Advocacy
Socio-economic factors lead over 1,397 primary school pupils to drop out of school in Boane district, Maputo province
Just until the first semester of this year, the district of Boane registered over 1,397 cases of primary school pupils dropping out, according to data revealed by the District Education, Youth and Technology Services (SDEJT) of Boane, in a meeting held with ADRA staff.
According to Castigo Daniel Cuamba, the District Director of the SDEJT in Boane, these data tend to reduce significantly over the last four years given the interventions of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), such as ADRA, which have been providing assistance in school feeding and this has encouraged the retention and better pedagogical performance of pupils.
In question are social and economic factors that are at the root of the high rate of school dropouts, a fact that is also corroborated by some families in Estevel community of, in the locality of Gueguegue, in Boane district.
As an example, Felizberto Mahlari, one of the parents and caregivers of two school age children (aged 13 to 15), says that he cannot afford to send one of his children to continue with secondary education.
On the other hand, Julião Novele, Director of Estevel Primary School (EPC) said to ADRA team that the cases of school drop-outs are a concern for the school board, for the teachers,
and for the whole community, in general, "this school (EPC) enrolled for the present academic year around 585 pupils out of which 298 boys and 287 girls. Of this number about 24 students, corresponding to 4.1% of those enrolled are given as dropouts just in the first semester of this year, so this concerns us."
It should be noted that the district of Boane, enrolled for the current pedagogical year around 79,197 pupils for primary education, of which 1000 are considered to have been transferred officially and the remaining 1,397 have dropped out.
