Preventing School Drop Out in Zimbabwe: Findings from an Early Warning System Linking Vulnerable Youth to Resources and Tailored Support

• In Event: World Education’s DREAMS Innovation Challenge Program: promoting girls’ education through prevention and response interventions in eSwatini, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania

Proposal

In 2017, WEI/Bantwana developed and piloted an early warning system (EWS) in 20 secondary schools in Zimbabwe with the goal of preventing school drop-out among vulnerable adolescent girls. Through the EWS, schools and communities identified girls most at risk of dropping out of school and targeted them with individualized support that helped retain them in school. WEI/Bantwana engaged the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare (MoPSLSW), school administrators, and community childcare workers (CCWs) who adapted the EWS from data collection tools already in use in schools. The EWS tool incorporated the “ABC” drop-out indicators—absenteeism, behavior and course failure—and WEI/Bantwana trained teachers in the schools to use the tool to track patterns of behaviors linked to drop-out. In addition, WEI/Bantwana established EWS School Taskforces comprised of guidance and counseling teachers, headmasters, CCWs, school administrators, and student representatives to meet monthly to refer and track the progress of the girls identified, and provide tailored academic and mentor support. In 2018, WEI/Bantwana expanded the EWS to also identify and support boys most at risk of drop-out.

The EWS established a sustainable, community-driven mechanism that identified students at risk of dropping out and created individualized action plans to prevent future drop-outs, including linkages to in-school resources, such as psychosocial support from guidance and counselling teachers. The system also harnessed community-level child protection cadres (the CCWs) who were linked to schools and offered students referrals to child protection services within Zimbabwe’s national case management system. By identifying at-risk students before drop-out, school communities provided essential academic and “soft” supports that worked to keep these vulnerable children in school. The EWS also identified girls engaging in high-risk behaviors – e.g., transactional sex, intergenerational relationships, substance abuse – as well as those who have experienced sexual, physical and emotional abuse and linked them to GBV and HIV services.

To date, the EWS facilitated the enrollment of 337 youth in empowerment clubs, paired 300 with mentors, linked 316 to counselors and connected 90 to academic tutors. Qualitative evidence gathered through a process evaluation conducted in June 2018 showed that teachers accredited the EWS with helping them to better empathize with girls and understand their needs. This in turn led to self-reported shifts in the way teachers handled behavior or performance issues in school from more punitive to more rehabilitative approaches. Teachers also cited that the EWS enabled them to work more closely with CCWs, bridging the gap between the education and social welfare workforces for improved reporting and management of child protection related cases.

Author

• Kayla Caldwell, World Education, Inc.