Abstract:

Truancy, absenteeism and proneness to dropping out of school have become persistent and pervasive problems in schools globally. This hydra-headed social educational problem has compounded the malaise of educational and economic backwardness which have characterized and stigmatized Cross River State. School drop outs have swollen the number of street urchins whose social vices such as bloody cult clashes, political thurgery, drug addiction, armed robbery and general social unrest have recently maintained a frighten upward trend in the state. This paper examined the multifarious and multifaceted nature of factors precipitating and reinforcing school drop-out behaviour among primary school pupils and secondary school students in the Central Senatorial District of Cross River State. Student-related, community related, school and family related variables have been implicated as pre-disposing factors. In order to assuage the crippling socio-economic consequences of school drop-out tendencies, the paper recommends that non-formal education programmes must be put in place and properly streamlined and implemented as alternative measures to equip these young school drop-outs with requisite self employment and income generating life skills. It is recommended that this measure has potentials for complementing existing but deficient multi-agency intervention strategies.

Keywords:

School drop out, syndrome, and non-formal educational alternatives.