Final Report PETAUKE DISTRICT HIGHLIGHTS DROPPING OUT? A PARTICIPATORY EXPLORATION OF ADOLESCENT SCHOOL JOURNEYS IN ZAMBIA 1 Research Approach Commissioned by UNICEF Zambia, a primarily qualitative study was conducted to understand how decisions are made on whether or not adolescents (aged 10–19) complete their schooling in Zambia. In order to answer this, the research examined key actors and factors in journeys of school retention and dropout in Zambia. Round Robins, three-day activities with adolescents, provided an innovative and participatory means of gathering information and making adolescents actors in the research; case studies with adolescents and parents, and focus group discussions with parents and teachers, along with stakeholder key informant interviews and a small quantitative exercise in Lusaka, were also used. See Dropping Out? A Participatory Exploration of Adolescent School Journeys in Zambia – Final Report for further methodological info. This report consolidates key findings from Petauke. These are based on fieldwork conducted in two locations and are informative rather than comprehensive. Town Rural Total Luwingu Round Robins 1 1 2 Lunga Mufulira Case Studies 3 4 7 Katete Parent FGDs 2 2 4 Petauke Lusaka Rufunsa Teacher FGDs 1 1 2 Senanga KIIs 6 6 Situating Petauke I would wish my father would save money with Malawi. Respondents lamented the heavy for the future of his children, especially for reliance on farming, in particular the dependence education. Also, maybe as a parent, train your on rains, putting households at risk of hunger children in some business skills so that at each year. At least, goods were not as expensive point of your death, they don’t struggle with life as in Lusaka, but availability was much more because you would have already paved a way limited. Adolescents talked about drinks like for them. – Adolescent tobwa and munkoyo and the availability of maize and groundnuts. For the child not to drop out of school, the child, Limited data exists at the district level. the parent and the school are involved, if one is However, as of the 2015, Eastern Province has missing, then the child is likely to drop out. So, the highest labour force participation in the it’s important that all these three work together country amongst persons aged 12 and up (63.3%), to make sure that the child stays in school. with 92.4% employed in the informal sector, – Parent which is 89.9% agriculture.1 Located in Zambia’s heavily agricultural Eastern The main thing is finances; so many people fail Province, Petauke district is located about to generate funds to go to school. – Government halfway between Lusaka and Zambia’s border official 2 Petauke - District Highlights Rufunsa Key District Findings Infrastructural 1. General poverty, and seasonality/ variations Community in household income, were major drivers of Household both dropout and erratic attendance at school. Individual 2. The impact of traditional practices such as initiation rites, and pressure towards early Infrastructral: Endemic poverty; marriage, remained strong. school infrastructure and 3. Risky behaviour on the part of adolescents, overcrowding reportedly driven by peer pressure and the desire to experience sexuality after initiation Community: Culture (Nyau dance rites, also contributed heavily towards drop- groups, female initiation); pressure for out journeys. child marriage 4. While parents and guardians were named as the primary decision makers around school, Household: Interrupted school they themselves felt limited agency when journeys due to household economic constrained financially. pressures; child labour in agriculture 5. The authority of whomever was sponsoring a child was strongest; however, children Individual: Teenage pregnancy; early found means to exert agency through actions marriage; risky behaviours impacting – positively or negatively – their school journeys. In terms of net enrolment rate, Eastern province have any money for survival as well as to take as a whole performed worse than all provinces our children to school. – Parent except Lusaka, and was amongst the lowest in terms of secondary enrolment (with enrolment The agricultural nature of income-generation for grades 8-12 standing at 22% for boys and could also lead to children working at least part 18.6% for girls).2 Transition rates were slightly time. worse for girls in upper secondary, 0.472 vs. 0.574.3 We do a lot of farming, our children help us at our farms, cultivating, planting seed, watering and so on. This is for both girls and boys. Factors in dropping out – Parent Poverty. The highly agricultural General poverty at Petauke in turn influenced nature of livelihoods in Petauke left individual choices that adolescents and their most households dependent on the families had to make around early marriages and weather for earning money. With recent droughts, pregnancies, bad influences from friends, work the typical seasonality of income generation in and stealing, which could all directly lead to farming households had worsened, with direct dropping out. As one adolescent put it, links to dropping out. If the man is rich and you are poor, you can’t Almost everyone in this community depends refuse because when you are married, you will on farming to generate some income for the enjoy using whatever he has. – Adolescent survival of their families. When there is drought like in the past few years, we have nothing to They will start prostitution because you find sell. If we have nothing to sell, then we won’t that the parents are poor. – Community leader Petauke - District Highlights 3 Dropping out? A participatory exploration of adolescent school journeys in Zambia Respondents specifically drew a link to school results hence the over enrolment in some of fees at the secondary school level, among other the schools within town. – Government official costs, as leading to dropout. As one parent put it, “Back in the day when education was free things Normally, back in the day, what we knew was were easy. Now that schools have high fees for that they were supposed to be 40 pupils in a admission for children, I have been unable to pay class, but this time we have a teacher having 90 because of my suffering and lack of a job. I simply children in one class. Some of them have 100, told my children to stay at home.” 130 to 150, so there’s congestion and because of that there’s a lot of overburdening of the School infrastructure. Poor teachers. – Religious leader quality and overcrowded schools were mentioned multiple times The schools themselves were often in poor as contributing to dropout. Over condition, with respondents flagging, for enrolment, at a high level, was widespread due example, the lack of windows and damaged roofs. to the limited number of seats in secondary school. Respondents underlined that it could be Initiation rites and other worsened in schools perceived as being of higher traditions. Traditional practices quality, thereby undermining their quality, as such as Nyau dancing and initiation parents sought to enrol their children there. rites were mentioned as a socio- cultural factor that could facilitate dropping out by As parents, we would want to associate adolescents both directly – by keeping them home ourselves with schools that produce better – as well as indirectly – by, for example, creating feelings of adulthood and supposedly creating aspirations around sexuality and marriage. When a girl becomes of age, they keep her in the house and tell her what she should do, like Gendered approaches to child rearing giving elders respect or when you are giving your parents nshima, you should be kneeling. Heavily linked by respondents to tradition, They tell her a lot of things. – Adolescent parents frequently expressed gendered approaches to child-raising. While in some cases, this simply When they’re initiated, they are told that they’re leads to, for example, different household chores woman enough. At this point the girl feels she for girls and boys, in others this can have a direct can handle any man. So, what next, there’s impact on education. higher motivation to get married. Around 85% of girls that have been initiated have dropped In some cultures, education is seen to be only out of school. – Religious leader for males and not females. Children are told this from an early age. This makes it hard for Unlike in nearby Katete, cattle herding was not girls to see themselves beyond grade 9 or highlighted and Nyau dance groups and initiation grade 12, because they know that soon after rites for boys were mentioned less frequently; they reach these grades, they’ll be asked to although they did come up, the emphasis was drop from school and maybe married off to placed on initiation rites leading to girls staying at older men. Other don’t allow girl children to go home and getting married. to school. – Teacher Cultural practices around dowries could also impact girls in particular through early marriage. I think mostly we also have traditional values. Because you find that when the girl is of age, Some parents don’t value education, for you find that the parents will keep the girl in the example once they see a friend who has a house and teach them about marriage things daughter and is rich and has cattle, they and they delay their school while boys go to may choose to marry two children from both school. – Government official families in order to acquire and share wealth. – Teacher 4 Petauke - District Highlights Petauke Early pregnancy and marriage. Recent research in Petauke highlighted that “teenage pregnancy appeared both as a cause and as a consequence of child marriage,” Case Study: Henry, age 18, dropout although the tendency seemed to be for pregnancy to be the precursor to marriage more frequently Henry (name changed), age 18, dropped out of than the other way around.4 Girls in Eastern school due to financial constraints.