Although the Department of Basic Education(DBE) has made significant progress over the years regarding consistent reductions in learner dropouts, the issue remains concerning as there are still a number of children lost in the system.
Responding to a recent parliamentary question on learner drop-outs, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga noted that her department has implemented various activities and initiatives to ensure that children attend and complete school during the compulsory schooling age.
The minister explained that understanding why young learners drop out is essential to implementing measures and promoting successful completion of schooling.
Why learners drop out
According to the General Household Survey (GHS), the main reasons why learners drop out of school are household poverty and income shocks, household labour and family responsibilities, migration, and health problems.
The 2019 GHS revealed that 34% of youths aged 16 to 18 were not coping academically, and 25% indicated "no money for fees."
In addition, other underlying causes of learners dropping out can also be attributed to weak learning foundations, academic difficulties, poor school resources and facilities, weak teaching and school management, and access to schools.
The socio-emotional issues among learners were also identified as a risk factor for dropping out. Females are less likely to drop out of school than males despite facing certain risk factors that affect females in particular, like pregnancy.
The department noted that grade repetition is another factor contributes to dropout rates, as repetition discourages children about their educational prospects and makes them relatively old for their grade, which could make opting out of school more socially or economically attractive
Reducing learner dropouts
The DBE says that in order to increase "survival" to Grade 12, its strategies are multi-pronged, focusing on mitigating poverty's effects and improving learning and teaching in the classroom.
Here are some of the departments initiatives aimed at reducing dropouts:
- The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP). This intervention encourages children to attend school and promotes learning by reducing levels of hunger and malnutrition, which inhibit successful learning.
- No fee schools. This longstanding intervention ensures that children and youths in poorer communities are not prevented from attending school due to the inability of the household to pay for school fees.
- Policies on teenage pregnancies. Government Notice 704 of 2021 formalised policy on the protection of the schooling of pregnant learners.
- Ongoing strengthening of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). A more focused curriculum is one reason that has been put forward as a reason for past improvements in South Africa’s performance in international testing programmes.
- Special examination preparation support for Grade 12 learners.
Furthermore, the department has also implemented efforts aimed at improving learning in the early grades. Motshekga adds, “A key government priority is improving reading, and learning and teaching in general, in the early grades.”
Several interventions contribute towards this, including the shift in the responsibility for pre-schooling from the social development sector to basic education, the Early Grade Reading Study and associated teacher development innovations, and the introduction of the Systemic Evaluation.
