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

Cohort study
A total of 54 glrls and 89 boys In the cohort who were In school were followed for one
year The common causes of absentee~sm In them were adverse weather condlt~ons In
50 9%, illness In 14 5%, ws~ts outs~de the wllage In 12 7%, and playfulness In 4 5%
The mean number of ep~sodes of absentee~srn/ch~ld/year was 1 6 (a 6) and the mean
number of school days lost was 15 (11 4) dayslch~ldlyear The mean number of
ep~sodes of school absentee~sm due to ~llness was 0 221ch1ldlyear and that due to work
was 0 12lch1ldlyear The mean number of days lost due to ~llness was 3 2 (G 2)
daysleplsode and due to work was 1 0 (a 5) dayslep~sode No s~gn~ficant d~fference
was observed between g~rls and boys as regards the magn~tude or causes of school
absentee~sm (p > 0 05) It was also observed that out of 110 ep~sodes of absentee~sm,
73 (66 3%) occurred dunng the monsoon penod, 10 (9 1%) In the post-monsoon, 19
(17 3%) In the pre-monsoon and 8 (7 5%) In the summer penods
jc) School dropout
(I) Ethnograph~c methods
Most of Ihe parents wanted the~r ch~ldren to complete school~ng They (1491160, 93 8%)
felt that poor performane In school was the most common cause for dropouts They
sa~d that the ch~ldren themselves dec~de not to go to school and there was noth~ng that
the parents could do about ~t However. 80 6 % felt that poverty was also an Important
factor In ch~ldren dropp~ng out of school Some felt that g~ds were generally taken away
from school when another ch~ld was bom, In order to take care of the new arnval Most
of them were of the oplnlon that menarche was not an Important cause for girls