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

stopplng from school They felt that some may however use ~t as an excuse to stop
ttielr daughters from school d they cannot afford educatlc~n
(ii) Other epidemiological methods
Cohort
Of the cohort of 93 girls and 119 boys, there were 29 girls and 24 boys who liad
dropped out of school at varylng penods Poverty (44 8%) was the most Important
cause of dropout among girls, whlle ~t was poor performance (54 2%) among boys In
addltlon to poverty, the need to help at home (20 7%). phys~cal handlcap (6 9%) and
menarche (6 9%) were the other causes of dropout among g~rls Next to poor
performance, poverty (37 5%) was an Important reason for dropout ln boys
Census
Out of 430 glrls and 462 boys between 5-20 years of age who were enrolled ~n school,
90 (20 9%) girls and 80 (16 6%) boys respect~vely had dropped out (p > 0 05) Most of
tile dropout In girls as well as boys occurred In the prlrnary school le~el
School record
Uurlng the academ~c year 1995-1996, 89 (4 7%) chlldren out of a total of 1.881
dropped out The dropout rate In g~rls (3 7%) was not s~gnlficantly different from that In
boys (5 4%, p > 0 05) The dropout for girls mostly occuned In the pnmary and the
m~ddle school levels whlle for boys 11 was ~n the mlddle and h~gh school levels
8 14 Socioeconomic
]he Issues under thls aspect, considered ch~ldren In thelr home mll~eu wh~ch was taken
as the snclal context