation of women or shift
from oppression would only be achieved through women’s empowerment and girl-child
education which in return would enable them to fully participate in socio-economic development
of nations.

However, among the Masai people the culture of fear of early pregnancy forced girls into
marriage. It was observed that children as young as nine years old were not allowed to live in the
same house with their father, and instead slept in a separate house without supervision. In
addition, girls were not told how a woman became pregnant. This combined lack of supervision
by the parents and ignorance made girls highly vulnerable to became pregnant, and pregnancy
before marriage brought disgrace and a reduced bride price. Thus, fear of premarital pregnancy
was a common reason for parents to insist that their daughters leave school and marry early
(Akaro, 2010).

Chondoka and Bota (2007) argued that the practice of polygamy among the Tumbuka which was
intended to deal with the problem of the barren wife limited girls’ education. There seemed to be
more emphasis on the biological capacity of the women which may render women mere vessels
of child production. Polygamous families could be too big and too many children might not be
easy to educate and hence the girls might be discriminated against on the basis of lack of
resources or as care givers to other siblings.

It was discovered that the majority of people in Nakonde were still living in extreme poverty.
This was a big challenge to the parents because they failed to pay school fees for their children.
A study by Theresa and Sossau (2008) observed that in Uganda, 28% of girls stopped school
because their parents failed to pay for them in school. It was observed that despite the
introduction of sponsorships from Non-Governmental Organizations many children had no
access to these. During focus group discussion with girls it was revealed that the conditions
which were put in place for bursaries were difficult and that the majority of the parents in
Nakonde were ignorant about it. On the other hand, it was discovered that some parents denied
their daughters to be sponsored by NGOs. It was believed that those organizations worked under
the influence of Satanism. Therefore, children were withdrawn from school even when they
could not manage to sponsor them solely. Government intervention was very important to
69
sensitize the community on the organizations involved in sponsoring girl-children education as
this was the positive move by the Government. Therefore, many girls dropped out of school
because of lack of support by the parents and guardians.

In addition, the study established that some parents failed to provide food for their children in
Nakonde area. In such situation pupils decided to go to Tanzania to look for some piece work so
that they could source for some money to buy food for their families. So the way children lived
at home influenced their education system. Hunt (2008) observed that poverty appeared to
influence the demand for schooling, not only because it affected the inability of households to
pay school fees and other costs associated with education, but also because it was associated with
a high opportunity cost of schooling for children. As children grew older, the opportunity cost of
education was even larger, hence increasing the pressure for children to work and earn income
for the household as opposed to spending time in education. Extreme poverty levels increased
and promoted absenteeism which eventually led to school dropouts among school girls.
Introduction of feeding system in day schools in Nakonde would be one way of addressing
poverty levels and absenteeism which might result into school dropout rates to decrease.

5.3 Establishing the rate of dropouts among girls from Grade 10 to 12 in the
period 2013-2015
With regard to the rate of school dropouts among girls in Nakonde District, the findings of the
study revealed that the rate of dropouts was high in the period 2013 to 2015. This was evidenced
by 48 (81%) respondents who agreed that the rate of dropouts was high in the past three years.
This is similar to Okediji (2012) who observed that dropout rates of girls in Africa is still very
high due to cultural practices, vulnerability to violence and issues of sexual harassment from
male teachers and boys. This study found that, the rate was high because the schools were still
new and the infrastructure was poor and user unfriendly, so some parents thought that keeping
their children in those schools was risking and a mere wasting of their resources. Therefore, they
opted to withdraw their children from schools and took them elsewhere, preferably into
marriages. It was also discovered that, this period was the time when basic schools were being
upgraded to secondary schools. So, schools lacked human resource to handle secondary school
classes. Besides that, the schools had no resources to purchase enough teaching and learning

70
materials to cater for their learners in all the schools in the District. These posed a big challenge
to the school Managers to run the schools effectively and led to poor performance of pupils in
the schools. Subsequently, lacking of resources in schools eventually promoted an increase in
girls dropping out of schools in the District.

A study by Alexander (2008) identified boredom as a factor contributing to high dropout rates
among girls. Boredom comes in when pupils experience limited learning opportunities
frequently, and subjected to overcrowded classrooms with insufficient learning materials and
under qualified teachers. This situation leads to boredom because pupils end up viewing school
experience as a worst of time and eventually dropout. The teachers need to be both personally
and professionally involved with the pupils in order to create an enabling school learning
environment, which may facilitate in reducing the rate of dropping out as a result of strong
relationships established with learners.

In contrast, Statistics Canada’s Annual Labor Force Survey (SCALFS, 2009) observed that in
Canada school dropout rates were high for boys than girls. The decrease among girls was
experienced since the 1990s from nearly 17% to 9% in 2008 and 2009 school year. This is in line
with all European Union (EU) member states where men were observed to have a more
likelihood to leave education earlier than girls. For instance, in Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Latvia,
Portugal and Italy early leaving or drop out of school was twice as high as or more for men than
for women (Europe educational statistics, 2015). This suggests that reduction of dropout rates
can work out if good measures are to be identified in Africa. What is important is to copy what
some European countries did to reduce dropout rates among girls in schools.

However, this study established that the dropout rates are still high among girls than boys. It was
discussed that some teachers contributed to the rate of dropout among girls in the way they
treated them. This is similar to Epstein & Mc Portland (1976) who stated that teachers are not
supposed to be threats to pupils’ existence. As noted in Tanzania, teacher quality affects dropout
rates, good quality teachers mean low dropout rates. Ineffective teacher-pupil relationship leads
to high dropout rates because it makes pupils to develop low personal satisfaction when
measured on the quality of school life.

It was further revealed that the dropout rates of girls were higher among day scholars than in
boarding schools. This was due to a number of factors such as long distances, lack of
accommodation, shyness, bullying by boys, poor feeding facilities and poor performance. These
71
challenges posed a big danger to girls’ education especially to those who came from far places of
Nakonde. This research also learnt that in Nakonde District all eleven government secondary
schools were co-education schools. This was found to be a challenge for girls’ education as the
environment was not girl-child friendly. Thus, it led to school dropouts among girls to remain
high.

Oigara (2011) in her study discovered that girls in mixed schools in Kenya performed poorer
than those in single-sex schools. it was found that girls felt intimidated and threatened by male
teachers and boys, their ability was undermined and were treated as feminine even when
choosing career subjects. Girls had special needs for physical protection and tradition often
demands special concern for girls’ safety especially for those who were day scholars.

It was discovered that other factors that led to school drop out rates in Nakonde District were
neglected the attention was only on early marriages and pregnancies as it is indicated in Chapter
four table 5. The rate of dropout was expected to be higher than it is shown in the table if other
factors were taken care of.

5.4 Determining whether the attitude of girls towards education led to

persistent school dropouts among girls
Concerning girls’ attitudes toward education, it was found that the majority of girls in Nakonde
had no interest in education; this was shown in the way they participated in school activities.
What was needed was to sensitize the girls on the importance of education. Girls were expected
to change their attitudes toward education unlike forcing them, especially that there were a
number of Non-Governmental Organisations which were sponsoring them. This would have
helped them to remain in schoosl up to Grade 12 level. In addition, it was revealed that the
attitude of some teachers contributed to school dropouts among girls. For instance, Competition
between female teachers and girls that arise during civilian days when girls wear their own
clothes and the way female teachers handled them, forced some girls to stop school as they could
not remain in the same vicinity with their rivalry teachers.

Kabesiime (2007) found that in Uganda the teacher’s attitude towards girls in the classroom was
crucial for retention of girls in school. This study revealed that in Nakonde there were some
teachers who still impregnated school girls, this was said to be a challenge because girls became
72
pompous, indiscipline and uncontrollable. This was a sad state of affairs because pupils were
entrusted to teachers by their parents, and if teachers could compromise the trust of parents then
it would be difficult for them to send the girl-child to school. This is in line with NCES (2009)
who observed that some girls dropped-out of school because they feared to be sexually harassed
at school by both male teachers and boys.

In addition, this study revealed that in some schools pupils feared the school managers. This is
because the managers were not ready to assist girls whenever they approached them when they
had problems with their class teachers. This also promoted dropouts among girl. The challenge
here was that the school managers should play multipurpose roles. They should more often than
not be parents, counselors, arbitrators, educators, career advisors, nurses and colleagues. This
is similar to Strauss (2013) who found that school managers by virtue of their position were
expected to provide safety and a friendly atmosphere so that students should be free to
approach the management whenever they had a problem. The school policies should be child
friendly. Policies which are harsh and punitive are most likely to increase school dropouts. On
the other hand, in Cameroon, the practice of Female Genital Mutilation made some girls’ to
develop negative attitudes towards school (Hari, 2011).

Hari (2011) observed that the main reason for low enrollment and high dropout of girls from
schools was the negative attitude that many parents had towards the education of girls. The
negative attitude interfered with girls access to education. This inertia resulted in absenteeism
from school. After a girl child reaches secondary school level, society considered them as ready
for marriage and this is attributed to traditional socio-cultural beliefs regarding gender roles and
abilities; women were expected to exclusively assume the roles of mother and wives, therefore
girls’ dropped out of school and concentrated on house chores.

Munsaka (2009) observed that in the Southern part of Zambia most parents indicated that they
were not satisfied with the quality of teaching that their children received from teachers. He
discovered that some parents complained that those days’ teachers were only interested in getting
to the end of the month so that they could get their pay. The teaching had become devalued”. For
this parent, the drop in the educational standards was as a result of teachers losing the passion for
their career and only focusing on personal interest.
73
5.5 Establishing the views from the head teachers, teachers, and parents
With regard to respondents’ views, it was established that there was need to emphasise on the
importance of education and on the effects of girls dropping out increased rates in the District. It
was suggested that building of a boarding secondary school in the district would be of great help
as this could enable children who were living in far off places to be in the boarding schools
rather than renting small houses as weekly borders. This can immensely reduce on pregnancy
cases which were very high in Nakonde as girls became vulnerable to men and in the process
they stopped school. This agrees with the World Bank which suggested that building secondary
schools near homes reduces walking distances and brings about relief concerning girl-child
safety on the way to and from school (World Bank, 2005).

The study established that the community had no hope for future generations, especially in terms
of girls’ participation in developmental affairs due to low levels of education. As a result, some
respondents had the view to have programs of taking pupils to towns such as Lusaka, Ndola,
Kitwe and others to see some important female figures like doctors, lawyers, members of
parliament, and others or calling them to the District to have talks with them and see them so that
they can be motivated. This can encourage girls to remain in schools up to grade 12 hence
reducing dropouts among girls

Furthermore, teachers had the view that, community participation in the issue of dropouts could
help to fight the battle. This can be actualized by extending motivation talks to the community of
Nakonde and to discourage parents who forced their daughters into marriage while they were at
school. Ighedalo (2006) pointed out that teachers on the other hand believe that parent needs to
be the girl child's advocate though that role has to be delicately played in order to get along with
the child's teacher, a parent also should help a Girl-child in every productive way possible with
school tasks and school responsibilities, because as a teacher, one may have more domain
knowledge about teaching the children, but the parents know their girl child better. Only

Joint collaboration can meet the needs of girl child education development. Ferrara and Ferrara
(2005) add on to say, teachers believe that Parents have different educational aspirations for their
sons and daughters.

74
In the same way, Socialist feminists proposed the complete eradication of all political, economic
and social foundations of contemporary society specifically; education, work, sexuality and
parenting to undergo thorough transformations if women have to participate in national
development. This could be achieved through encouraging girls’ enrollment, retention and
completion of their secondary education levels which can enable them to continue their
education in higher learning institutions (Enns, 1997).

5.6 Summary
This chapter has presented the discussions of the research findings. It has discussed the factors
that led to persistent school drop outs in Nakonde District. The main factors included early
marriage, pregnancy, poverty, cultural beliefs, business and trade, human trafficking and distance
to and from school. It was observed that in order to reduce dropout rates among girls, there was
need for government participation in all areas that hindered girl-child education. On the other
hand, some factors which were cited as contributing factors, though minimal, should be taken
seriously before they reached their peak. Parents too needed to be sensitized on the importance of
girl-child education so that they could encourage their daughters to remain in school up to Grade
12 level.

75
 CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Introduction
In chapter five (5) research findings were discussed. Factors led to school dropouts among girls
were discussed and some means to overcome them had been suggested. The main factors
observed included early marriages, pregnancies, poverty, distance and business. This chapter
presents the conclusion and recommendations from the findings of this study. The study was
conducted in order to establish the factors leading to persistent school dropout rates among girls
in selected secondary schools of Nakonde District.

6.2 Conclusions
This study had revealed that there were various factors that contributed to school dropout rates
in Nakonde District. Some factors were home based while others were school based. It was very
difficult to know the main factors that led to the persistent school drop-out since some
respondents seemed to be reluctant in answering the questions. Besides, records collected from
the DEBS Office also showed that some schools had not submitted their school reports on
dropouts among girls in the past three years.

However, the findings of this study had revealed that the main cause of persistent school drop-
outs among girls in Nakonde District was early marriage. It was also observed that among the
Namwanga people some parents still valued marriage more than the education of a girl-child.
They believed that educating a girl-child was a matter of wasting resources hence when a girl
reached puberty they thought she was old enough to get married. This belief was very strong
especially in rural communities of Nakonde. It was observed that girls had been fed with the
same information that is why they too had a negative attitude towards education. Pregnancy was
another impediment noted as an obstacle to girl-child education. It was cited that in Nakonde
there were various activities which girls involved themselves in that led to pregnancies. These
included prostitution where girls engaged themselves as sex workers, beer drinking, drug abuse,
clearing and forwarding piece work and peer pleasure. For others, the decision to drop out was a
response to conflicting life pressures -- the need to help support their family financially or the
demands of caring for siblings or their own child.
76
Dropping out was sometimes about students being bored and seeing no connection between
academic life and "real" life. It was about young people feeling disconnected from their peers
and from teachers and other adults at school.

Parents with lower socioeconomic status faced difficulties to bear the expenses of their
daughters' education. In addition, parents sometimes used the gender of their children to
decide who gets more education so that children could give benefit in the future; in
these circumstances male children eventually got more priority than female children. Some
feminists have argued that women would only gain equality with men when institutions and
social relationships are changed. Furthermore, education and work must be restructured in order
to eliminate male domination and other oppressions (Enns, 1997).

Besides these, girls also experienced disadvantages for the unequal gender roles in society hence
they spent much of their own time on household chores after school and this affected their
academic performance and led to dropping out of school.

Schools in urban areas favored girls than schools in rural areas. Sometimes it depends on parents
on how to perceive girls' education. However, dropping out of school was a serious problem
which government should look into. These posed a lot of challenges on the girl-child. Human
trafficking was another challenge although it was cited to be minimal but its consequences were
of great concern.

In addition, the re-entry policy needed to be revisited as many people had bitterly complained as
encouraging immorality in schools. Schools should also intensify the measures which they had
put in place so as to address the issue of dropouts among girls. Parents’ involvement in
addressing this pandemic would be of great help to Nakonde and the nation at large. Schools
should develop programs or initiatives that would attract and ensure that girls remain in school.
Parents’ involvement should be one of the key strategies to enhance retention. Furger (2008)
asserts that parents’ ongoing engagement from regular communication with school staff to
familiarity with their child’s schedule, courses, and progress towards graduation remains
central to students’ education. It is also important to find out other factors leading to continuous
school dropout among girls in both primary and secondary schools in order to address this issue.

77
Zambia can still learn from other countries which have successfully managed to reduce
inequalities in education system. For instance, Yemen had gender disparities in education
enrolment at secondary school, the enrolment was low for girls but since 2003 this issue has been
address because the government of Yemen committed itself to full primary enrolment by 2015,
with special emphasis on gender equity. The argument is that girls education is now a central
element of Yemen’s poverty reduction strategy and Basic education development strategy (DID,
2005).

It is possible for Zambia to record a decline in dropout rates among girls just like any other
country. What is needed is to intensify the Education Reforms enshrined in the document of
1996 ‘Educating Our Future’ which aimed at supporting equality, equity, access and construction
of more girls’ schools in order to enable girls to have access to secondary schools.

6.3 Recommendations
Following the findings and conclusions made, the following recommendations were made by the
researcher, which if implemented, will reduce on school dropout rates among girls in Nakonde
District.

1. The Government should construct at least a boarding secondary school in Nakonde

District in order to accommodate pupils who are renting small houses and reduce on
school drop-out rates among girls
2. Re-entry Policy should be revised because in Nakonde District the majority of the
respondents complained that it had contributed to school drop-out among girls. Girls who
fall pregnant while at school should be given one chance not twice may be this will help
them to take the Policy seriously.
3. Government should continue to sensitize parents and girls on the importance of education
so that school can be valued by the parents and girls.
4. To re-enforce the law of punishing parents and guardians who force school girls into
early marriages so that others can learn from them.
5. Government to work hand in hand with the community of Nakonde in protecting the girl-
child from human trafficking activities

78
 6. The Ministry of General Education also to look at other factors leading to school drop-out
among girls rather than concentrating on pregnancy and Re-entry Policy
7. To establish social amenities such as colleges and skills centers in Nakonde District so as
to motivate girls to continue with education and training.
8. Government to ban the engagement of school going age girl children in clearing and
forwarding activities at the border.
9. To introduce school feeding programs or the distribution of food through schools as a
way of addressing barriers related to poverty.

Recommendations for further studies;

1 The same research to be conducted in other border towns of Zambia

2 To conduct a research on early marriages
3 To investigate the performance of teachers between three and ten years of their teaching
experience
4 A study to compare the performance of female teachers in boys and girls secondary
schools

79
 REFERENCES
Achoka, J. S. K. (2007). In Search of Remedy to Secondary School Dropout Pandemic in Kenya:
Role of the Principle. Educational Research and Reviews. Vol 2, No 9, P236-244, Sept
2007.

Adams, A. (2013). Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Washington D.C World Bank.

Ainsworth, M. (2005). Socio-economic Determinants of fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: A

Summary of The findings of a World Bank Research Project. Washington D. C: The
World Bank.

Akaro. R.J., (2010). Some Factors That Hinder women Participation in Social, Political and
. Economic Activities Tanzania. Arts and Social Sciences Journal, Volume 2010: ASSJ-4.

Alexander, R. (2008). ‘Education for All, the Quality Imperative and the Problem of
Pedagogy.’ CREATE Pathways to Access No 20. Consortium for Research on
Educational Access, Transitions and Equity: University of Sussex

Ananga, E. (2011). Dropping out of school in Southern Ghana: Push-out and Pull-out factors.
[Link], : Retrieved, 25/09/15).

Bailey, D. (1994). Methods of Social Research (2nd Ed). New York: The Free Press.
Ball, S. J. (1990). Politics and Policy-Makin in Education. London: Routledge.
Benn, T. (2002). Muslim Women in Teacher Training: Issues of Gender, Race and Religion:
London, Routledge.
Benzault, A., Boisard, F., Brazill, S., Cha, G., Charpenel, Y. and Goldmann, C. (2012). Sexual
Exploitation: Prostitution and Organized Crime, Economicala 49, rue He’ricart, 75015
Paris.

Botswana Education Statistics (2007). Girl-Pupil Dropout in Secondary Schools in Botswana:

Influencing factors, Prevalence and Consequences. International Journal of Business and
Social Sciences, Vol. 3 No.7; April 2012. University of Botswana, Botswana.
Bunyi, G.W. (2004). Gender disparities in higher education in Kenya: Nature, extent and the
way forward. The African Symposium, 4 (1), 43-62.

Chege, F. and Sifuna, D.V. (2006). Girls’ and women’s education in Kenya perspectives
and trends. UNESCO.
Chondoka, Y. and Bota, F.F. (2007). A History of the Tumbuka from 1400 to 1900; The
Tumbuka under the M’nyanjagha, Chewa, Balowoka, Senga and Ngoni Chiefs. Lusaka;
Academic Press

80
Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education. Routledge
Taylor and Francis Group, London.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K (2013). Research Methods in Education. New York:
Taylor and Francis for Routledge publications

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods

Approaches. California: SAGE Publications

DEBS Office Report (2015). School Dropout among Girls from 2013 to 2015, Nakonde district.

Development For International Development (DFID) (2005). Girls’ Education: Towards a better
future for all. UK, Department For International Development.

Enns, C.Z. (1997). Feminist Theories and Feminist Psychotherapies: Origins, Themes and
Variations. New York, Haworth Press.

Epstein J. L., and McPartland, J. M. (1976). The concept and measurement of the
quality of school life. American Educational Research Journal, pp.13, 15-30.

Epstein, J.L. (2008). Improving family and community involvement in secondary schools. The
Education Digest 73 (6), 912.

Europe Educational Statistics (2015). Europe 2020 Indicators-Education Statistics.

(http;//ec-europa/Eurostat/statistics-explained/index/Europe-2020.:Retrieved,29/07/2016)

Falkingham and Baschieri (2006). Out of school girls-Unicef.

(http;//[Link]/ceecis/[Link]: Retrieved, 26/10/15)

FAWE (2009). Girls Education in the Sub-Saharan Africa. (Retrieved 25/09/ 2015).

FAWEZA (2014). Good Quality Education for Adolescent Girls (Ages 10-18) for An Aids-Free
Future: Paper Presented To UNAIDS Inter Agency Task Team On Education by .
FAWEZA, 22/12/14

Feminism and Education (2014). History Learning Site,

(http/[Link] [Link]/feminism-education-htm,: Retrieved, 07/06/2015)

Ferrara, M.M. and Ferrara, P. J. (2005). Parents as partners: Raising awareness as a

teacher preparation program. The Clearing House, 79 (2), 77-82.
Furger, R. (2008). How to End the Dropout Crisis Ten Strategies for Student retention
([Link] gies?3: Retrieved, 06/02/2016).

Gay, L. R and Alrasian, P. (2011). Educational Research Competencies for Analysis and
81
 Application. Chio: Prentice.
George, D., and Mallery, P. (2003). Calculating, interpreting and reporting Cronbach’s alpha
reliability Coefficient for likert type. ( http:// JA Gliem, RR Gliem - 2003 -
[Link]: Retrieved, 01/12/2015).

Grant, M and Hallman (2006). Pregnancy rerated school dropout and Prior school performance
In KwaZulu-Natal. Population Council, South Africa.

Guba, E.G. (1981). Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries.
Education Resources Information Centre Annual Review Paper.

Hart, C. (1992). In issues of Feminism and Multicultural Education for Educational Technology.
North Illanois: North Illanois University Press.
Hari, P. (2011). Parents and Community attitudes towards Girls’ participation in and access to
Education and Science, Mathematics and Technology subjects. (Retrieved 15/02/2016).
Hari, P. (2014 ). Parents and Community attitudes towards Girls’ participation in and access to
Education and science, mathematics and technology subjects. (Retrieved 25/09/2015).

Herz, B. K., Subbarao, K., Habib, [Link] Raney, L. (1991). Letting girls learn: Promising
approaches in primary and secondary education. World Bank Discussion Paper Volume
133. World Bank, Washington DC.

Hughes, J. N., Kwok, O. and Im., M. (2013).Effect of retention in first grade on parent
Educational expectations and children [48]19s academic outcomes. American
Educational Research Journal, 50, 1336, 1359.

Hunt, F (2008). ‘Dropping out from school: Across-country review of literature; CREATE
pathways to access No. 16. Consortium for Research on Educational Access. Transitions
and Equity; University of Sussex.
Idabawa, S. A. (2004). On some socio-cultural determinants of girsl’ involment in education in
Nigeria. The African Symposium, 4 (1), 4- girls for higher 9. In Onochie, C. I. O
(2010). Guilty or not guilty? How Nigerian families impede the aspirations of
Nigerian girls for higher education. US-China Education Review, 7 (6), 16-31.

Kabesiime, M. (2007). Schooling Ugandan girls: a Policy historiography, Monash University

Melbourne, Australia. Journal for critical Education Policy Studies, Vol.8 No. 1

Kambilima, T. (2015). Don’t abolish Re-entry Policy. Zambia Daily Mail July 3, 2015.

Kasonde-Ngandu, S. (2013). Writing a Research Proposal in Educational Research, Lusaka:

UNZA Press.

82
Kavitha, M and Godwin, J. (2014). Rural Girl students’ attitude towards education, Journal of
Business Management and Social Sciences Research, ISSN No. 2319-5614
Volume 3, No. 10, October 2014.
Kelly, J. M. (1991). Education in a Declining Economy. Washington, D. C: World Bank.
Kimberly, M. (2015). What is Feminist Theory? Definition and Overview. (Retrieved
25/09/2015).

Kombo, D.K. and D.L. Tromp (2006). Proposal and Thesis Writing: An Introduction, Pauline’s
Publication Africa, Kenya
Kramarae, C and Spender, D. (2000). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women:
Global Women’s issues and Knowledge, New York.
Kwegyir-Aggrey, J. E. (1875-1927). African Quotes 1999 African Proverbs of the Month
: ( [Link] : Retrieved, 16/02/2016).

Linoln, Y. S and Guba, E. C. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills: Sage.

Lumba, H. ( 2014). School Pregnancies Call for CSOs’ Big Role. Times of Zambia, Thursday
August 14,2014.

Malwa, A. O, Adeyeye, O,Babalola,A, Taulinda, M. I, Vokeinghorodje, M and Onose, M (2011).

Analysis about Legislative, Judicial system and the instruments for the
defense of Womens’ Human Rights in Nigeria, (Retrieved, 20/ 05/ 2015).

Mansory, A. (2007). Dropout Study in Basic Education Level of Schools. (Retrieved 20/06/15).
Mbolela, R. M. (2010). Factors affecting girls’ completion of Basic Education: The case of some
Basic schools in Chongwe District. The University of Zambia, (Dissertation). Lusaka.

McMillan, J. H. and Schumacher, S. (2006). Research in education: evidence based education.

( [Link] Retrieved, 15/11/2015).
Mensch, B. S and Hoyd, C. B (2008). Marriage and Child birth as factors in dropping out from
school: An analysis of data from Sub-Saharan Africa, Population Studies. International
Family Planning Perspectives, Vol.34. No 3, 1-13, September 2008.
Ministry of Education (1995). Education Statistical Bulletin, Lusaka: MoE.

Ministry of Education (1996). Educating Our Future, National Policy and Education. Lusaka:
Zambia Educational Publishing House.
Ministry of Education (2006). Education Statistical Bulletin, Lusaka: Ministry of
Education
83
Ministry of Education (2007). Education Statistical Bulletin, Lusaka: Ministry of
Education.
Ministry of Education (2010). ‘Review of the Re-entry Policy’ Lusaka : MoE.
Ministry of Education,Science,Vocational, Training and Early Education(2013). Education
Statistical Bulletin, Lusaka: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education (2014). Education Statistical Bulletin, Lusaka: Ministry of

Education.
Millcent,A. A, Olayinka, A, Role, E, and Ndiku, L. M. (2013). Experiential Teacher and Student
Perceptions, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol 3 No. 5;
March 2013.

Mitchell, M. P. (2014). What is education? Insights from the world’s greatest minds.(Retrieved
25/09/2015).
Mokone, L (2014). Why we must focus on Educating the Girl-Child. South Africa (Article)
CARMMA/ African Union.
Molosiwe, S. and B. Moswela. (2012), School dropouts: Education can play a stronger role in
identifying and disseminating promising prevention strategies, University of Botswana.
International Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 3 No 7; April 2012
Mugenda, G. A. (2011). Social Science Research: Theory and Principles. Nairobi: Applied
Research and Training Services.
Munsaka, E. (2009). Understanding school dropout among adolescence in rural site of Southern
Zambia, ([Link],) University of Cape Town, 2009.

Musyimi, C. M. (2011). Wastage Rates in Kenyan Secondary Schools: A Case of Kathonzweni

District, Makueni Country ( Dissertation), Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Mwaba, C. (2015), Girls Dropping out of School is Sad. Times of Zambia, Tuesday February 26,
2015

Mwale, S. (2014), Is Re-entry Policy working. Times of Zambia, December 27, 2014.

Nachmias, C. F and Nachmias,N. (1992). Research Methods in the Social Science, Vol.1 St.
Martin Press.
.
NCES, (2009). Late high school dropouts, Experiences and Changes Across Cohorts Descriptive
Analysis Report.( Retrieved 15/10/15).
Nekatibeb, T. (2002). Background and rationale for school sanitation and hygiene education
UNESCO Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. UNESCO.
84
Nisha, B (2009). National Center for Education Statistic, Institute of Education Sciences, “Late
High School Dropout Experiences and Changes across cohorts Descriptive Analysis
Report.’(Retrieved, 20/12/2015)

Nisha, B (2014). The biggest reasons that India’s girls dropout of school,
(https//[Link]/2014/08/the 3-biggest-reasons-indias-drop:Retrieved, 08/06/20)

Nyoike, C. (2015). Effects of early pregnancies on girls’empowerment. Article 2 Nov. 2015. 17

27, Kenya.

Oigara, J. (2011). Effect of school environment on student achievement and self-achievement:

A Case study in Kenya. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1, 7,
84-88

Okediji, P. (2012). Why Many Girls Dropout of Schools in Africa: Millennium Development
Goals in Africa: ([Link] Retrieved,19/09/2012)

Ondere, J.S. (2012). Causes of dropping out among girls in selected mixed day secondary
School in Kasalani District, Kenya.( Retrieved 24/07/15).

Onwuegbuzie, A. J. and Frels, R. K. (2013). Methodology training workshop for PHD trainers
and supervisors. Unpublished module. Nairobi, Kenya.
Orotho, A. (2009). Elements of Education and Social Research Methods. Masula Publishers’,
Nairobi
Osulah, W. (2007). The impact of teenage pregnancy on school dropout among secondary school
girls in Embu Municipality, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH.
Republic of Botswana Report (2007). Education Statistics. Gaborone: Government Printer

Robson, C. (2002). Real World Research (2nd Ed). Oxford: Backwell.

Roush K. M. (2009). "Social implications of obstetric fistula: An integrative review". Journal of

Midwife and Women’s Health. 54 (2): e21–33.( Retrieved, 13/12/2016).
.
Rumberger, W (2004). Why students drop out of school, Dropouts in America: Confronting the
Graduation rate crisis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Ruto, J. S. (2009). Sexual abuse of school age children: Evidence from Kenya. Journal of
International Cooperation in Education 12,1, 177-192Robson, C. (2002). Real World
Research (2nd Ed). Oxford: Backwell.

Saffron Center (2015). 90% of Child Sexual Abuse Victims Know their Perpetrator.

85
 ([Link]/us/facts/11-facts-about-child-abuse): Retrieved 09/02/2016)

Sandelowski, M, (2000). Focus on the Research Methods, Whatever happened to qualitative

descriptive? Res Nurs Health: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Sandhu, T. A., Chandhry, A., Akbar N and Ahmad, I. (2005). Effects of socio-economic factors
on the female education in rural areas of Faisalabad (Pakistan). Journal of agriculture
and social sciences, 1 (1), 41-42

SCALFS, (2009). Annual Labour Force Report. (http;//[Link]-ica/en/about-

chi/indicators/know-dropout rate: Retrieved, 06/05/15).

Shahidual, S.M and Zehadui-Karim, A. M (2015). Factors contributing to school dropouts

among Girls: A review of literature. European Journal of Research and Reflection
Reflection in Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 2, 2015 ISSN 2056-5852.

Shayan, Z. (2015). Gender Inequality in Education in Afghanistan: Access and Barriers, Erciyes
University,Kayseri,Turkey.([Link]/files/afghanistan-girls-educati (Retrieved
.09/02/2015).

Singh A.S. and Masuku, M.B. (2012). Fundamentals of applied research and sampling
techniques, International Jr. of Medical and Applied Sciences, 2(4), 124-132.

Snelson, P. (1974). Educational Development in Northern Rhodesia: 1883-1945. Lusaka:

Kenneth Kaunda Foundation

Snelson, P (1990). Educational Development in Northern Rhodesia: 1883-1945, (2nd Ed)

Lusaka: Zambia Educational Publishing House,
Strauss, V. (2013). School principals and the rhetoric of instructional leadership’.
([Link]
Stepp, L. (2012). Top 10 Reasons why female education is important. (Retrieved 25/09/2015).
Taylor, B, Sinha, G and Ghoshal, T (2008). Research Methodology; A Guide for Researchers in
Management and Social Sciences, Prentice Hall, New Delhi.

Tellis, Winston, (1997). Introduction to Case Study. The Qualitative Report Volume 3,
Number 2, July. ([Link]

Theresa, T and Sossau, M. A. (2008). Gender discrimination and education in West Africa:
Strategies for Maintaining girls in school, International Journal of inclusive education
vol. 12, No. 4, July2008, pp. 363-379.

Trochim, W. M. (2006). The Research Methods Knowledge Base,( 2nd Ed.)

([Link] Retrieved 20/04/2016)
86
United Nations (2000), Education For All Conference Report in Dakar. Washington, D.C.

United Nations (May, 2000), Department of Public Information

( http//[Link]/en/devlopment/devgenda/gender: Retrieved 20/04/2016).

United Nations (2015). Gender equality and Women’s Empowerment.

(http;/[Link]/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality: Retrieved 26/08/15).

UNESCO, (2010). EFA Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized

Paris/Oxford: UNESCO/Oxford University Press.
UNESCO (2009). Education and National Sustainable Development Strategies.
(Retrieved from http;//[Link]/images/0017/001791/[Link].
28/10/15).
UNESCO Institute for Statistic, (2015). UNESCO eAtlas of Gender Inequality in
Education. ( Retrived 19/04/2016).

UNESCO (2003). EFA Global Monitoring Report: Gender and Education for All.
THE LEAP TO EQUALITY (19/04/2016)

UNICEF (2004), The state of the World’s Children Report. Girls and Development, 4, 34-35

UNODC on human trafficking and migrant smuggling [Link] 2011. (Retrieved04/02/2016).

Wainaina, M. (2009). Gender in Nascent Module 11 programmes in Kenyan public universities.

Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA),
Addis Ababa.

Wall L (2006). Obstetric vesicovaginal fistula as an international public-health problem. Lancet.

;368:1201–1209. [PubMed] ( Retrieved, 20/09/2016)

Watkins, S. A, Ruenda, M and Rodriguez, M. (1999). Introducing Feminism.

Cambridge, England: Icon Books Ltd.

WCEFA, (1990). World Declaration on Education For All: New York, UNESCO.

World Bank (2005) Global Monitoring Report 2005: Millennium Development Goals: From
Consensus to [Link], Washington DC.

World Bank (2014). Girls Education Issues.( Retrieve from http//

[Link]/en/topic/educaion/brief/girls-education. 25/09/15).
[Link] (09/02/2016)
87
 LIST OF APPENDICES

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX A: CONSENT FORM FOR RESPONDENTS

Dear respondent,

You have been selected to participate in this research that is investigating the factors leading to
persistent school dropout rates among girls in Nakonde District. I am kindly requesting for your
voluntary participation in this study. I would appreciate if you could answer all the questions
asked and give me the feedback as soon as possible. Please read the information below and ask
for clarification about anything you do not understand before deciding whether to participate or
not.

CONDITIONS
1. Your views will be treated as confidential. Your name will not be written down during the
research or in the final report.
2. In this research, you will be required to fill in a questionnaire or participate in an interview
for about 30 to 40 minutes.
3. For interviews, you will be required to answer some oral questions on school dropout among
girls in secondary schools of Nakonde District and the researcher will use an Audio Cassette
Recorder to record the proceeding accurately.
4. As for the questionnaire, you will be required to fill in them according to the given
instruction

88
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX B: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION FOR PUPILS

Section A:

Welcome note and Setting ground rules: I welcome you to this focus group discussion. Be
assured of confidentiality and the information will be for academic purposes only. Each
one will be allowed to speak. Discussion will take about 30-40 minutes

Section B: Questions

1. What are the factors leading to persistent school dropout rates among girls in your school?

2. What is the attitude of girls towards education in your school?

3. What are the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching of girls in your school?

4. What challenges do you face in your school which led to school drop out?

5. What measures has the school put in place to curb persistent school dropout among girls in
your school?

Section C: Closing and Thank you

Is there anything else that you may wish to contribute that I did not specifically ask about?
Thank you for your time. As mentioned earlier, the information will be kept confidential
and will be used for academic purposes only

89
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

Section A:

I welcome you to this in-depth interview. Be assured of confidentiality and the information
will be used for academic purposes only. This interview should take about 25-30 minutes.

This research seeks to establish the factors leading to persistent school dropout rates among girls
in secondary schools of Nakonde District. As a class teacher you have been purposively selected
to participate in this interview. These findings are confidential and are for academic purposes
only.

1. What factors lead to persistent school dropout rates among girls in your school?
2. To what extent is the school dropout rate among girls in your school in the period 2013 to
2015?
3. What is the girls’ attitude towards education in your school?
4. What are the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching girls in your school?
5. To what extent do the attitudes of boys contribute to persistent school dropout rates
among girls in your school? How?
6. What measures has the school put in place in order to curb the persistent school dropout
among girls?
7. What are the views of the teachers on school dropout rates among girls in your school?
Is there anything else that you may wish to contribute that I did not specifically ask about?
Thank you for your time. As mentioned earlier, the information will be kept confidential
and will be used for academic purposes only.

90
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR HEADTEACHERS

SECTION A: I welcome you to this in-depth interview. Be assured of confidentiality and

the information will be used for academic purposes only. This interview should take about
25-30 minutes.

SECTION B:

1. For how long have you been working in this school?

2. What factors lead to persistent school dropout rates among girls in your school?

3. How has been the school dropout rate among girls in the past three years (2013 to 2015)?

4. What are the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching girls in your school?

5. What are the girls’ attitudes towards education in your school?

6. What are the boys’ attitudes towards girls in your school?

7. How does the school dropout rate among girls affect the development of the school?

8. What measures have you put in place in order to curb persistent school dropouts among girls?

9. What are your views on persistent school dropout rates among girls in your school?

Is there anything else that you may wish to contribute that I did not specifically ask about?
Thank you for your time. As mentioned earlier, the information will be kept confidential
and will be used for academic purposes only.

91
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX E: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR PARENTS

SECTION A: I welcome you to this in-depth interview. Be assured of confidentiality and

the information will be used for academic purposes only. This interview should take about
25-30 minutes.

SECTION B:

1. For how long have you lived in Nakonde District?

2. How do you rate school dropouts among girls?
3. What factors are leading to school dropout among girls?
4. How does persistent school dropout among girls affect:
(i) Their livelihood?
(ii) Community development?

5. What are the parents’ attitudes towards girls’ education in Nakonde District?
6. What are the girls’ attitudes towards education in Nakonde District?
7. What do you think should be done to curb persistent school dropouts among girls in
Nakonde District?
Is there anything else that you may wish to contribute that I did not specifically ask about?
Thank you for your time. As mentioned earlier, the information will be kept confidential
and will be used for academic purposes only.

92
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am a student at The University of Zambia.

I hereby request to access your school to carry out a study on the factors leading to persistent
school dropout rates among girls in Nakonde District. The dropout refers to students who
abandon school at any given grade or cycle of education before completion of Grade 12.

This study will help various stakeholders such as the Ministry of General Education, Non-
Governmental Organization, School Administration, Teachers, Parents, and Students, in the
Policy formulation and interventions to curb school dropout rates among girls in Nakonde
District. While hoping for your favorable response I remain,

Yours Sincerely,

Cecilia Chaponda (Sr.)

93
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DIRECTORATE OF RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY STUDIES

APPENDIX F: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

This research sought to establish the factors led to persistent school dropout among girls. As a
class teacher you have been purposively selected to participate in answering the questionnaire.
The findings of this study are confidential and are for academic purposes only, please answer all
the questions correctly. Below are statements regarding factors led to persistent school dropouts
among girls in senior secondary schools in Nakonde District.

PART I: Social Demographic Information

1. Sex of respondent,

(a) Female [ ] (b) Male [ ]

2. What is your age?

(a) 20 – 25 [ ] (b) 26 – 30 [ ]

(c) 31 – 40 [ ] (d) 41 + [ ]

3. Level of education,

(a) Certificate [ ] (b) Diploma [ ]

(c) Degree [ ] (d) Masters [ ]

4. For how long have you been teaching in this school?

(a) 1 year [] (b) 2 years []

(C) 3 years [] (d) 4 + years [ ]

94
PART II
Please read each statement carefully and circle or tick one appropriate number that suits your
opinion. CIRCLE OR TICK IN ONLY ONE COLUMN FOR EACH STATEMENT. Use
the following five point scale of the agreement and disagreement with the statement. 1=
Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 =Undecided, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree

S/N Factors leading to persistent school dropout among girls Five Point Scale
5. Pregnancy lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
6. Early marriage lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
7. Poverty lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
8. Distance lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
9. Bullying of pregnant girls lead to persistent school dropout 1 2 3 4 5
among girls
10. Human trafficking lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
11. Prostitution lead to persistent school dropout among girls 1 2 3 4 5
12. Cultural beliefs and practices lead to persistent school dropout 1 2 3 4 5
among girls
13. Girls’ involvement in trade and business lead to persistent 1 2 3 4 5
school dropout among girls
14 The rate of school dropouts among girls from the period 1 2 3 4 5
2013 to 2015 is high.
15. The rate of school dropouts among girls is high in Grade 10. 1 2 3 4 5
16. The rate of school dropouts among girls is high in Grade 11. 1 2 3 4 5
17. The rate of school dropouts among girls is high in Grade 12. 1 2 3 4 5
18. The rate of dropout among girls is high among day scholars. 1 2 3 4 5
19. The rate of dropout among girls is high among boarders. 1 2 3 4 5
20. The rate of dropout among girls is high in co-education schools. 1 2 3 4 5
21. The rate of dropout among girls is high in single-sex schools. 1 2 3 4 5
22. The negative attitude of girls towards education leads to 1 2 3 4 5
persistent school drop-out among girls.

95
 23. Teachers prefer teaching boys to girls in your school 1 2 3 4 5
24. There is negative attitude towards girl-child education by male 1 2 3 4 5
teachers.
25. There is negative attitude towards girl-child education by 1 2 3 4 5
parents.

26. Suggest measures which will help to reduce on school dropout rate among girls in your
school
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………..

27. What are your views on school dropout rates among girls in your school?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you for your participation.

96