Dropouts 187 The total number of dropouts in 2016/17 was 18042. This figure has increased by 754 dropouts from total of 17288 in the previous year. The results indicate that most students, both male and female, dropped out mainly because of school fees. Graph 6: Dropouts in Secondary Schools – Source – Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Education Expenditure 188 The Government of Malawi continues to highly value the education sector as demonstrated by allocating 4.2 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the education sector in the 2017/18 financial year. Table 8: Education Expenditure 2012 – 2017 – Source – Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Year 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 Education- 79 102 119 163 179 2,242 2,848 3,521 4,219 sector allocation minus Dev Part 1 (MK' billions) GDP (MK' 1,717 billions) 67

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