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different causes of absenteism were more or less the same for girls and boys except
for illness which was found to be significantly more In girls than in boys (p < 0.05,
Table 6.12). It was also found !'hat the maxlmum school absence occurred in the
middle school level (Figum 6.6)
jb) Mapnltude of school sbsenteeism
The magnitude of school absenteeism was determined from the cohort of ch~ldren
followed Over a one year period, 30 out of 54 (55.5%) girls and 40 out of 89 (44.9%)
boys had absented from school on one or more occasions. The total number of
episodes of school absence was 50 in g~rls and 60 in boys over a one year period. The
number of school days lost ~n girls and boys respect~vely were 90 5 and 119 5, maklng
a total of 210 days lost by 143 children in 1 year Thus the mean number of school
days lost was 1 5(?1 4) dayslch~ldlyear In girls, ~t was 1 7(+l 1) dayslchildlyear and In
boys it was 1 3(il 7) dayslchildlyear. There was no sign~ficant difference between the
genders (p > 0 05) The mean number of episode of school absenteeism per chlld
was1 6(10 6)lyear (1 740 6 eplsodelyear for girls, 1 5Kl 5 episode /year for boys) The
mean number of ep~sodes of school absence due to illness was 0 22lchlldlyear and
that due to work was 0 12/child/year The mean number of days lost due to illness was
3 2 (12 2) dayslepisode and due to work was l(i0 5) dayslepisode
LC) Seasonal Variation of school absenteeism
It was also observed in the cohort study that out of 110 episodes of school absence, 73
(66.3%) occurred during the monsoon penod, 10 (9.1%) In ttie post-monsoon, 19
(17.3%) In the pre-monsoon and 8 (7 5%) in the summer penods