kenea, Ambissa (PhD)Melese, Shibabaw2020-10-192023-11-102020-10-192023-11-102009-07http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/22836The major purpose of the study was to assess trends and determinants of enrollment, dropout and gender parity in ABE in Mecha woreda. Employing sunJey design, data was collected from 58 Alternative Basic Education (ABE) facilitators, 12 ABE supervisors and a random sample of 180 ABE students in 20 learning centers. To supplement the data collected through questionnaire, qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions (which comprised 140 ABE Center Management Committee (CMC) members) and interview of 8 key informants. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis have been employed. The result indicated that gross enrollment, which stood at 894 in 2003104 was found to grow to 3296 in 2007108, showing a relative growth of 268. 7 percent. The gross enrollment for boys and girls, which were only 458 and 436 in 2003104 grew to 1660 and 1636 in 2007108 demonstrating growth rate of 362.4 and 375.2 percent respectively. Given that girls constitute 49.6 percent of the gross enrollment in level one, 49.5 percent in level two and 50.1 percent in level three, gender disparity in the study area was found to be too narrow. Dropout rate, which stood at 15.4 percent in 2003104, was found to decline to 7.8 percent in 2007108. The dropout rate for boys and girls, which marked 15.9 and 14.9 percent in 2003104 declined to 8.1 and 7.5 percent in 2007108 respectively. Dropout rate was found to be relatively high for boys than for girls. The dependent variables, gross enrollment and dropout rate, were examined against various explanatory variables so as to identifY determinants of gross enrollment and dropout rate in the study area. Accordingly, parents' level of awareness on the benefits of education, demand for child labour, relationship between learning centers and the community and level of technical support provided were found to be determinants of gross enrollment. The level of involvement in family work, employment prospect, relationship between learning centers and the community, support of parents, quality of education, flexibility of the program, adequacy of learning facilities, support of facilitators and absenteeism were found to be determinants of dropout. Given that the numbers of women facilitators outnumber that of men and establishment of learning centers closer to villages where the community dwells, the two variables, namely, gender of facilitators and distance to learning centers were not found to have statistically significant association with dropout in the study area.enIERThesis