Determinants of Girl Child Dropouts in Rural Areas: A Case Study of St. Peter’s Bukalango Secondary School in Wakiso District

Abstract

Though a lot of research has been concerned with school dropout issues for girls and boys, dropout pattern significantly differs by the gender of the students. insignificant attention has been devoted to examining the causes of girl child dropouts in secondary schools especially in the rural areas where the problem is widespread. Yet girl child dropout is a serious problem that dramatically impacts on the national development of Uganda. This paper clarifies the factors that contribute to the increasing dropout rate of children particularly among girls by examining the factors that influence girl child dropout at the lower secondary level. I therefore attempted to examine the causes of rural girl child dropouts in Uganda secondary schools, and I adopted St. Peter's School Bukalango located in Wakiso district, as a case study. To establish the causes of girl child dropouts ,form one, two, three and four were concentrated on.A questionnaire comprising closed and open ended questions was also used as a data collection tool. Data was summarized by use of frequency tables and analyzed qualitatively using evaluative descriptions. The study revealed that most of the girl child dropout cases were as a resulf of early marriages, high poverty rates and economic hardships. From the foregoing, the paper recommends that the government of Uganda with partnership with other development agencies should provide scholastic materials, construct sanitation facilities in rural schools and also train teachers to render adequate training to the girl child. This will thus reduce the girl child dropout rate in Uganda.