Causes and Challenges of School Dropouts in Rubirizi District: A Case Study of Rutoto Sub-County

Abstract

Dropping out of school puts sub-Saharan Africa on a negative side with the current effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals relating to Education especially in Uganda. There is an urgent need to address this problem through checking the associated factors that cause dropping out of school, the impact of social factors and demographic factors on dropping out of school in the two villages of Birehe and Kyanika. A sample of 54 drop outs was interviewed and the study considered univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. A binary logistic regression model was used to determine the factors for dropping out of school. Male drop outs were (51.85%), For the challenges faced by drop outs, inadequate capital to setup businesses claimed the biggest percentage of 28.3% followed by limited market with 20.75%. Bivariate analysis results reveal that the biggest percentage of drop outs (45.83%) lied in the (21-25) age bracket. With the p-value (0.745) greater than 0.05 at 95% level of significance, this showed that age of respondent and drop out are not significant. The pull factors (factors that influence students to drop out of school due to hardships met away from school) were not significant in relation to dropping out of school and push factors (factors that trigger students to drop out of school due to hardships met at school) were significantly related to dropping out of school with the p-value 0.028 which is less than 0.05. Multivariate analysis revealed that in collective combination of all causal factors, school dropout is only significantly caused by push factors (p_value = 0.032) where the number of school dropouts exposed to push factors was bigger than that of those not exposed to push factors (coeff = 127.169) whereas pull factors, challenges faced due to setting up business ventures by drop outs and background characteristics were found not to significantly cause school dropout in Rubirizi district (p_values less than 0.05). This study explored the many factors associated with drop out which lie at individual, household, school and community level. Although most factors at all levels previously stated were not related to dropping out as per the sampled respondents, Public sensitization about the value and importance of education should be strengthened to reduce dropout rate and should not only be focused on females but also on male as well.