A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SCHOOL DROPOUTS WITH A SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICALLY COMPARISON GROUP OF URBAN SLUM INHABITANTS IN MAHARASHTRA

Abstract

Background and Objective: Getting children to school is one thing, keeping them there is quite another. Indeed a low school completion rate is one of the biggest threats to human development in India, it is imperative to find ways to reduce this and to do so one must examine the potential risk factors for the high dropout rate. This study was therefore undertaken to find out the magnitude of the problem of school dropouts and the etiological factors related to it. Methods: This study uses a community based descriptive cross-sectional design to identify school dropouts, socio-demographic profile, and a comparison of these factors responsible for school dropouts with non-school dropouts conducted in an urban slum area after the informed consent from all the participants. Descriptive analysis for socio-demographic factors in dropouts was done using Univariate analysis. P value less than 0.05 was the level of significance. Result: Comparison of socio-economic status in dropout and comparison group (Table-5) that the chances of dropouts were more in socioeconomic class V (69.1%) and IV (43.8%) than class III (16.7%). None of the 200 households belonged to Upper class (I). The relation between socio-economic status of dropout and comparison groups was found to be highly significant (p 0.0001). Conclusion: In this study, the commonest reason as perceived by dropouts for dropping out of school was cited as poverty by 41.8% respondents.