A new report by the Zero Dropout Campaign warns that South Africa’s efforts to reduce school dropout will fail unless psychosocial wellbeing is treated as a core pillar of the education system, rather than a peripheral add-on.
Despite recent record-breaking improvements in matric pass rates, it is still estimated that up to four in ten learners who start school in Grade 1 will exit the school system before completing Grade 12, leaving hundreds of thousands of young people locked out of further education, skills development, and meaningful employment each year.
The campaign’s newest report, School Dropout: Hanging by a Thread, draws on national research, global evidence, and implementation experience to show that school dropout is rarely a sudden or individual decision. Instead, it is the cumulative result of unmet psychosocial needs, including poverty, violence, poor mental health, weak social support, bullying, and unsafe school environments, that build over time and intensify during key transition points, particularly adolescence.
According to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), 73% of youth in South Africa need mental health support. However, psychosocial support (PSS) has historically been an overlooked organising factor in school dropout prevention, the report argues. PSS brings together the very conditions that keep young people engaged in learning, such as mental health, social connectedness, resilience, and supportive environments.
Adolescence is a critical tipping point
“Adolescence is both a period of heightened risk and a ‘second window of opportunity,’ when the right support can still reverse earlier adversity, so strengthening mental health and other support is thus essential to safeguarding overall psychosocial wellbeing,” said Zero Dropout Campaign Programme Director, Merle Mansfield.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in interest and investment in Early Childhood Development (ECD). This attention and resource prioritisation, however, is less likely to produce the long-term results anticipated if not extended beyond foundational phases. Dropout accelerates sharply after Grade 9, with now about 800,000 of the 1.2 million learners who enter Grade 1 each year ultimately completing matric.
This phenomenon was even confirmed by the Minister of Basic Education and her Director-General during the announcement of the national 2025 matriculation results early this month. Their commitment to prioritising psychosocial support in 2026 is encouraging and timely, as evidence cited in School Dropout: Hanging by a Thread shows that several South African adolescents experience poor mental health, while exposure to violence, bullying, hunger, and substance use significantly increases the likelihood of disengagement from school.
Strong policies, weak implementation
While South Africa has progressive policy frameworks such as the Integrated School Health Policy, the National Mental Health Policy Framework (2023–2030), and the Safe Schools Protocol, there are still persistent gaps between policy intent and day-to-day realities in schools.
Learners who lack a trusted adult or a sense of belonging at school are especially vulnerable to psychosocial challenges and ultimately dropout. Teachers are often the first line of psychosocial support in these instances, yet most receive little training, time, or support.
Ideally, learners should have access to counselling and other mental health services; however, it has been estimated that in SA, there is only one social worker for every 23,000 learners. This ratio has contributed to referrals to social workers or mental health services taking weeks or months, during which learners often disengage or drop out entirely.
Research by the Zero Dropout Campaign has repeatedly confirmed that schools are not isolated education islands. “They operate within fragile community ecosystems often shaped by unemployment, service delivery failures, and inequality. Expecting schools to compensate for these pressures without adequate psychosocial infrastructure is unrealistic,” added Mansfield.
Connection and early intervention
Drawing on case studies from across South Africa, School Dropout: Hanging by a Thread shows that dropout can be prevented when psychosocial support is embedded into everyday school life, rather than delivered as a crisis response. Effective approaches recommended by the report include:
- On-site psychosocial support and trusted adult ‘anchors’;
- Child and youth care workers embedded in schools;
- Trauma-informed and sport-based programmes;
- Peer support, mentorship, and low-stigma digital tools;
- Targeted support during Grade 9–10 transitions; and
- Safeguards against informal ‘push-out’ practices.
Crucially, the report finds that the quality of support including trust, empathy, confidentiality, and consistency, matters more than the mere existence of services.
Call for collective action
The Zero Dropout Campaign calls for dropout and psychosocial wellbeing to be recognised as a whole-of-society responsibility, requiring coordinated action from government departments, schools, communities, civil society, and the private sector.
“To halve South Africa’s dropout rate and reach the National Development Plan’s (NDP) targets by 2030, we must move beyond seeing dropout as normal or inevitable,” concluded Mansfield. “When psychosocial wellbeing is prioritised, schools become places where learners don’t just survive but belong, persist, and thrive.”
