Reasons for being Out of School: Implications for Education Policy

Abstract

Out of school children (output) spring from the experiences, beliefs, interests, and attitudes towards events and processes leading to out of school (process) that develop from different reasons (Input). Focus group discussions were conducted with eight children and their seven parents. Secondly, views from social media (Face book) were collected to strengthen their voices. The thematic analysis of the data highlighted many reasons for being out of school using codes, themes and subthemes. Diagramatic view of results was drawn with the help of NVivo 11 plus. Some of the reasons such as poverty, school environment, house chores, parents' behavior, teachers' teaching styles, curriculum, language barriers, the literacy rate in that area, and gender issues have direct implications for education policy. Efforts, therefore, were made to identify the required changes in the education policy. A strategic plan to overcome these barriers was defined at the end for the reduction of the number of school children.