Reasons for Dropouts of Girls from the Formal Secondary Education Living in Rural Areas

This study, aimed at determining the reasons for dropouts of the formal secondary education of girls living in rural areas, employed phenomenological methodology from the qualitative research approaches. The study group includes 30 female students, who live in a town in the Black Sea Region of Turkey and who dropped out of formal secondary education, and their parents. The data were collected by interview technique. In the interviews, personal, social, economic and cultural information about the students and the families, and the reasons why the children did not attend school were obtained. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis technique. Precautions were taken to increase the validity and reliability of the data collection, processing and analysis processes. As a result, the vital causes for school dropout of the girls in the study group were found as insecurity, conservatism, poverty, and failure. The school dropout of the majority of children is resulted from two or more reasons coming together. Insecurity / conservatism, insecurity / poverty and insecurity / conservatism / poverty are the leading reasons for the girls leaving the school in the study group. The combination of reasons for dropout differs from student to student. It is suggested that, within this context, preventive measures for student dropouts should be diversified by the goverment on a student basis.