The contribution of astrology in motivating learners to avoid dropping out of school in Ekurhuleni district, Gauteng province

Abstract

School dropout has become a national crisis in South Africa. Approximately 60% of first graders will ultimately drop out rather than complete Grade 12, when only 52% of the age-appropriate population remains enrolled.. Several attempts have been made to reduce the escalating rate of learner dropout, yet the dropout rate continues to rise. The main question that the study was answering was: “how could astrological profiles contribute to motivating learners to avoid dropping out of schools in Ekurhuleni District in Gauteng province?” This study applied a qualitative research approach to determine the potential contribution that a popular craft could make to the motivation of learners to remain in school. Data collection techniques including questionnaires and interviews were used. The study was guided by Confirmation Bias theory. This study used purposive sampling to select respondents. A sample consisted of ten grade 11 learners, and ten teachers, selected from five schools. The population was 450 which is the total number of the grade 11 learners from where the sample of ten grade 11 learners were selected from five schools. A total number of 55 of teachers was the population that represent teachers from five selected schools which was used to sample ten teachers to participate as respondents to interviews in this research study. The 450 total population was made up of 90 learners from each of the five selected schools who were selected based on their respective curriculum streams which are the science stream, commercial stream and science stream. The study found that astrological profiles could contribute to motivating learners to avoid dropout. From the findings, the researcher recommended that astrological personality profiles should be used at schools to assist learners to identify their strengths and weaknesses.