Abstract: This desk review study was purposed to analyse frantic factors responsible for low retention rate among public primary school pupils in Zambia. The study revealed that pedagogical, school environment and socio economic factors were topping the list on prohibitive drivers to children’s continuity with their academic life beyond the 5th grade. Pedagogically, the study enlisted discoveries of unqualified and untrained teachers handling classes to the collateral damage of the education system in general but the learners in particular as these personnel did not have professional proficiency and passion to meet the learners’ needs cognitively, emotionally, socially and physically.