Lived Experiences Of Female Basic School Dropouts: A Social Capital Perspective

ABSTRACT The undesirable impact of female school dropout has attracted attention from governments, stakeholders, national as well as multinational institutions to look at the phenomenon from various perspectives. This study was conducted to gain insight into the causes of basic school dropout behaviour among females in the Narhman community, Accra, within a social capital framework. A cross sectional design with a qualitative approach was used to interview eighteen respondents using the face-to-face interview method. Data was analyzed along three predetermined themes and emerging sub-themes were extracted using the Grounded Theory approach. The findings showed that child maltreatment, parental poverty, illness, peer teasing and parental death were some of the factors that made respondents drop out of school. The findings again showed respondents had negative forms of social capital reflecting in their stories and this influenced their decision to drop out of school. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Ghana Education Service introduces the concept of Social Capital as a topic in Social Studies in basic schools. These findings of the study would add up to existing knowledge that could form the basis for developing interventions to curb the incidence of females dropping out of school.