Improving The Retention Of Girls In Schools: A Case Study Of Piloted Senior Secondary Schools In The Kavango West Region

ABSTRACT

This study focusses on the current retention rate of girls in rural secondary schools that were part of the piloted schools in the then Kavango Educational Region but now fall in the Kavango West Educational Region after the split of Kavango into two regions (East and West) by the forth Delimitation Commission in 2013. The aim of the study is to identify what the current retention rate of the girls is, the type of barriers they are faced with and how to overcome them. The key research question in this study is: Has the piloted school project in the Kavango West Educational Region helped to improve the retention of girls in secondary schools? The qualitative research approach is used as a means that would help answer this research question best through interviews, observation and document analysis. Such an approach is viewed to be the best at interaction with the participants in their natural setting to enable to understand and derive meaning from them about the level of retention rate at the three senior secondary schools that were part of the study from the piloted schools. A purposeful sampling was selected for this study of girls who had dropped and returned to schools at the three piloted secondary schools with their support teachers, school management and education officer responsible. The main findings cited to keep girls in schools are parental support and motivation, strong family backgrounds, peer pressure, hardship and self-realization, self- motivation, role model and the impact of the surrounding communities. Factors such as pregnancies among school going girls, unconducive school environments, treatment (from some parents, teachers and learners), poverty level and financial difficulties, early marriage and lack of care-takers for their infants when they want to return to schools were cited to keep girls away from schools. To enable them to remain in schools and complete their secondary education, girls needed motivation, encouragement, proper advice and educational policies that were protective and advanced girls’ education.