Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve
A STAGGERING 49 000 school children dumped the classroom in 2024 with teenage pregnancy, poverty and long distances among the top reasons for the mass dropout crisis.
The grim numbers were revealed in Parliament by Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Angeline Gata who said 33 746 secondary school pupils and 15 809 primary learners dropped out last year.
Manicaland led the heartbreak chart with 4 842 high school exits while Mashonaland Central topped the primary school dropout stats at 3 052.
But in a shining light, Bulawayo came out tops with the lowest dropout numbers across the board. Just 657 secondary and 285 primary pupils gave up on school in the City of Kings.
“This shows the power of community and stakeholder efforts in keeping our children in school” said Deputy Minister Gata.
She said Government is rolling out an Early Warning System to sniff out the causes and triggers behind the dropout wave with teachers being trained to identify at-risk pupils.
“We are working with UNICEF. The programme has been running for six months. Our staff is already on the ground” she said.
Top reasons for kids quitting school include teen pregnancies, unpaid fees despite the BEAM assistance programme and simply a lack of parental motivation.
Some pupils are forced to walk more than 5km to school and Government is now prioritising building more schools within accessible distances.
“This is a wake up call. We all need to come together, leaders, parents and communities to stop this wave and bring our children back to school” said Dep Min Gata.
@nyeve14
