The relationships between gender, students' achievement and dropping out in rural Vietnam
The theme of the thesis relates to the relationships between gender, students' achievement and dropping out in lower secondary schools in rural Vietnam. More specifically, the thesis investigates the extent to which gender influences students' achievement and dropping out as well as the extent to which dropping out influences students' achievement and the possibility of students' achievement in predicting dropping out. The field work was conducted in two lower secondary schools: Hong Chau and Tho Tang which are located in two communes, each at different socio-economic levels of development. Hong Chau is a predominantly agricultural commune whereas Tho Tang is richer and combines agriculture and trading. The scores in two subjects - maths and Vietnamese language - of the randomly-selected sample of students from each school were analysed with the aid of SPSS. Frequency tables, box plots, charts and graphs were used to describe and illustrate the relationships between gender, students' achievement and dropping out. Analysis of variances (ANOVA), chi-square and logistic regression were employed to test the significance of statistics. In-depth interviews and group discussions were also adopted to complement the quantitative analysis. Gender is found to have an impact on students' achievement in Vietnamese language in both schools as the mean scores of female students is significantly higher than that of their male counterparts. Dropping out is influenced significantly by gender in both schools; female students are more likely to drop out than male students. The relationship between dropping out and achievement appears to be different in Hong Chau and Tho Tang. The differences in the scores of both subjects - maths and Vietnamese language - of continuing and dropout students in Hong Chau are not statistically significant while those in Tho Tang are statistically significant. However, in Tho Tang students' achievement in maths can predict dropping out but not Vietnamese language: In Hong Chau achievement cannot predict dropping out either in maths or Vietnamese language. It is revealed from the qualitative analysis that social mobility, the need for learning and economic levels have an impact on the relationship between achievement and dropping out.
School of Communication and the Arts, 1303 Specialist Studies in Education, 1699 Other Studies in Human Society
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