Over 280.600 cases of dropouts are recorded at the national level during the 2017-2018 school year. The ministry of education is concerned about the phenomenon.
Edouard Juma: The main causes of school dropouts are early pregnancies and poverty.
Juma Edouard, spokesperson for the ministry of education, says the ministry has run a campaign to sensitize people to two phenomena that threaten the education sector in Burundi. “From 19 to 22 December, the ministry conducted a campaign dedicated to raising awareness of school dropout impact and pregnancies”.
He says the campaign mainly focused on dialogues to discuss the main causes and how they should be addressed. “We discussed the causes and strategies to address them,” Mr. Juma says.
Jeanne Ihorihoze, Director General of basic and post basic education, says everyone should be involved. “Fighting against school dropouts and pregnancies is not a task reserved to educators only. Everyone’s contribution is necessary,” she says.
She calls on parents, decision-makers and the administration to get involved in the fight against school dropouts and pregnancies.
Mrs. Ihorihoze says the ministry has adopted a strategy to recruit counselors so as to avoid school dropouts. “They are called aunts and fathers whose role will be to listen to students and provide them with advice”.
Out of 2,883,671 students that were registered in basic and post basic schools in the whole country, 280,605 abandoned schools, i.e. 9, 7%. Kirundo province is the first province with a high school dropout rate followed by Makamba and Muyinga provinces.
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