School dropout is higher among girls — ex-minister

Roaa Rayyan, Jordan News

last updated: Oct 16,2022

School schools — (File photo: Ameer Khalifeh/Jordan News)

AMMAN — An increasing number of boys and girls are dropping out of school each year, particularly due to economic hardships gripping Jordanian families, though girls could have an added reason: early marriage.اضافة اعلان

Generally, 7,000 boys and girls abandon school education on an annual basis, a local media outlet announced last week. In every 1,000 girls, four drop out of school each year.

Former minister of education Tayseer Al-Nuaimi told Jordan News that dropping out of school “is an indication of an ineffective global educational system”.

He said that the withdrawal percentage differs from one country to another, and even within cities in one country.

“In general, students tend to drop out of school due to economic circumstances, with some families pressuring their children, especially boys, to find jobs,” he said. He explained that the situation has taken a sharp turn to the worst in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Jordanians felt a financial crunch resulting from lockdowns.

For girls, the social factor figures high in the decision to pull a girl out of school, he said. It mostly happens in “dysfunctional families”.

According to WOW Parenting blog, children who grow up in an environment where their needs are curbed or they are constantly criticized and abused, live in a dysfunctional family atmosphere, and are likely to develop low self-esteem, and poor self-image. Thus, they grow up with the belief that such an arrangement is normal, and accept it as a part of their life.

Such a poor character definitely supports Nuaimi’s remarks on the social level, and could also add up more mental pressure on the child.

For girls, distance between the school and the house, the unsafe school environment on a psychological level, including bullying and violence, among others, are also reasons why they abandon school, Nuaimi contended.

He also pointed out that the statistics of school dropouts pertain to those who are in the “primary stages of education, before reaching high school”. In Jordan, education is compulsory for the ages of 6–16 years.

“I was worried when I saw the news published by the ministry of education, and the fact that more female students drop out of school,” Nuaimi said.

Moreover, those who are considered dropped students are those who already enrolled in school and later quit, Nuaimi explained, adding those who never attended school are not calculated as part of the percentage.

Nuaimi pointed to early marriage for girls being a hindrance in education in several communities, especially in third world nations. He said some families are only interested in educating the men in the family, adding that “at seventh grade, girls start to drop out of school.”

In addition, COVID-19 increased school dropout rates around the world, according to the former minister, who contended “the ministry of education in Jordan is required to find solutions to the school dropout phenomenon through the irregular education until those who drop out can engage again with the regular education.”

Nuaimi also said “we need a set of legislative tools to curb the dropout rates, especially since parents are not obliged to bring their kids to school. Thus, we need stricter regulating procedures to tackle this issue.”

“It very important to conduct an early analysis to check whether a student is exposed to the risk of school dropout, through a dashboard, following which, the ministry can look into the reasons and contact the family through a family guide to tackle the problem,” he said.

Other ways to curb school dropout rates include improving education, enhancing the educational counselor’s role in dealing with dropout cases, conducting counseling, psychological and academic awareness programs, and expanding irregular education programs and improving their quality, taking into account the level of students who wish to return to school.

Sociologist Hussain Khuzaie told Jordan News that girls drop out of school due to families’ focus on their boys in education, in addition to the distance that a girl may need to walk to reach the school, which discourages many parents from sending their girls to schools.

He added that early marriage and household work are reasons why the percentage of school dropout is higher among girls.

He contended that 75,000 girls under 18 years old got married in 2021, making up 10 percent of the females in this age group.

Khuzaie also pointed to child labor and its role in diverting children from education to the job market due to the hard economic reasons.

UNICEF defines child marriage as any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18, and an adult, or with another child.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 100 million girls were expected to marry before their 18th birthday in the next decade,” Khuzaie said.

“Now, up to 10 million more girls will be at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic,” according to the UNICEF, while the UN Sustainable Development Goals call for global action to end this human rights violation by 2030.

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