Socio-economic determinants of primary school dropout in Tanzania”. A microeconomic analysis. The Case of Rombo District.

For a country to develop, it needs an educated human resource. Besides the benefits of education to society, individuals have a better chance of escaping from poverty if they have the right kind and right levels of education. Despite the fact that primary school education is basic and free, the actual enrollment and completion of seven years is still low and the reasons to this are not yet clear. The purpose of this study was to find out the underlying determinants of primary school dropout in Rombo district, Tanzania. The study followed both qualitative and quantitative design using primary data and the populations of interest were children who had dropped out of school, and their parents/heads of the households. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews, questionnaires and direct observation of phenomena. Logistic Regression analysis was employed for estimation. The results found that gender of the household, the highest education attained by other members of the household, distance from home to the nearest school have positive impact in determining primary school dropout. Employment status and age of the head have negative impact on primary school dropout. The household income and household level of education were found to have no impact on primary school dropout. This implies that the government should improve both teaching and learning facilities, enacting by-laws for the parents who do not want to send their children to school, the parents and guardians should support their children by providing with them the school needs such as school uniform, books and other contributions to reduce unnecessary dropouts.