A stunning 42% drop out rate of children before the completion of primary school was reported by UNESCO in 2012. Since then, things are not any better, right from the elementary schools to universities and colleges. However, it is highly anticipated that the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak will skyrocket the dropout rates a great deal.

This is precisely because of the Covid-19 related effects, especially poverty, and being away from school for so long. Even though various efforts towards the success of homeschooling have been made, the following will be the inevitable causes of an increment in the dropout rates.

Reasons Why Covid-19 Will Yield Lots of School Drop Outs This Year

1. The long wait.

Ever since March this year, schools have been temporarily closed in order to mitigate the spread of the deadly pandemic. Yes, this has been undoubtedly successful, but there are huge impacts of this abrupt change, especially on the education of the students.

First of all, many students and teachers thought this was temporary as many heads of state gave one month as the provisional time to study the trend of the virus and to find ways to eliminate it. However, this time has increased, and despite the appeals towards the government to open up, at least for the candidates, it is actually impossible for them to take the risk.

As such, many students have grown tired, and feel like there’s a lot that they can do to get money, after all that’s what they need to make it in life, thus deciding to forfeit school for good.

2. Poverty.

This has been one of the main reasons why some African children have been failing to access education, or have dropped out along the way.

Since the outbreak of the virus, many people have had their sources of income sabotaged, especially those that deal in sensitive areas like bars and open markets. These people will not have enough money since they have not had a chance to properly work and have something to save up for the post-COVID times.

Chances are therefore low that their children will be able to go back to school even after a general cure to the virus has been found.

3. Some will get married.

Girls, especially those in secondary and tertiary institutions are usually faced with the temptation to leave school and get married, especially when men start to approach them. Now, this is easily overcome when they’re at school, or have different scholarly duties to fulfill.

Right now, many girls in remote areas, or living with primitive parents have even been encouraged by the parents themselves to go in for marriage, because it’s hard for their parents to take care of them at this time, and also because the parents shall receive something in form of bride price.

To some girls, men have promised to help continue with their education after the lockdown finally gets lifted, but whether they will be still interested in going back to school or their husbands will still be interested in funding them is uncertain.

In a way, some students will go in for marriage without their parents’ notice, especially when parents have less time at home, or don’t give them enough time and attention in form of guidance and counseling, which the children need at such a time.

4. Failure of home-schooling.

Through the internet and mass media, many children have been able to cover a good number of topics in their subjects, while some have still failed and are not interested in taking part in homeschooling.

Besides the fact that many of them cannot access the internet and necessary gadgetry, there are some that are well equipped but wrongly use these gadgets, or spend most of their time gaming or browsing social media. This is particularly because there is no or less supervision from their parents. Other schools haven’t availed online study programs to their students.

5. They hate the idea of repeating.

Now, because this whole academic year has turned out to be ruined by these Covid-19 circumstances, there is a high probability that all the students will repeat this year. This will make them one year later than they had to be, in terms of completing their respective levels of education.

For some, this idea hasn’t been welcomed, and many believe that if it’s actually going to be that way, they will not be able to go back to school, because they feel too old for that.

Therefore, many of them (including candidates) will drop out and choose different ways to live their lives.

6. Permanent closure of some schools.

Due to different Covid-19 induced causes like schools being lost to commercial banks, bankruptcy among others, some schools may not be able to open up even after the pandemic has been fully defeated.

It is common that many parents find it easier to take their children to certain private schools because it is easy to discuss matters with the school administrators, while some even have favorable payment plans. This means, due to fear of facing different and probably unfavorable payment plans, some parents will give up on educating their children.

However, this is common in primitive areas, or in cases where the parents haven’t been that interested in educating their children.

7. Becoming money makers.

Due to the fact that taking care of large families has been difficult for parents living in poverty, some boy children have been forced to get on their feet and find something to do in order to add food to the table. In the due process, they have gotten fed up with the idea of going back to school, after all, they’re making money, and even at school, they’re being taught because they have to make money in the future.

8. Death of their sponsors.

Be it a parent or guardian, or a sponsor doing charitable work, their death would put an ultimate end to their actions.

For some children, the death of one or both of their parents has been a major turning point on getting them swayed from their educational goals. As such, many children will fail to go back to school and resort to work or marriage as an alternative to endless education.

9. Some are already tired of school.

We all know these students that are quite older than their classmates and are not all that interested in education as their peers are. These students have had enough time to fully detach themselves from the responsibility of going to school, and adding to the points mentioned above, they feel too old to go back, and yet they can work and do a lot of useful things with their life.

As such, many students with that attitude will not be able to go back to school.

Conclusion.

All these challenges are familiar, some of which have been going on for a good number of years. However, one of the main factors that keep children in school is the role of their parents, in terms of sponsorship and parental guidance. Regardless of the fact that many parents are now up and down in search of money, they should take a little more time to sit down with their children and give them proper advice.