摘要：Education is portrayed at the high on political agenda of all the democratic and dictatorshipregimes in Pakistan but the figures related to literacy and enrollment rates at compulsoryprimary education level are still very low. After 70 years of independence, the homeland isstill striving to achieve the millennium development goals. To meet the international standardsand targets of literacy, access to compulsory quality education and 100% enrollment for theschool age children different efforts have been made time and again. The enrollment hasbecome better than previous times but the serious problem of the system is low retention rateand high dropout rate at primary school level. The dropping out of students from compulsoryeducation level is a universal phenomenon for almost all the developing nations. To retain thestudents at school it is needed to explore that why the students leave school before completionof primary education level. This study was an effort to unfold the experiences of dropouts’parents and teachers about the factors that lead students to drop out. This qualitative inquirywas conducted through interviews of 104 dropouts’ parents and teachers identified throughsnow ball sampling technique from a district of Punjab-Pakistan. The data were collected byfollowing the research ethics through interviews conducted by using two interview schedules.The interviews were then transcribed and tabulated for thematic analysis. The analysis of datarevealed that school related, family related and individual related causes are the mostprevalent than others that force the students for dropping out. It is suggested that thisphenomenon can be controlled by improving existing schools physically and operationally fortransforming it into an attractive, safe and healthy place of learning. The vulnerable studentsshould be timely identified for individual level remedial measures and their families may beinvolved and supported ethically and financially.
