An Assessment of the Causes of Drop outs in Primary Schools of Mountainous Areas of District Swat

The study was conducted in the mountainous areas of district Swat in the year 2010 to assess the causes of drop outs in primary schools of mountainous areas. Primary data was obtained through three different structured questionnaires using a sample of size sixty allocating to fifty government schools of three districts of the research area. The schools and respondents in the hilly area were randomly selected. The findings of the study showed that the major causes of drop outs in the research area were crowded and large schools; uncaring, untrained and irresponsible teachers; usage of passive teaching methods; inappropriate curriculum design; inappropriate evaluation procedure; lack of parents’ involvement; lack of checks and bureaucratic system and long distance and lack of extra co curricular activities. It is recommended that the government authorities should have strict checks on these schools. The presence of the staff, usage of audio visual aids in teaching process and students’ involvement in co-curriculum activities should be ensured.