50,000 children drop out of Zimbabwe schools
By Nkosana Dlamini
Nearly 50,000 children from both primary and secondary schools dropped out of learning last year with a government minister attributing the worrying situation to pregnancy and distance related challenges.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Primary and Secondary Education deputy minister Angeline Gata said 15,809 kids dropped out of primary countrywide in 2024 while 33,746 were from secondary school.
The minister had been asked by Mashonaland West proportional representation MP, Mutsa Francisca Murombedzi to bring to the house, figures on the number of dropouts from Zimbabwean schools per province and district in 2024.
The provinces which had the highest school dropouts were Manicaland (6,889 both primary and secondary), Mashonaland Central (7,370), Mashonaland West (6,963), Masvingo (6,014) and Midlands which had 7,746.
The grand total of all the country’s 10 provinces was 15,809 primary school and 33,746 secondary school dropouts, according to the minister.
Bulawayo had 285 primary and 657 secondary school dropouts, totalling 942.
Harare Province had 2,105 dropouts. Of these, 489 were from primary school while 1,616 were doing secondary education.
Manicaland totalled 6,889; with 2,047 leaving primary school and 4,842 from secondary. Of these, Chipinge district alone accounted for 1,330 primary school dropouts.
Mashonaland Central had 3,052 primary school dropouts and 4,318 from secondary with the total at 7,370.
In Mashonaland East, 1,006 pupils dropped out of primary school while 3,937 left their secondary education prematurely. The total was 4,943.
Mashonaland West had 2,192 primary school dropouts and 4,771 totalling 6,963.
Masvingo Province had 2,228 dropping out of primary and 3,786 leaving their secondary education. The total was 6,014.
Matabeleland North Province saw 1,394 leave primary school and 2,821 abandon secondary school all totalling 4,215.
Matabeleland South Province accounted or 499 primary school and 1,860 dropouts from secondary with the total being 2,359.
In Midlands, 2,608 kids left primary while 5,138 surrendered their secondary education with the total number of dropouts at 7,746. Of these, Gokwe North district saw 1,215 drop out while Gokwe South had 1,272 dropouts.
Commenting on the causes, Minister Gata said, “Girls were dropping out because of pregnancy”.
“…This is a call to all of us, the House and parental involvement that we help each other with the community.
“There are quite a number of reasons of school dropping out. Some may be caused by distance to school and schools are being built to adhere to five kilometres for a child to walk to school and some, it is just clear motivation from parents that is needed.”
“As a Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education”, she added, “we have embarked on a programme that is called Early Warning System. This programme, the Early Warning System will help us with indications on what are the causes of school drop-outs in both primary and secondary school.
“So, we are training our teachers who are helping us to identify communities that will need help. We are doing this partnering with UNICEF and it has been going on so far for six months.
“It has started already in schools and as we speak, they are on the ground training our staff. There are various reasons for school dropouts. Depending on the reasons, some of the reasons could be girls getting pregnant and school fees, which is being catered by BEAM.”
