Experts explain why more boys continue to drop out of school

A section of experts yesterday weighed in on why boys are opting out of school before completing their Primary education. Some attribute the growing trend to child labour and preferential treatment accorded to a girl child, which leaves the boy-child neglected.

Mr Filbert Baguma, the general secretary of the Uganda National Teachers Union, told this publication in an interview yesterday that child labour that was exacerbated by the effects of Covid -19 that ravaged the country for almost two years, was the major factor contributing to dropouts, especially among the boys.

“When schools closed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, some boys engaged in petty businesses and opted to stay employed. When schools reopened, they never went back. When you go to areas where there are plantations of sugarcane, tea, rice, tobacco and fishing communities and mining areas, you will find them there working,” Mr Baguma said.

Education Minister Janet Museveni yesterday expressed concern over what she described as the undesirable trend of a bigger number of boys dropping out of school before completing the primary education cycle.

Officiating at the release of 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) results at Nakasero State House yesterday,  the minister who doubles as First Lady, said that whereas the country has strived to ensure gender parity in accessing education, fewer boys are now completing primary education.

“Whereas I recognise the great strides the country has taken in bringing about gender parity in access to primary education for boys and girls, I do observe the concerning trend regarding the boy child,”  she said.

“Statistics from Uneb indicate that we are now seeing an undesirable trend whereby more and more girls are completing the primary education cycle while boys are increasingly dropping out. This is a moment for us as a sector to look back and reflect on this undesirable trend. Why is the boy child not complete ting primary education?,” the minister wondered.

According to Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb), a total of 749, 347 pupils sat for PLE last year, of which 391,558 were girls and 357,789 boys.

Mr Baguma said it is high time the government started to provide compulsory primary and secondary education, as opposed to Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) as this will ensure that all children of school-going age are kept at school. 

Martin Kizza, the executive director of Uganda Children’s Authority ( UCA) said boys are easily influenced by their peers and that negative peer influence could be contributing to the issue at hand.

Mr Hussein Mitala, the chairperson of the Kamuli District Primary School Head Teachers’ Association, said high levels of poverty was forcing pupils to work and fend for their families.

“We are badly hit by the child labour in this place.  There is a lot of sugarcane growing in the region of Busoga and because of that, we are experiencing a high dropout. It has hit us by almost 30 percent and it is affecting the upper classes. We have been hit by dropout even after registration, ”Mr  Mitala who doubles as the head teacher of  Bulopa Primary School in Kamuli District said

“They come and register but in the due course, they abscond from school and go to cut sugarcane.  Some cannot afford school requirements. Government facilitation to schools should be increased so that we can maintain these learners, “he added.

He also said laws that bar child labour should be implemented so that people can stop engaging children in child labour.

Records indicate that more than  four  million children are engaged in child labour.

Records in the Ministry of Education and Sports estimate that about 1.9 million children are enrolled in Primary One every year but, less than 700,000 pupils sit for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) while over a million children drop out along the way.

Mr Edgar Mbahamiza, the former Head of Communications at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) said he was not surprised by the First  Lady’s concern, saying many children had abandoned school and were engaged in petty businesses.

“I wouldn’t be surprised because I have seen many young boys who are already in the working environment here in my small town of Ntungamo.  The moment they start testing money of bodabodas, making chapatis or working in garages, they will forget about school,” he said.

“You even find boys as young as 10 years working in garages while others hang around the sports betting machines. I have already complained about it. It seems there was some underreporting about school dropout among the boys before,” he added.

Mr Mbahamiza said the Women’s Movement has over-concentrated on a  girl child and neglected a boy child yet both boys and girls are vulnerable saying its is high time the men woke up to fight for the rights of a boy child.

 He said that even at home, people are worried about a girl child, and the boy is left on his own.

“We have always had about the Sengas. The Kojjas have gone to sleep. The men have been left alone to grow wild,” Mr Mbahamiza said.