Worrisome school dropouts at Zapita Village in Lilongwe

Like any other villages elsewhere in the country, children at Zapita Village in Traditional Authority Malili south west of the Capital City Lilongwe, begin school in large numbers but they also drop out due to a number of reasons, chief among them being poverty and lack of parental care.

Zapita Primary School is surrounded by over 20 small villages with the population of over 80 households in each village and its people earn their living through commercial brick moulding and small scale farming.

The settlement is headed by a female Group Village Headperson (GVH) Zapita and most children who go to that school come from poor households, which can be evidently seen living in dire poverty.

It can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that they are living below the poverty line as most households depend solely on free social services such as Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP).

Although there are a number of initiatives the Malawi government put in place to discourage the challenges of dropout in primary schools, surveys have exposed that many areas in the country still record an increased number of drop outs.

As an intervention, the Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) commissioned an investigative study with financial support from Swedish development partners, Individuell Mannskohjalp (IM) to establish its root causes.

The programme has been actively working in Malawi with its local partners for over 10 years to tackle poverty at individual level and the study’s results show that 97 learners against the enrolment rate of 992 dropped out of school during the 2016/2017 academic calendar.

Out of 97 dropouts 49 were boys and 48 were girls mostly ranging between 6 and 14 years old.

The study also revealed that dropout rate for 2016/2017 academic year was high in Standard One with 13.9 percent and 12.7 percent in Standard Two. It slightly dropped in other classes while it rose again in Standard 7 with 7.8 percent and Standard 8 being the highest with 33.7 percent.

On the same trend, dropout rate for 2017/2018 academic year recorded 76 learners dropping out against an enrolment of 926 of which 39 were boys while 37 were girls. Standard One alone recorded 11.6% with Standard Two at 10.4%. The dropout also slightly changed in the other classes but rose again in Standard 8 at 13.3%.

Zapita Primary School headteacher Likagwa Mussah said high dropout rate is worrisome at the school because most parents or guardians leave their children go scot-free with their decisions to stop going to school even if they are not rational enough to make such decisions.

“We had a school feeding programme in 2016/2017 academic year. We also have a ‘change room’ at this school which female learners uses when they are in periods,” he said.

“The biggest problem is that there is lack of parental care and guidance to force children remain in school.”

One of the parents, Yohane Symon, said he let his girl child choose to get married than continue with her school because he believes it is her right to cherry-pick what she wants in her life.

“My first born daughter was in Standard 8 but she chose to get married. I did not say anything when I learned that she got married to a certain man. I could not say anything on that because that is what she chose and it is her right,” said Yohane.

However, according to the study, 13 dropouts who were interviewed disclosed that they left school because they could not manage to pay for school development fund which the head teacher confirmed is currently pegged at K350 per term.

Chrissy Stephano, who is one of the dropout girls intoned that she left school because her guardian could not manage to provide for school uniforms, notebooks and fees, a statement which reflects the general situation regarding dropouts.

During the community engagement meeting, in which chiefs, parents and community stakeholders attended  at Zapita, Lilongwe District education chairperson Hardwell Jani, who is also Councillor for Chiwamba ward in Lilongwe North East constituency, bemoaned lack of political will in implementing deliberate policies aimed at promoting education in the country.

GVH Zapita and Village Headman (VH) Chilinda also acknowledged that there are many boys and girls who dropped from school in their villages. They said they are failing to enforce community by-laws because many parents and guardians challenge them whenever they try to pressurise them to let their kids stay in school.

According to 2017 Education Management Information System  report,  national average dropout rate in primary school is at 48 and 58 percent annually.

This development seem to threaten the attainment of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number four, which is compelling UN member states to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

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