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(iii) Proportion of children in the relevant age group attending school
The relevant age group for the pnmary school level was taken as 5-11 years; 12-14
years for the mlddle school and 1517 years for the h~gh school levels. The proporbon
of chlldren in each group who were attending school is gtven in Figure 6.4. The
of boys studying In the pnmary and middle school was significantly more
than girls (p < 0.05) whlle there was no difference ~n the proportfon of girts and boys
studying in the hlgh school (p > 0 05)
6.4.2 School Absenteeism
(a) Causes
(I) Ethnographic methods
During group dlscuss~ons many parents felt that the common cause lor staylng away
from school was playfulness They said that the chlldren found the school bonng and
preferred to play w~th thelr fnends However, structured questtonnalre showed that only
8 8% (141160) felt that playfulness was a cause of school absenteelsm Some (30 0%)
considered illness to be an Important cause for school loss About 8 8% felt that local
functions lead to school absenteelsm whlle 4 4% felt that housework was a common
cause for absenting from school
hlng fleld vls~ts the lnvestfgator came across many chlldren who had absented
themselves from school for vanous reasons There were
53 such chlldren over a
Period of one year and on being questtoned, 33 sald they d ~d not go lo school because
Of work. 6 because of vlslts to other places, 6 because of ram. 5 because of
Playfulness, 2 because of some funct~on at home end 1 because of illness On further
9uestlonlng about the nature of work that caused them to absent from school, 24