Negev Bedouin parents' views on the reasons for school dropout

The expanding Bedouin educational system suffers from high differential rates of early dropout. The sociological explanations are too general and we report on the reasons given by a sample of 211 Bedouin parents in the Negev region.

In individual interviews each parent indicated if each of 18 possible reasons constituted a reason for girls' and boys' dropout.

A certain similarity but greater variance were found in the reasons of the Bedouin fathers and mothers to boys' and girls' dropout. The fathers and mothers differ in the number and kind of reasons for boys' and for girls' dropout and their common reasons were mostly those of the fathers'.

The findings were accounted by reference to the general characteristics of the Muslim society and the particular settings of the Bedouin community, especially the parents' own experiences with the school system and the cultural and educational changes that the Bedouin communities are undergoing.

Research in Education; May2000, Issue 63, p68