Abstract:
This paper examines the issue of school dropout in six communities in the
Savelugu-Nanton District in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study focused on
89 children (64 boys and 25 girls) aged 7–16 years, who had dropped out of
school. A snowballing sampling method was employed to recruit participants to
the study. Two researchers interviewed the children using semi-structured
interview schedules over a period of three weeks. School dropouts were asked to
tell their own stories about their schooling experiences and the factors which led
to them leaving school. From their accounts dropping out of school appears to be
the result of a series of events involving a range of interrelated factors, rather than
a single factor. The complex nature of the processes leading to dropout demands
input from various actors (i.e. teachers, head teachers, parent-teacher associations,
school management committees and community members) to detect and address
at-risk factors early in order to reduce the likelihood of dropout.
