Drop outs higher in villages, reveals Students survey

Updated on: Saturday, January 21, 2012

Inspired by the values of obligation to their society, a group of students of the Government Higher Secondary School at Kottodi, near here, undertook a survey to assess the situation leading to drop out from schools only to find that many of the unlucky ones are driven to go for child labour depriving fundamental right to education.

The stark reality came to the fore as a group of 67 High School children of the school ventured out to nearby localities of the hilly hamlet to study cases of under 15 years old children who drop out from their academic pursuits owing to host of reasons.

The informal survey christened ‘Jyothirgamaya’ initiated by the Hindi Club of the School last month, was carried out in 10 places falling under Kallar, Kodom-Beloor, Bedadka and Kuttikole panchayats, from where children come to the school, only to list out details of 62 children who are forced to drop out in midway.

Armed with a prepared questionnaire, the students supervised by their Hindi teacher Mr. Shaji, found that as many as 25 of them are forced to work as child labourers at a time when the Right to Education Act ensures free education up to class X, School Principal P. J. Mathew told a press conference here.

Even girls under 10 years are found to be engaged in household jobs, he said.

Majority of the drop out cases were from tribal families as they force their wards to do works due to draining of money by parents, quite a few of them are habitual drunkards. The distance to school and lack of effective transportation facilities force a few families to keep their kids away from schooling, the survey revealed.

The casual attitude of parents and recurring diseases among family members besides phobia of academic setbacks also drive the not so lucky children to skip from their academic pursuits despite host of sops being offered to tribal families to pursue education of their children to ensure social and economic uplift, he says.

“If the number of drop outs confined just to 10 localities in the villages has crossed 60. The situation in other rural hamlets in the district and elsewhere in the State could be quite alarming and our sincere endeavour in this direction is just to remind the authorities the need to look into the reasons for rising cases of drop outs especially in rural belts”, Mr. Mathew said.

The twin objective our endeavour was part of reminding the students of their obligation to the society and to draw the authorities’ attention the need to check the alarming situation being unreported in rural hamlets of the progressive states like Kerala, he said.

Drop outs higher in villages, reveals Students survey

More Education news