48% School kids in India dropout early: How to improve on the numbers?

No doubt a lot of change and development has come in the field of education compared to 20 yrs back. But the poverty level and BPL has not improved to betterment yet. It is as it was. Over that now a days education has become a prime business with different standards which requires to be regulated. The following points to be monitored and implemented:

a. Education should have separate regulatory body with total authority for smooth implementations so that it could reach to the poorest in a uniform way.

b. No political interferences should be entertained all the way.

c. There should be single syllabus through out India. Today all the states are having their own syllabi and all differs from each other which has to be stream lined.

d. Even today the state syllabi are in their local languages till 10th and than the students are asked to cope with english medium which becomes burden to them at ones. Hence the local languages should be compulsary till 6th or 7th and simultaneously feed of english should be done in full fledge which in turn throw the fear of language from students and they do well.

e. Uniform rule to be implemented and regulated for not conducting private tution by the enroled school teachers and if still they want to improve the quality of the student, they should select those weak students and should take separate class in the same fee structure. This would certainely improve the image of institution too.

f. Students and their parents are heavily loaded with costly books and dress. It should be controlled. Parents & students should be informed with syllabus and authors for subjects and they should be given free chance to buy from retail directly as by selling book from school premises angain the cost of stationary and dress becomes costly.

g. Teachers should be transferred from state to sate at every regular intervals of 2yrs or 3yrs to overcome their indulgence in malpractice and to feed them with ideas what is required basically by the students.

Guess, by following all the above points, certainly drop out of students would reduce and improve Indian Education System.

I think this is where the problem is, I don't think kids in urban are affected interms of education but in Rural there is no proper infrastructure for right kind of education and very less teachers who are interested to go and teach in villages and other parts for that matter. The good thing for India at the  moment is there are many children who are finishing primary school, as many government schools across the country has good primart education system but not secondary education,  as there an increasing share of these students will be coming from rural and lower income groups, who will be less able to afford private secondary education, hence we are seeing that huge number of dropouts from school. If this issue is taken care of with more higher government secondary schools in the country then one can easily improve on the number...

I had the opportunity to finish my primary education in Government Primary schools and what I saw was pitible way back in the 60's. Many cannot attend classes regularly and some of those who do cannot concentrate on studies due to lack of food. Many of them in those days used to come to school to get the afternoon lunch provided by the school through US Aid which was discontinued later. Many will be sleeping while the class goes on on inquiry I used to hear them say "I didn't have breakfast today". Most of them I am sure never completed even their primary education and the situation may not be any different now.

So endowing poor families who are affected mostly by this social injustice is the only solution. A voucher system like US can help students pay their way through schools. Morning and afternoon meals in schools and those who come to school provided with peaceful homes where one can study is a necessity.

I don't think the future Leadership from then onwards ever thought to consdier this as their agenda and created policies that can help less fortunate people to come up in life.

Over last few years we have done analysis/pareto on this issue..Surprisingly it is not Poverty or lack of funds (Parents always beg borrow for kids education)

The # 1 reason - Math Classes - Our Math education is petrifying and students drop out. In fact for our LifeDream class for dropouts we say 'No Maths' to attract dropouts!!

The # 2 reason - Toilet  - Many school toilets are in bad shape and girls drop out 100% due to this

Our two cents

Rgds/Tharun

team@lifedreamfoundation.org

www.lifedreamfoundation.org

In fact about 90% drop out is in tribal zones. Tribal people have their own mother toung which is very different from the medium of education practicedin different states. Tribal kids never coop with the mediumofeducation & prefere to be drop out. It wouldbe better if lower primary education tobe done bi-lingually by represantatives of their own people whoare at least conversant to the medium of education. For example a tribal kid cannot be educated in Hindi, Tamil,Telugu, Oriya or Punjabi. They need to learn this language first by a teacher who knows their mother toung as well as the medium of education. If this can be done drop out from tribalzone would be reduced significantly.

In India the reason for such big dropout in no. for school going children can be divided into two categories:

1.Infrastructure / Poverty problems lot of places do not have the basic facility for running a school plus parents are very poor to afford sending there children to schools.In most of countries across the world the education up to 12 th standard is subsidised and basic infrastructure provided by govt. and any education above 12 th is at market price with no govt. subsidy .We will have to follow this example and put in enough funds in education sector so that at least the bare minimum facility , subsidy is available to all school going children in India up to 12 th standard.

2. But even bigger reason then this is that after 12 th majority of school going children across the world gets employed in some productive job , start some small business and only the most meritorious go for higher education at Market rates with no govt. subsidy , but our curriculum is such that after 12 th standard most of the children are unemployable.

So the way out is that it should be top to bottom approach govt. should have some fact finding agency which should get in touch with all local business , public , private sector organisations ,govt. sector corporations , Small /Medium business houses , self entrepreneurs to find out as to what sort of skill set along with the numbers they will be needing in terms of manpower on yearly basis and that should be the reference to decide that what sort of courses / vocational skills should be taught at school up to 12 th standard so that majority of school going children should be employable after 12 th standard and only the most meritorious should go for higher studies at market rates with no govt. subsidy.

Factors

Girls - They are often removed from school at the onset of puberty, and those who are not married take on household responsibilities.  Girls from poor families are frequently withdrawn from school even earlier to work and contribute financially to the family.

Early marriage and pregnancy also force girls to leave  school.

Many schools in India, particularly in rural regions, do not have female teachers.  Because teaching is not a traditional occupation for women in some areas, employing women teachers requires a cultural shift in household rules and norms.

SOLUTION:  Non-formal education could be a viable means to provide basic education to those who would have been excluded from education. 

Involve and strengthen NGOs working with community at grassroots.

- They are near to the field and they can establish rapport with community leaders and community people, because they work with them not for them.

- Activities which need people's participation and cooperation could be done by NGOs better than government officers, because they approach them as friends and helpers, not as bureaucratic officials.

- They could help local community to become self-reliant and independent.

- They could help to promote publicity campaign of the local inititatives through local and national newspapers.

- They could provide technical backstopping by the selves and they could mobilize technical expertise from other agencies.

They could help to establish link with local government offices, district and central government offices and, if need be, with international agencies.

If the Government fails to empower them, then the NGOs and other organisations of the civil society would become silent spectators of this unfortunate massive human tragedy.

Education is a fundamental right. Even Courts have not come to rescue for implementation when govt. dilly dallied, stating funds issue.(can you believe with all that govt (unnecessary expenditure.) Adding insult to injury govt. made it a fundamental duty - not enforceable. education as a right is made a joke. 

Primary Reason for dropping out, is the kid's earning are needed to family. Increasing lust for money, increases cost of living and poor can't sustain. Kid does not get enough support to study, parents can't teach any, teachers are cheaters in many govt. schools. I had fortunate teachers in govt school and educated parents. So provide income opportunity to family, take kids in hostel environment and give caring supporting people, using govt+NGO participation

Further, immediately support midday meal schemes like one pioneered by Akshaya Patra Foundation www.akshayapatrafoundation.org of ISKCON Bangalore, which increased rate, till such utopian dreams come true.

regards

VLV

Why student dont go further study after matric or higher secondary? There are several reasons behind it. As our country is agricultural country and more than 60% people live in rural areas. These people don't allow their children to go for higher education, specially we talk about girls students are not allowed even to go schools. so it may be main reason behind it. So, it is important to make people understand the importance of education in their life. 

even the govt. run initiative  like sarva siksha abhiyan largely focuses on enrollment.

once a child enters a classroom, how conducive is it for the child to continue, what are the learning outcomes, are the teachers passionate about teaching and sensitive towards the child needs? or is it just a job for her. a ggod teacher will sustain a child's interest in studies.

to attract best talent we need to make teaching a high paying job.

Many ideas ..Big Ideas ....

You all can start ACTING on the Ideas .. Join LifeDream Movement .. Email lifedream.course@gmail.com ..Check our URL http://www.lifedreamfoundation.org/

I agree with Mr.Cherian. Majority os the students who drop out do so because they cannot afford education. They drop out because of their economic crisis and failure in paying the loans. To avoid this, government should start meal systems in schools for students which will give the families relief from not being able to afford money for the child's fooding. For the sake of so, they will send their children to schools more and more.