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EDUCATION STATUS OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
The progress of a natton depends to a large extent on the llteracy status and quality of
education Imparted to ~ts people Rewgnlr~ng the overall ~rnpact of education on all
splleres of developrne~il of a country, the UNICEF has declared primary educat~ol~ lor
at least 80 0% of ch~ldren as one of ~ts goals, by the year 2,000 AD (Park,1997)
Education cannot be dlvorced from the health of school age chlldren In order to have a
sense of mental and soual well belng whlch IS necessary for health, ~t IS very Important
tor all chlldren to have opttmum educat~onal opportunltles Desp~te several measures
taken by developing wuntnes to Improve the educatlonal status of chlldren. ~t has not
reached sabsfactory levels In many wuntnes (UNICEF.1995) School absentee~sm,
which 1s one of the Important factors which Influence the educatlonal status of chlldren
has no1 been addressed adequately, part~cularly wlth reference to ~ts frequency of
OCCWrence and causes Further, the cornrnunlty s polnt of wew and percept~ons on this
Important aspect of educat~on and also other factors that affect the educatronal
analnment of chrldren has not been studled, uslng ethnographic qualltatlve techniques
This 1s necessary before tak~ng steps to Improve the educat~onal status slnce ~t
enables One to formulate appropnale remedlal measures In the follow~ng section the
Important aspects pertalnlng to the educat~onal status of school age ch~ldren have been
renewed