ASSESSMENT OF DROPOUTS RATE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The study assessed dropouts Rate among Secondary School Students in Benue State, Nigeria. The study was guided by five objectives; five research questions and five null hypotheses. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 6,167 dropped out students and 400 dropout students were used as the sample size. Data were collected using class attendance register, student‘s personal records and four rating structured questionnaire. Collected data were coded into Statistical Package of Social Science. The package was used to run weighted mean score of 4 to answer the research questions with the benchmark score of at least 2.5 as an index for agree. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was employed in testing the six null hypotheses at significant level of 0.05. The results of the study indicated there was positive relationship between schools factors, teacher‘s factors, parents‘ factors and school location on the rate of drop out among secondary school students in Benue State, Nigeria. In addition the study further showed that the remedial strategies are not yielding the desire objective. The study recommended that government and stakeholders should organise orientation programme that would educate people more especially parents on the importance of education. In addition, the government should organise workshops to both the principals and academic staff in the state on how to encourage and maintain students enrolment in the state.
 
Education is a process through which individuals acquire adequate and appropriate knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and behaviour necessary to function optimally as a citizen. It is considered as the bedrock of all facets of development of any nation, and a strong tool in development of human capacity. Wood (2010) described education as the key factor in the development of the nation, communities and individuals with regard to employment opportunities, economic empowerment and social accomplishment. The major concern in basic education is ensuring that students stay in school until they complete their education. Dropping out is a serious problem because it denies individual students their fundamental human right to education. Internationally, the individual right to education has been repeatedly affirmed in many treaties and conventions such as The 1948 Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1990 World Conference on Education for all (UNESCO, 2000) of which Nigeria is one of the signatory. There is general consensus that the school dropout problem has reached epidemic proportions internationally and has become a global problem confronting the education industry round the world (Wotherspoon, 2004; Bridgeland, Entwisle and Horsey, 2006; Oghuvbu, 2008).