Reducing Schooling Drop-Out Rate to Facilitate Human Capital Development: A Case of South Africa

This article interrogates the destructive nature of the secondary school learnerdrop-out to the facilitation of human capital development in the 21st century.The article is conceptual and empirical in nature within the qualitativeresearch paradigm. The question guiding this article is: how can learner dropout in secondary schools be contained to enable the facilitation of the humancapital development? Narrative enquiry and interviewing techniques wereapplied to generate data. Out of a population of 13 public secondary schoolsin Sekhukhune East District, in Limpopo Province, South Africa, six wereconveniently sampled. In each of the six sampled secondary school, aprincipal and chairperson of the Representative Council of Learners (RCL)became research participants. Findings revealed that firstly, there is aconnection between learner drop-out and human capital development.Secondly, poor academic learner performance triggers drop-out. Thirdly,drop-out offers a tragic tale for South African youth. Fourthly, poorscholastic assessment test scores trigger drop-out. Lastly, lack ofimprovement of literary abilities trigger drop-out. The researcherrecommends for the zero-rated digital platforms to teaching and learning tocontribute to containing drop-out. Lastly, the researcher recommends for thecultivation of the culture of continuous learning and skills development.Finally, the researcher recommends for the declaration of secondary schoolsas national key points to enable them to service development and an economyof their communities and the country.