Universal Education: An Elusive Dream In The Zimbabwean Primary Schools, With Special Reference To Gweru District Rural Schools

Education is fundamental to the prospects for economic and social development of all Zimbabwean children. At the dawn of independence in 1980, Zimbabwe saw dramatic changes in its policies and launched the Universal Primary Education Policy in an endeavour to lessen the inequities of the colonial education system. Tremendous strides were made towards accessibility and affordability of education. However there were still quite a significant number of boys and girls who are failing to complete the grades 1 to 7 cohorts. This study sought to examine the factors that led to dropout in Gweru district rural schools in Zimbabwe. A qualitative naturalistic research design was employed in order to allow the researcher to understand the participants’ world view as much as possible on factors that were related to dropout and failure to access education and how this could be curbed. The participants who participated in this research were purposefully selected in order to allow them to provide information needed to answer the research questions raised. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted to collect data from the teachers and head teachers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data from focus groups and individual interviews. This was to allow the researcher to organise and describe the data in rich detail and interpret the various aspects of the research question. Looking at the findings, poverty in the home is a leading factor which leads to drop out and failure to access education. It also came out of the study that some pupils dropped out of school because they were compelled to attend church services in some schools .This was in violation of their religious beliefs. Child labour, poor school environment, lack of motivation, truancy, illnesses in the home and travelling for long distances to school also led to drop outs. Immunisation programmes also led to drop out of some children from some religious sects. Finally some pupils with special needs failed to attend school because they failed to fit in the mainstream and their schools were few and unreachable to the general populace. The study recommended follow up programmes for dropouts by government, compulsory education for children of primary school age and monitoring the implementation of this instrument. Further recommendations were the implementing of counselling programmes in all schools, building of infrastructure by the government so that pupils are excluded from child labour, educating parents about the need for education and enabling all deserving pupils to benefit from BEAM.