Relevance: GS Paper II
Introduction
According to an estimate, out-of-school children in the 6-18 age group are more than 4.5 crore in the country, which is 16 of the children in this age group.
The concern
It is a matter of serious concern that nearly 10 years after the enactment of the RTE Act, and 16 years after the right to education was elevated to a fundamental right, such a large number of children are out of school.
Data on out-of-school children
- In big States such as Odisha, Uttar Pradesh , Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal, about one-fifth of the children in this age group are out of school.
- In Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the proportion of out-of-school children was lower than the national average.
- The proportion of out-of-school children is higher in rural India than in urban India
- In rural areas, the proportion of out-of-school girls is higher than of boys.
- The proportion of children from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) was the highest, followed by Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
- Among religious groups, the proportion of Muslims was as high as 24.1% in rural areas and 24.7% in urban areas.
- On the whole, the data show that out-of-school children came mostly from the rural areas, and a high proportion of them are SCs, STs, Muslims and from other economically backward communities.
Reasons for drop outs
- The most important reason for boys to drop out of school was to take up jobs to supplement the family earning.
- For girls, it was the compulsion to participate in household work.
- We would not have been confronted with this high proportion of drop-outs if all the provisions of the RTE Act had been implemented within the time limit prescribed in the Act (latest by April 2015).
- For example, the Act provided for the availability of a school at a distance of 1 km from the residence of the child at the primary level and 3 km at the upper primary level. If these provisions had been implemented, a major reason for drop-out (distance of school) would have been eliminated.
- If all the infrastructure facilities prescribed in the Act had been put in place during the period of implementation, another reason for drop-out (environment not friendly) would have disappeared.
Way forward
- The most important reason for drop-out (socio-economic conditions of the parents of the children) calls for a more comprehensive approach that is not reflected in the RTE Act.
- Until an adequate number of schools at the prescribed distances from the children’s homes becomes available, it would be necessary to provide secure modes of subsidized travel to schools, particularly for girls.
- Another important provision which ought to have been included in the RTE is financial support to poor parents, adequate to enable them to send their children to school. There is incontrovertible evidence of a positive correlation between economic incentives and a lower drop-out.
Conclusion
The most important social reason for drop-out is lack of awareness of the importance of school education and of the fact that education is now a legal right. Ironically, education is the most important instrument for creating this awareness. Thus education is a quintessential example of being vested with intrinsic as well as instrumental value — being both the means and the end.
