The rising schooling costs and rate of absenteeism and dropout among ward secondary school students in Morogoro Urban District

Sanga, Ben (2013) The rising schooling costs and rate of absenteeism and dropout among ward secondary school students in Morogoro Urban District. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

In recent time there has been a great concern about the rising schooling costs and rates of absenteeism and dropout among ward secondary school students. The objective of this study was to trace the increase in costs of schooling for the last five years, proportion of pupils dropping out due to costs of schooling, and examining the relationship between parental level of education, income and students dropout rates. The study employed quantitative research method in collecting and analyzing data where, documentary review guides were used to 9 heads of schools, 18 class teachers, 3 ward educational officers and 36 students as key informants of the study, from 9 sampled ward secondary schools in Morogoro Urban District. Findings revealed that, there was an increase in school expenses for an average of 51 percent from 2008 to 2012. Also, the proportion of pupils’ dropout rates due to costs of schooling accounted for 24 percent as a second reason, preceded by truancy (48.8 percent) which is also quite conceivable to be contributed by students’ inability to meet costs of schooling. Moreover, 55 percent and 63 percent of dropout students had fathers and mothers with only primary level of education respectively. Furthermore, 73.6 percent of dropout students had parents with poor income. This indicates that, many students quit schooling due to their poor family socioeconomic background. The study recommends to government to eliminate all unnecessary schooling costs so as to ensure maximum students’ accessibility and completion rates at secondary level of education especially to students from poor families.

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