Abstract: The study examines the effects of the rising schooling costs on dropout rates of ward secondary school students in Morogoro Urban District, Tanzania. The study employed documentary reviews to gather data from 9 ward secondary schools on the increase in the cost of schooling in the last five years (2011-2015) and the proportion of pupils dropping out due to cost of schooling. Findings reveals the increase in extra costs of schooling in last five years in various items including transport, school uniform, stationery, and security charges. In parallel to that, the rising schooling costs contributes high rate of dropout among ward secondary students, preceded by truancy, which is also quite conservable contributed by parents’ inability to incur schooling costs. Regardless of the fact that the government has established and implementing a free education policy in primary and secondary educational levels from 2016, some of schooling expenses including transport, school uniforms and meals are to be incurred by parents. The study recommends government and educational stakeholders to identify and provide assistance to students from poor socio-economic backgrounds who do not afford additional schooling expenses which government do not incur.
Keywords: Rising Schooling Cost, Absenteeism, Dropout, Secondary School.
Title: THE RISING SCHOOLING COSTS AND THE RATE OF DROPOUT AMONG WARD SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MOROGORO URBAN DISTRICT
Author: Ben Sanga
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3164 (online), ISSN 2348-3156 (Print)
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