Keeping Kids in School : Tackling High Dropout Rates

It is an acknowledged fact that getting kids to school is a smaller problem than getting them to stay in school and complete their education.

Via Times of India

In modern India, education — and only education — holds the hope for a better future. It’s the great leveller that ends class and caste inequities and can fulfil a slum kid’s dream of going to IIT.

Young and old, rich and poor, driver and domestic help, everyone wants their children to go to school. This has led to an incredible surge in school enrollment rates at the primary level. It is estimated that nearly all of the children in the 6-11 age group are enrolled in schools. Experts point out that this is partly propelled by the midday meal scheme. But ask any mother why she sends her kids to school and she will say, ‘‘We don’t want them to have a life like ours. We want a better life for them.’’ But the big question is: Is India’s education system really geared to fulfill the dreams of its citizens? Let us look at some of the early stumbling blocks:

CALLING IT QUITS: The single biggest problem is the high dropout rates, that is, children enrolling but quitting at every stage. By class V, about one-third of students have dropped out. By class VIII, nearly two-thirds of them are no longer in school. The school system starts off with over 13 crore children in the primary sections (class 1 to 5) and ends up at class XII with just 3.7 crore. So high is the dropout rate that only 1 out of 10 makes it to higher education institutions.

MISSING INFRASTRUCTURE: There are two sets of factors at work here: one, within the education system, and another outside it, in society at large. Children may continue in school if there are adequate facilities. Nearly one-third of schools do not have a pucca building and classes function either in tents or under the open sky. About 2 lakh schools are reported to have no provision for drinking water and over 5 lakh do not have common toilets, forget about separate toilets for boys and girls. Is it any wonder that kids drop out?

Read the entire article here.

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