Cape Town - Following the 2021 drop-out rate released in Stats SA’s General Household Survey, experts believed that the pandemic has worsened the challenges pupils had already been dealing with.
Zooming in on the school dropout rate, data in the survey revealed that close to 3% of 15-year-olds and nearly 9% of 17-year-olds dropped out of school. Most 18 and 19-year-olds were still attending secondary school. Almost three out of 10 pupils aged 18 years (29,3%) and four out of the nine pupils aged (46,3%) of 19-year had dropped out of school.
Independent education analyst Hendrick Makaneta said that the data released by Stats SA only laid bare the issue of dropout rates.
“It should be clear at this point that most of the 18-years-olds that drop out do so at Grade 10 level. We have the phenomenon called the 'Grade 10 crisis', where the majority of those who drop out are in Grade 10. These are mostly learners who struggle with their studies. Although some of them end up in TVET colleges, quite a big number are lost to communities, and this is a cause for great concern as the challenge derived from these high levels of dropout results in high unemployment as many of these learners have no skills that are required in the mainstream economy,” said Makaneta.
Zero Dropout Campaign programme director Merle Mansfield said that often young people in South Africa are affected by push and pull factors at the same time as they navigate through school.
“The impact of Covid-19 has exacerbated a number of the factors that young people were faced with already. For many South African school-going children, particularly in quintile 1-3 schools, connection to learning was entirely lost during school closures. Many families and homes were facing overwhelming economic stress as part of the aftermath of the pandemic – as a result, children were directly affected by this as issues such as food security, transportation, or living quarters often took precedence over educational needs. For many young people, the burden of learning whilst under toxic stress was felt more acutely, and this put them at risk of disengagement from school,” said Mansfield.
Zoning in on the Western Cape, WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said that retaining pupils would continuously be a strategic priority of the WCED as there are multiple reasons which are not necessarily deemed as 'dropping out of the schooling system.
"The WCED does not actively track or report on learner ‘drop out’ as there are multiple reasons which are not necessarily deemed as ‘dropping out' of the schooling system, and schools always follow up with learners who have not been attending school for whatever reason and try to get them back to school. Even before the pandemic, retaining learners has been a strategic priority of the WCED,” said Hammond.
Hammond added that in light of pupils who are susceptible to dropping out, the department looks at paying more attention, support, and remedial action for learners at risk of dropping out and also follow up with those who have stopped attending school to encourage them to return.
“Retaining learners across the grades requires several interventions, and the department looks to support and encourage pupils such as those who are pregnant during and after their pregnancy so that they do not drop out as a result of being pregnant. We also look at behavioural programs, psychological support, and even the assistance of social welfare or networks for learners who are in homes that are not the healthy and happy environment,” said Hammond.