School Dropouts in Rural India: Reasons and Prevention Strategies

This presentation discusses the major reasons for school dropouts in rural India, including poverty, migration, child labor, child marriage, and sex discrimination. It also suggests prevention strategies such as spreading awareness, assessing early indicators, and involving teachers and the government.

SCHOOL DROPOUTS
IN RURAL INDIA
(STUDENT NAME)
DATE: 10-22-18

INTRODUCTION
Dropouts in simple term, means leaving a group,
university, college, or high school before completion of a
qualification, for some practical reason, discouragement
with the system or necessities.
Dropouts in schools are the major concern in India.
India is still a developing country; consist of the major rural
population, where the high rates of school dropouts are
observed. There are numerous reasons for dropouts in India

Major
reason
s for
Dropou
ts
Poverty
Migratio
n of
families
Infrastruc
ture
Child
marriag
e
Social
or
cultural
factors
Parents
literacy
level
Sex
discrimi
nation
Child
develop
mental
Factors
Child
labor

TOP REASONS OF DROPOUT BY SCHOOL PERSONNEL, BLOCK
EDUCATION
OFFICER (BEO), COMMUNITY LEADERS
(Source: schooldropoutprevention, 2018)

• Poverty
• The poverty rate is high in
the rural area of India. Due to
this, parents are not willing to
send their children to schools.
• According to their mentality,
there is no use of spending so
much on education.
• Instead, they think to invest
money in business. This is the
major reason for dropouts
from school at a very early
age.
• Migration of families
• Migration is another reason
for dropouts. In rural areas,
families migrate from one
place to another very much,
to gain opportunity in
another area.
• Due to this, the admission of
students becomes difficult in
mid-year. The loss of study
of children may lead to
permanent dropout from
schools.

• Infrastructure
• In rural areas, like the
infrastructure of schools
do not have proper
facilities for toilets,
drinking water.
• The road connectivity is
not very well established
from villages or rural
areas.
• Child marriage
• This is the major reason for
Dropouts of girls.
• In rural areas of the nation
is still believe in old
traditions, and child
marriage is conducted.
• A girl in the age of studying
and playing was forced to
do work at home in the
kitchen.

• Social or cultural
factors
• India is a country with various
cultures, and these may be
the reason for retention from
schools.
• For example, in some
backward areas, it is believed
that providing education to
girls is prohibited, especially at
the age of puberty, as and
when the menstrual cycle
started (NCBI, 2018).
• Parents literacy level
• This is a major factor for school
dropouts. The students are very
much dependent on their
parents and the parents only
take decisions regarding their
children career.
• If parents are not educated,
they believe that only basic
education until the fifth or tenth
class is more than enough, due
to which they provide education
to their children until that class
only.

• Child labor
• Child labor is still a major issue in rural
India. After a certain level of education
like class five, children start working to
support their family in financial crisis.
• This is a major reason for the high
degree of school dropouts in rural
areas of the country.
• Moreover, due to lack of
understanding, they do not understand
that they will be underemployed in the
future.
• According to UNESCO “
United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization report
2014-15,” in India, 47 million scholars
drop out of institutes to support their
families as labor.
• Child developmental
factors
• Due to poverty in rural
areas, the physical
development of children is
hampered. In addition, the
intellectual capacity can be
low due to lack of proper
eating habits. Due to this,
they are not able to grasp
what are taught in schools.

SEX DISCRIMINATION
• In rural areas of India, women and
men are still not considered equal.
Women are considered as a weaker
section of society and are not free to
do what they wish to.
• The major impact is on education,
only the boy’s education is
considered important, and women
are asked to learn household work.
• Some girls get only basic education
until class five and then ask to leave
school. This is the major reason for
high school dropout’s rate in rural
India (Shahidul & Karim, 2015).

TOP 10 STATE-WISE DROP-OUT RATE AT
PRIMARY LEVEL DURING 2014-15
(Source: community.data.gov.in, 2018)

Strate
gies to
preven
t
Dropo
uts
Role of
teachers
Spread
awarene
ss
Assess
early
indicator
s
National
University
for
Education
Planning
and
Administr
ation
USAID

• Role of teachers
• Teachers play a significant role in
preventing school dropouts. In rural
areas of India, the teacher still beat
students, due to which children are
afraid and do not feel confident to
attend school and leads to school
dropouts.
• This must be banned, and teachers
can be strict but not physically.
• Instead, teachers must motivate
students to continue education, and
make them understand the
relevance of education for their
future (Mohan, Frey, & Shibu, 2017).
• Spread awareness
• The major reason is awareness
in rural India, people are not
aware of the relevance of
education, because the majority
of parents are also not educated.
• For prevention, Spreading
awareness regarding this issue,
and convincing parents,
especially considering girls and
backward society children,
ensuring social inclusiveness,
and sensitizing teachers are
necessary (Mulki, Raman, &
Nedungadi, 2018).

• Assess early
indicators
• The early indicators like
absenteeism must be
responded immediately.
It can be done to
providing counseling to
parents and students of
potential dropouts (Tilak,
2018).
• National University for
Education Planning and
Administration (NUEPA)
• A new tracking system is been
initiated by the government of
India, which can track dropouts
through Aadhar ID’s.
• This is initiated to intervene
dropouts quickly and try to
make those students get back
to the education center. The
records are maintained by
“NUEPA (National University for

USAID is a program initiated by
the government to prevent school
dropouts in a rural area of Bihar.
“Right to education act” has been
approved by the government of Bihar
on 10th May 2011, according to which
an age group of 6 to 14 years will be
provided with free education and
compulsory. Major enrichment or
recreation activities are conducted
under this program to increase
education attractiveness to motivate
students to attend schools

CONCLUSION
From the study, it can be concluded that Rural
Areas have high rate of School dropouts. The reasons
for this include poverty, accessibility, and availability.
This can be prevented through various measures and
strategies. The stakeholders included in these
strategies are potential dropout students, parents,
teachers, and government of India.

REFERENCES
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2014-15/#
drishtiias. (2016). Reason for children dropping out of School. Retrieved from drishtiias: http://
www.drishtiias.com/upsc-exam-gs- resources-Reason-for-children-dropping-out-of-School
Mohan, R., Frey, M., & Shibu, N. (2017). Elevating education of India's rural village girls through distance learning
technology supported by sustainable electricity. In Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), 1-8.
Mulki, K., Raman, R., & Nedungadi, P. (2018). Improving educational outcomes & reducing absenteeism at remote
villages with mobile technology and WhatsAPP: Findings from rural India. Education and Information Technologies,
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NCBI. (2018). School Dropouts: Examining the Space of Reasons. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662127/
schooldropoutprevention. (2018). USAID. Retrieved from schooldropoutprevention: http://
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Shahidul, S., & Karim, Z. (2015). Factors contributing to school dropout among the girls: A review of literature. European
Journal of research and reflection in educational sciences.
Tilak, J. (2018). Education poverty in India. In Education and Development in India . Singapore.: Palgrave Macmillan.