Household variables associated with primary school pupil's dropout in Tanzania

This paper describes household variables associated with primary school pupil's dropout in Tanzania using the 2011/2012 Household Budget Survey data. A paper aiming to examine household variables associated with primary school pupil's dropout and recommending possible solution to reduce pupil's dropout. Cross-tabulation of child dropout status and independent variables in categorized forms were done to assess the degree of association. χ² test showed that, ten variables were significantly associated with the primary school pupil's dropout status. Socio-demographic variables of a household head (sex, marital status, education and occupation of household head), socio-demographic variables of a school-age child in a household (age, orphanage status of a child and relationship to the head of household) household location, region and household size were all significant at 5% level. It is recommended that, government to provide good infrastructure and education facilities in rural area as in urban area in order to reduce dropout rate at rural area. Also, family planning education and programmes should be addressed to parents so as to reduce household size and it is important for the government and other education stakeholders to emphasize on early age primary school enrolment of a child, this will reduce dropout rates.