How many Zimbabwean children have dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The data given by various sources has been varied.
On March 31st, NewsDay, citing the Family Aids Caring Trust ZIMBABWE (Fact), reported that the number of schools dropouts since pandemic began in 2020 has reached 20 000. The newspaper report cited marriages, early pregnancies and HIV/Aids as major reasons for children, especially girls, dropping out of school.
In its 2021 Human Rights Report released on April 13, the US government had an even higher figure. The report said: “Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) estimated 840 000 children dropped out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, although confirming the dropout crisis, says the reported data is incomplete and may be inaccurate.
Communications director, Taungana Ndoro, told ZimFact that his Ministry is still collecting data for 2021. He also said some children who were considered dropouts had in fact returned to school.
He said: “The only relevant statistics we have are that of 2020. We can only release last year’s figures when we are certain that the children really dropped out; some actually came back to school.”
According to Ndoro, 2020 figures indicate that 290 children left school because of various illnesses while 5331 dropped out due to marriage. Pregnancy led to the dropout of 4676 children, bringing the total of dropouts countrywide to 10 297 for that year. This would be half the number reported by the Family Aids Caring Trust.
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