Report: More boys dropping out of school
More boys of school going age are out of school compared to girls, a new report shows.
According to the Usawa Agenda’s published report on Foundation and Numeracy assessment, 16 out of 100 preschool-aged children are not enrolled in school, along with 8 out of 100 primary school-aged children. On average, 9 out of 100 children of school age are not attending school.
Conversely, in urban areas, 3 out of 100 children who discontinued their education cited the distance to the school as the reason. Similarly, 3 out of 100 children who dropped out did so because their parent or guardian opposed their attendance. Additionally, 3 out of 10 children who left school did not disclose the reasons for their decision.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Emmanuel Manyasa, Executive Director, Usawa revealed that there are more boys than girls out of school except in households headed by university graduates, where the percentage of girls out of school is more than double that of boys.
“A school-aged child in a poor household is twice as likely out of school as his/her counterpart in a rich household, School-age children in households led by females face a 0.7% higher likelihood of being out of school compared to children in households led by males. Additionally, boys of school age have a 0.6% higher probability of being out of school than their female counterparts,” He said.
According to the report, Mandera County exhibits the highest proportion of 4 to 15-year-old children not attending school, standing at three times the national average of 9 out of 100 children being out of school.
A child in the 4 to 15 age group in Mandera County is almost 10 times more likely to be out of school compared to a child of the same age in Nyamira County. All seven counties with the highest rates of children out of school are situated in Arid and Semi-arid lands (ASALs). These same seven counties also have the highest percentages of children who have never been enrolled in school.
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