Poor people are disproportionately likely to make bad decisions, such as taking out loans they cannot repay, eating unhealthfully and dropping out of class.
In October, Matebeleland North provincial education director Boithatelo Mguni issued a statement saying that up to 6,000 children across the province are dropping out of classes because of they are too hungry to attend.
One teacher at the college told of one student who offered other students $300 to drop out of a class, so he could get the final credit he needed.
Starting with the class of 1996 and ending with the class of 2000, researchers tracked how many students dropped out of a class over four years.
The current examination and assessment system is not fully aligned with the school curriculum; teachers' recruitment, training, and support is insufficient and 20 per cent of teachers are of retirement age; some children miss classes and even drop out of school before finishing compulsory education.
Building separate sanitation facilities where girls can feel at ease is an integral part of strategies for girls' education, as female students tend to miss classes or even drop out of school when they lack access to adequate, decent sanitation facilities.
As much as "Dog Run" may lament the squatters' lives (the lack of plumbing in the squat, and the hygienic consequences thereof, are pointed out on more than one occasion), it can't abandon the old dream of dropping out of middle-class life and reinventing oneself as a romantic rebel.
The reasons are obvious: economic fears, fear of unemployment, fear about dropping out of the middle class – all these things are anxiety-inducing.
Here at home, in so many American suburbs, the sheer dropping out of the middle class has forged a tension among families that makes all politics and economics "glocal".
