indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

pl School Attendance
Is not enough ~f chlldren just enroll In school They also have to attend classes
regularly and complete schooling In rural areas only 41 0% of chlldren between 6 1 1
years of age were attending school compared to nearly 69046 In urban areas
(uNICEF,1990) The proportto11 of cti~ldre~i from relevant age groups, studylllg at
different levels of school~ng (pnmary and m~ddie) var~ed between the gende~ and also
between places In boys the rural attendance rates In Tam11 Nadu were 90 8% and
77 7% for pnmary and m~ddle school respectlvely and In glrls the wrrespond~ng f~gures
were 83 6% and 62 8% respectlvely There IS a lot of Inter state d~sparlty In school
attendance In children between 6-1 1 years of age ~t vaned from more than 89 0% In
Kerala to less than 33 0% In B~har Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
The dlspanty In school attendance has been reported to be due to d~fferences In
economlc class, caste gender local culture and the state of awareness and tradlt~ons
It has been observed that In those ewnomlc groups where the monthly percaplta
expend~ture was less than Rs 30/month the school attendance rate was 33 2% and
where the monthly per cap~ta expend~ture was more than Rs 150, ~t was 93 1%
(UNICEF 1990)
Lc) Dropout
In India, only 52 0% of enrolled primary chlldren reach grade V wth the dropout belng
more among g~rls than boys (UNICEF.1994b) There was a w~de ~ntentate vanatlon ln
the dropout rate It vaned from 6 0% In Pond~cherry to 82 0% In Man~pur for girls and
O% In Pond~cherry to 80 0% In Man~pur for boys (UNICEF 1990) The dropout rate (%)
at the prlmary and mlddle school levels for Tam11 Nadu In the year 1995-1996 was