CHENNAI: In a shocking revelation that raises serious questions about the primary education sector and the effectiveness of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, a national sample survey estimation of out-of-school children aged 6–13 has found that more than half of them in Tamil Nadu are dropouts.
The survey, commissioned by Educational Consultants India, a government of India enterprise, and supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development has found that this number has gone up by 10 percentage points since the last survey in 2009, despite the RTE Act coming into force in 2011.
According to the figures given in the recently released draft report, the number of dropouts have increased by more than 7,000 compared to the findings of the survey in 2009. This has taken the percentage of dropouts from about 43 per cent then to 53.57 per cent.
There is no significant difference in the figures for the urban and rural parts of the State, the survey shows, with the former recording 51.59 per cent and the latter 55.41 per cent dropouts.
When it comes to gender, there is a significant disparity between boys and girls in the urban areas of the State — 49.44 per cent boys drop out of school, as against 56.33 per cent girls. Interestingly, there is only a marginal difference between girls and boys in rural Tamil Nadu, with girls performing better than boys by a whisker — 55.76 per cent girls, compared to 55.14 per cent boys.
According to the survey, maximum number of students drop out of school right after Class VII — 29.97 per cent — followed by Class V — 23 per cent.
While their rural counterparts may have dropped out due to poverty and their families migrating to urban areas, the reasons for urban children to discontinue schooling are many, feels Prince Gajendra Babu, secretary, State Platform for Common School System.
“Homeless children and those living in slums are the most affected. Even in urban settlements with tenements, one cannot assure that there are schools in the neighborhood. Due to sheer distance, a lot them leave,” he added.
When it came to dropouts among girl students of Class VII, activists cite poor toilets and sanitation. “Girls who enter puberty can’t make do without toilets and drop out,” said an activist.