The out of school children’s attitudes and reasons towards schooling: a case of Kisarawe district

The ever increasing number of school age children who are out of school have been attributed to many factors including poverty and orphan hood caused by HIV/AIDS epidemic. The situation however, has kept worsening notwithstanding the deliberate attempts to abolish tuition fees to elementary education and the establishment of Complimentary Basic Education (COBET) programme to accommodate the out of school children not informal primary education. This study intended to explore reasons for the out of school children in Kisarawe district not going to school and to understand the attitude that they held toward schooling. Specifically the study sought to identify and document the categories of children who are out of school, to examine how out of school children learning needs. The theoretical and conceptual framework based on Self-Presentation, Self Perception and Cognitive Dissonance Theories was employed to guide the study. This study employed the case study using the qualitative approach and involved the study sample of 30 respondent children categorized into those never been to school, dropped out from primary schools and COBET centers. These were obtained through stratified random sampling, convenience snowballing sampling techniques, while information was obtained through structured and semi-structured interview. Data were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The study found out that dropout in the four categories was exacerbated by poverty, peer pressure, psychological disempowerment, mobility of residence, corporal punishment, pregnancy and sickness and negative attitude toward schooling among many out of school children and parents/guardians. There is a call to the government and other stakeholders to work out cooperatively on a possibly practicable and affirmative action education policy that would create a positive attitude toward schooling, which may help retain the enrolled children and minimize dropping out.