ASSESSMENT OF DROPOUTS RATE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

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).

The students who withdraw from school prematurely end up not obtaining any certificate of graduation. The major social costs of dropping

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out of school include reduced political participation, increased demand for social services, increased crime rates and poor levels of health (Azam, 2007). Individual costs include lower earnings, unemployment prospects and greater likelihood of health problems (Thurton et al., 2006). It is clear from the foregoing, that by dropping out of school, most students severely limit their chances of economic and social well-being in the future. In this regard, a UNESCO report 2000 on the state of the world‘s children, points out, that about 130 million children in the developing world are denied their right to education through dropping out.

ASSESSMENT OF DROPOUTS RATE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA