Parental factors associated with students dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District, Rwanda

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the parental factors associated with students’ dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District. The research objectives were to determine how parents’ socioeconomic status is associated with students’ dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District, to assess how parents’ involvement is associated with students’ dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District, to determine how family structure is associated with students’ dropout in lower public secondary schools in Gasabo District. This study was guided by the convergent parallel design. The target population comprised 125 students, ten head teachers and 125 parents. Simple random sampling was employed to select 95 students who had dropped out of the school and 46 parents, 10 head teachers were selected purposively. In this study, instruments such as questionnaires, interviews, and documentary analysis were employed to collect data from participants. The SPSS version 21was used to analyze quantitative data. However thematic analysis was used for the completion of interviews. The findings indicated that socioeconomic status was associated with students’ dropout as indicated by 69 out 87 (79.45%) of students who had dropped out the school. It was also reported that parent involvement was contributed to students’ dropout because the parent of the students who had dropped out school (M =1.62, SD=0.569) were rarely involved in their children’s education. Lastly, family structure contributed to students drop out differently where the majority of the students 48 out of 87 (55.17%) of the students who had dropped out the school were from the single families. The study concluded that the parental factors such as parents’ socioeconomic status, parents’ involvement, and family structure were associated with students’ dropout. Thus, the study recommended the following, the government needs to improve the welfare of the families, local leaders and their partners should work hand in hand to seek support for vulnerable children. Additionally, school leaders and parents should work together to make follow up on students who are at risk of dropping out of school.