Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to identify factors contributing to female students’ dropout in some selected secondary schools of Korahey Zone, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia. Following school records and some informal sources the researcher hypothesized that academic participation of student in the area is highly related with gender issues and female students academic participation is not proportionally compared to their male counterparts. This study was conducted in selected secondary schools of Korahey Zone. This study has taken 215 respondents as samples which were drawn only from grades nine and ten. The sample was selected using purposive sampling technique based on their proportion and the researcher used simple random sampling method to draw the actual sample size. As a research tool questionnaire, key informant interviews and document review are used. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The study found that there were factors which affected academic participation of female students, such as psychological factors (including motivation and level of aspiration of students, self-reliance of the students, lack of guidance and counseling service, and income of their families); personal factors, such as educational background of a student’s family, study hours, socio-cultural factors, like social safety, attitude of society towards female education and sexual harassments against female students. Therefore, it is concluded that there exists gender disparity in academic participation at the selected secondary schools of Korahey Zone. So, counselors should have assigned from department of psychology. If continuous counseling for students on their economic, social, and psychological problems a students who are under risks of dropping out could get advantage and change their idea of the former dropping out of school
