Analysis of the Socio-Economic Factors That Contribute to Children School Dropout in Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining Communities of Tanzania

In Tanzania, education has been earmarked as a priority area to stimulate socioeconomic development, however; the increasing number of school dropout cases is posing a huge hindrance to achieving this goal. To establish the major causes of school dropouts, this paper investigated different factors that explain the phenomena with special focus on artisanal mining areas of Nyarugusu village, Geita Region, Tanzania. To collect the required data, random samples of 200 respondents who were residents with previous school enrollment but dropped out from school were selected. From the selected respondents, data on their demographic factors, education history and current activities were collected using a semi structured questionnaire and where appropriate focus group discussions and in-depth one-to-one interviews were used to triangulate the sample population responses. The data was analyzed both descriptively and statistically using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS version 16.1) to establish the determinant factors associated with school dropping out. Results revealed loss of interest to education as one of the major reason for school dropouts in the community alongside several factors such as migration, school absenteeism, death of both parents, and separation of parents, community's poor perception to education, lack of school necessities, peer pressure, family obligations, early pregnancies and early marriages. Major recommendation was that, Tanzanian government should consider to put in place community empowerment programs such as cooperatives and involve all other stakeholders to invest in tailor made "hands on" education programs for such disadvantaged communities to improve their person skills so as to benefit both in mining and other entrepreneurial endeavors hence reduce the school dropouts problem.