ABSTRACT
Perhaps one of the most pressing social and political problems facing the educational system in the developing world today is a high attrition rate among primary school goers. The terms wastage has been used to label a number of broadly related problems associated with high attrition or dropout rates. Why, it may be asked, should anyone bother about failure by some citizens of a country (which wastage implies) to receive full primary education or its equivalent? Does attending primary school or failure to do so make any difference in the lives of those involved and in the communities in which they belong? Should one not focus research on higher education, such as secondary and university levels, which ostensibly better prepare their recipients for skills training or direct participation in both the labor market and community life? Penetrating as these questions may be, they are to an extent based on a wrong premise, namely an ideological view that places a strong premium on the economic benefits of schooling.
