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32.5% for girls and 15.9% for boys overall. It was 17.0% and 37.1% for girls at the
primary and middle school level respect~vely. The corresponding figures for boys were
14.9% for the primary school end 28.6% for the middle school (Anonymous, 1996).
In general, from all over lnd~a most of the dropout In chlldren occurred In the pnmaly
school (UNICEF 1890) However some lnvestlgators have observed the dropout to
Increase gradually from grade I and reach a maximum In rn~ddle and hlgh school levels.
In both glrls and boys (Nagpure 1992) There were many causes for the dropout A
study from Calcutta found poverty to be the maln cause (69 9%) of dropout followed by
~nd~fference towards school (10 4%) father's
apathy (8 4%) and separatron from famlly
(5 7% Banne~ee,l991) In another study from Maharashtra no s~gnrfrcant d~fference
between the genders was seen In the overall dropout rate though ~t Increased sharply
at 11 years of age for gtrls
Poverty and unsatisfactory scholastrc performance were
the maln reasons for dropout (Pratln~dh~ el a1
1992) In a survey by the Tam11 Nadu
government it was observed that the following were the
major causes of school
dropcult - (I) school IS unlnterestlng and class room borrng (11) poverty (111) the necess~ty
of retalnlng school golng ch~ldren at home to look after the younger ch~ldren
iAllonyrnous,l996) Conventional educat~on system IS oflen not affordable or irrelevant
allenatlng many of those ~t IS Intended to serve The hlgh dropout rate seen IS because
of the poor qual~ty and Irrelevance of the educatron system wh~ch 1s reflected In the
lnabll~ty by many of those who complete educat~on to find jobs (Vdor 1995)
Ld) Incentives
A number of Incentive schemes have been launched l~ke noon meal scheme, free
supply of uniform, text books, slates, bus passes to school golng chlldren etc. to