Child Poverty: Poor Counterpart Funding as a Challenge to Completion Rate of Basic Education in Enugu State

It is an indisputable fact that the development of any nation is anchored on the level of accessibility to quality education by its citizens. Over the past decade, international communities have placed much energy on contributing at least a 20 percent improvement in child school enrolment without sufficient attention on retention and completion rates. Thus, 28.6% of the total populations of children (3-14) are dropouts. Primary school completion rates decreased from 88% in 2003 to 71% in 2008 slightly increased to 73.30% in 2010 and currently declined to 75% in 2020 in Enugu state. The dropout rates increases as age goes up, thus, the completion rate declined to 68% in junior secondary school mainly in rural areas of Enugu state. Based on this backdrop, the study explores the main factors influencing dropout in basic education. The design of the study is a descriptive research design. A composite sample of 500 respondents comprises the dropouts, their parents and head teachers are drawn from the 6 education zones in the state through Purposive sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed through both quantitative and qualitative means. The study found that 62.5% of households in Enugu state are absolutely poor; this gives rise to child poverty and deprivation of their education right and others. Withdrawal of children from school to street hawking and farming are seen as the option for economic survival. It was also found that the insufficient basic facilities in the schools, overloaded class rooms and distance to school lead to dropout in schools. Promoting completion rate of basic education requires that Enugu state government should raise its counterpart fund to enable it access 2% consolidated revenue fund, commit 14% to 20% of annual budgetary allocation to education sector as recommended by UNESCO and adequate financial aid grants should be offered to students who have been admitted to schools for basic education programmes and whose families demonstrate financial need.