Themes

Authors : Clement Chipena and  Ph.D, Dr. Logan Cochrane

Abstract

In the past two decades, Zimbabwe has experienced an upsurge in cases of children and the youth who drop out of school (OOSC). Emerging evidence suggests that children and the youth who drop out of school reach up to a million, and this translates to half of adolescents in the country aged between 13 to 19 years. Despite the high incidence of OOSC, limited research has been undertaken. To address this research gap, this paper triangulates data from different sources to explore the prevalence and geographical disparities of OOSC; its main causes and its nexus with the currently prevailing multiple crises; and to explore the policy and legislative framework. In doing this, the paper utilises the political economy-oriented idea of transformative social policy as its theoretical framework with education policy being viewed within the ambits of social policy. Our analysis notes that despite the existence of a robust policy and legislative framework, the prevalence of OOSC is very high and, in most instances, it is linked to the multiple crises and socio-economic dynamics. Geographical, wealth, social, religious, cultural, and economic disparities are shown as contributing to the high prevalence of OOSC. From lessons learnt, we provide several recommendations to deal with the scourge of OOSC. These are crystallised around the need to develop a social contract that prioritises the fulfilment of rights, obligations, social justice, social engagement, human capacity, agency, and the re-establishment of a synergetic relationship between social and economic policies and the transformation of social institutions and structures.

Keywords: education, out of school children, social contract, transformative social policy, Zimbabwe

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