Gicumbi district has a big number of school dropouts that provide labor in tea plantations, mines and drying bricks.
Gicumbi district says they will track and return to school over 7000 school drop outs from primary and secondary schools.
Commenting on assumptions of people who attribute misbehaving of children to careless parents, Hitimana François, a resident of Kageyo sector has told IGIHE that he doesn’t understand how a child becomes naughty.
“It is shameful to see young children drop out of school. We all know that children belong to the country, yet some parents still hold traditional customs that God grows the children? How come teachers keep quiet when children drop out of school?” he wondered.
The Gicumbi deputy mayor in charge of social welfare, Benihirwe Charlotte attributed the matter of school dropouts to carelessness of parents and educators.
“We have cases of school drop-outs among children. We are also addressing it with the parents, reminding them to carry their responsibilities towards their children. We are also working with educators who have to respect duties at school. I don’t understand how a teacher of a child keeps quiet even after realizing that a child has abandoned school attendance, even for one week or more. Why can’t he/she feel responsible other than watching passively the scene of dropouts till the term ends,” she, too, wondered.
Various stakeholders from Gicumbi district are working in unison to address the matter of school dropouts. Parents and teachers are asked to play their role while any headmaster whose school is found with unreported school dropouts will be punished.
The district has pledged to have brought back all students who abandoned school not later than the end of the second school trimester that will end on July 22nd 2016.
Statistics from Gicumbi district indicates that 7,728 children have dropped out in primary schools while 23 have abandoned secondary schools.
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