Abstract:
The title of this thesis is an investigation of the causes and consequences of student drop-out in
government secondary schools of Jimma Zone. To achieve this objective a concurrent mixed
methods design was employed. Data were collected from 78 teachers, 49 dropout returnee students
7 Principals and 3 heads of woreda Education Offices using questionnaire and interview. The
school principals and heads of woreda Education Offices were the subjects of interview questions.
Simple random sampling (lottery method) was employed to select teachers’ respondents and
snowball sampling was applied to select the dropout returnee students. Quantitative data were
analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, weight mean, independent sample t-test and multiple
regression analysis whereas qualitative data were narrated to substantiate the quantitative data.
Moreover, documents of schools and woreda education Offices were consulted to examine the
trends and status of dropout rates. Hence, the study revealed that the trends of students’ dropout
rates in secondary schools of the study area showed a declining tendency and the highest dropout
rates were existed in grade nine. The data also showed that the dropout rate is relatively higher
among girls than boys in the study area. The analysis to identify the causes of the problem showed
that the high rate of students’ dropout in the study area is the result of in-school and out-school
related factors. The finding showed that 35% of the variation in student dropout factors can be
explained. When adjusted R2 (∆ R2) is used the model predicts about 34% variation in student
dropouts factors. From this, therefore, it is concluded that even though the trends of dropout rate is
decreasing for the past consecutive academic years there is still high student dropout in the study
area. T he key determinants that affected the pupils’ decision to drop out of school in the study
area were the combination of both in-school and out-of-school factors. Depending on the findings
of the study, early intervention, changing societal attitude, implementation of poverty reduction
strategies, creation of more employment opportunities for students who completed Secondary
schools, giving advice to students to spend most of their time on studying rather than wasting their
time on household chores, awareness raising on the importance of family planning services,
encouraging parental involvement and support and giving awareness to the community on the
importance of education were forwarded as recommendations.
