International Research Journal of Social Sciences_____________________________________ ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci. International Science Congress Association 6 Educational progress in India in the Context of Out-of-School Children Borkotoky Kakoli and Unisa Sayeed2 International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, INDIADepartment of Mathematical Demography and Statistics, IIPS, Mumbai, INDIA Available online at: www.isca.in Received 5th April 2013, revised 21st April 2013, accepted 10th May 2013 Abstract In this paper, we examined the level of out-of-school children in India from the most recent nationally representative household survey. The study aims to answer two key questions; first, what is the level of out-of-school children in India and second, what are the factors that keep children out-of-school. The analysis suggested that although there had been a decline in out-of-school children but, significant proportions of children still could not attend school. The study suggested that the urban poor had the highest probability to be out-of-school, but the presence of adult literate female in the household increased likelihood of enrolment. The study further suggested that the economic condition of the household had highest contribution to out-of-school children. The study also observed that the reasons for never attended school or dropout differ for male and female while boys had to provide financial assistance to the family, girls performed household activities. Keywords: Out-of-school, urban poor, literate female, economic condition, financial support. Introduction India is currently going through the third stage of demographic transition in which it can benefit from the window of demographic opportunity. To take advantage of this stage of demographic transition, countries need to focus in the areas of education, health and employment generation. In this context, 10-14 age group is very important because, within a short period, this age group will enter the labour force and will become primary productive human resource. The census of India (2001) suggests that the 10-14 year age group contribute 12 percent to the total population of India with 124,846,858 children. It is also important to mention that, out of the total population in 10-14 year age group 22,831,018 (more than 18 percent) are illiterate. All these figures indicate that India will have a large and growing labour force, which will play a pivotal role towards the growth and development of the country. It is also important that the workforce grow not only in numbers but also in their skills. This paper makes an attempt to examine the level and characteristics of the out-of-school children in 10-14 year age group because the socio-economic development of this age group is directly linked to the development of the country. The role of education cannot be denied in achieving development; hence, the five years planning in India gives greater importance to make education affordable and accessible to all sections of the society. Education is important not only in reducing poverty but in other dimensions of development, as well. As a result of initiatives by government and other non government organisations, school enrolment has gone up, but simultaneously, a large number of children are still out-of-school. Primary education is important because it provides the basic knowledge to children to go to upper grades. If children could not attend primary school then there is high probability that they will remain illiterate for life. It is also important to mention that increase in number of educational institutions and increase in population are not proportional. Therefore, a large number of rural habitations are deprived of even primary education. In addition to the shortage of schools, education system is also facing problems like shortage of resources, classrooms and teachers. Sometimes, the poor quality of education may also compel children to discontinue their education (UNESCO). Therefore, the recruitment of trained teachers may help both in the improvement of student teacher ratio and quality of education. School dropouts and child labour still possess a big threat to the economic development of the developing countries. The most powerful factor behind these school dropouts and child labour is the economic condition of the household5,8,9 Sometimes children may dropout after few years of schooling either to help the family financially or to reduce the burden by getting married10. Economic condition of the family is not the only factor leading to dropout. In some cases, children may be out-of-school, not due to the economic condition of the family but as a result of shortcomings in the school system. Lack of proper toilets facilities in schools, discrimination against the girl child, class and caste differences is some other factors that determine school enrolment and continuation for a child11. It is also observed that non government institutions provide better facilities to children compared to government institutions, which is true for differently abled students, as well12. Sometimes girls have to discontinue school because they perform a larger share of family labour, provide sibling care, and assist their mothers in household chores13. In some cases family size also determine the level of schooling for the children in the family14 Further, it was also said that in order to secure the education of boys in the International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 7 family, girls spend considerably more time in working in non-domestic activities than both girls in large families and their brothers in small families15. It has also been observed that sex composition of sibling also plays a vital role in schooling decisions while boys compete with same sex, girls face double competition16. The educational progress is very important in order to keep pace with the economic development of a country. Although India has come a long way in terms of improving overall levels of literacy, but still illiteracy is a major problem of the country. Therefore, achievement in literacy should be discussed simultaneously with those who remained out of the education system. It is also important to examine the level of out-of-school children in India so that appropriate measures may be taken to bring children to the mainstream of education. Many other questions also arise while discussing the level of out-of-school children, these are; whether economic condition still holds a major role in school enrolment, whether accessibility has increased over time, whether children opt out-of-school due to unattractive curriculum, whether child labour and early marriages still prevalent in the society. Therefore, the characteristics of out-of-school children need to be examined in detail in order to have an idea how different socio-economic factors contribute to children who did not go to school, started school late or dropped out without completing the compulsory schooling. Objectives: This paper makes an attempt to examine the level, characteristics and factors associated with the children who are out-of-school in India with the most recent household survey. Methodology We have different sources of data available on educational performance at India and state level. Out of different data sources this study utilise the data from the District Level Household and Facility Survey (DLHS-3) which cover the period of 2007-08. The main advantage of this data set is that it provides household level information on educational attainment, which makes it possible, to relate school enrolment/attendance status of individuals with household and other socio-economic characteristics. Other surveys, which provide school level information only, don’t allow us to go beyond school level factors for analysis. The DLHS-3 surveyed more than 720,000 households from 601 districts of India. In DLHS-3 information was collected about school enrolment, current schooling status (continuing or dropout) along with the reasons of never enrolled to school and dropout. This study focus on the group of children who were either never enrolled in school or dropped out early, and term them as out-of-school children. Regression analysis has been applied to examine the association of different socio-economic and contextual variables with out-of-schoolchildrenin 10-14 age group. Analysis focused on 10-14 age group because it is the age when children are expected to attend school regularly; therefore it is important to examine the factors that keep children out of school. We applied two separate logistic regression models in order to examine the main determinants of out-of-school children in 10-14 age group. Out of these two models one is applied exclusively for rural set up in order to examine the association of place of residence with out-of-school children. In case of some rural areas, primary schooling may be the highest level of education available, and if an individual is not able to attend primary school, it will increase his probabilities of being illiterate for life. The logistic regression models include all possible information on economic and social conditions of the household to examine the influence on out-of-school children. In addition to other variables, we also examined the participation in education in the presence of adult literate female in a household. The DLHS-3 provides information on different reasons of never attended school and dropout. We classified the reasons for never attended school and dropout under three headings as economic and social reasons, individual related and school related reasons. The details of the classification of different reasons are given at the end of table 3. Results and DiscussionWe will discuss the results under three different sections. In the first section, we discuss the socio-economic differential among the out-of-school children. The second section discusses the factors that are associated with the school attendance of children. In the third section, we discuss the reasons that keep children out-of-school. The current scenario of out-of-school children in India: Socio economic differential among out-of-school children in the age groups 10-14 and 15-19 are presented in table 1. The out-of-school children include those who had never attended school and those who discontinued school without completing their education. The values obtained from the table show that nearly one third of boys and half of girls in 15-19 age group are out-of-school. The percentage of children who are out-of-school in 10-14 year age group has declined to one third of the percentage in 15-19 age group for both boys and girls. Even after the decline, still one tenth of the boys and more than 15 percent of girls in 10-14 year age group are out-of-school. Influence of place of residence in school attendance has also been observed as percentage of children out-of-school in rural areas has outnumbered those in urban areas for both boys and girls. Among different religions, Muslims have the highest percentage of children those who are out-of-school, more than twice the percentage in each of the other religions. This is very important to know why Muslim children, in particular, are not attending school. Economic status is another major factor in school attendance. There exists a huge gap among the rich and poor in terms of percentage of children who are not attending school. It is also important that, over time, there is a decline in percentage of children who are out-of-school in both the age groups, but the relative gap has widened instead of declining (table-1). International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 8 Table-1 Percentage of children out of the education system (Never attended + dropout), from different socio economic background, 2007-08 Background Characteristics 10-14 15-19 Male Female Male Female Place of residence Rural 11.2 17.2 34.3 51.8 Urban 9.4 10.3 28.8 33.3 Religion Hindu 9.8 14.9 31.3 46.7 Muslim 17.9 21.6 45.7 58.1 Christian 6.4 8.0 23.6 25.5 Others 8.4 11.2 26.7 30.7 Caste Group Scheduled Caste 12.9 18.2 38.7 52.1 Scheduled Tribe 13.5 18.7 34.5 46.1 Other Backward Classes 10.3 16.1 33.5 48.9 Others 7.6 9.1 23.5 32.6 Wealth Index Quintiles Poorest 22.2 32.2 55.2 74.5 Second 14.0 20.2 42.5 62.2 Middle 9.2 13.3 34.4 50.0 Fourth 6.2 7.7 26.1 35.9 Richest 2.2 3.1 11.1 14.3 Total 10.7 15.2 32.6 46.3 A-Percentage of children out-of-school in 15-19 age group . Percentage of children out-of-school in 10-14 age groupFigure-1 Pattern of out-of-school children in 10-14 and 15-19 year age group in Indian states International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 9 The State wise patterns of school continuation in the age groups 10-14 and 15-19 are presented in figure1. The level of out-of-school children in 15-19 age group is depicted through graph B and age 10-14 is presented in graph A. From the figure it can be said that, in 15-19 year age group, eight major states of India covering mostly the states of North and Central India had about half of the children who are out-of-school. The other graph shows a decline in percentage of children out-of-school, in the same states in 10-14 year age group, but still nearly one fourth of children are out-of-school. Few other major states viz. Assam, Karnataka, and Jharkhand have also shown remarkable progress in reducing the percentage of children who couldn’t attend school. Although there is decline in percentage of children who were either not enrolled or discontinued school, but in all the states approximately ten percent of children is out-of-school at the age when they should attend school regularly (figure 1). The detailed pattern of schooling for children at the states level is presented in table 2 and table 3. The results indicate that one tenth of children in 10-14 year age group are not attending school. It has also been observed that the major states of India also have the highest percentage of children who were never enrolled or dropouts. In addition to states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, which are comparatively less developed, some other more developed states like Gujarat and Karnataka also have more than 10 percent children in 10-14 year age group who are out of the education system (table 2 and table 3). Table-2 Schooling status for male in 10-14 age group by state, 2007-08 Rural Urban States Never Enrolled Dropout Currently Attending School Never Enrolled Dropout Currently Attending School India 5.3 5.9 88.8 4.2 5.2 90.6 Andhra Pradesh 4.1 8.7 87.2 2.6 5.5 91.8 Arunachal Pradesh 1.9 3.5 94.6 1.6 0.4 98.0 Assam 4.8 7.7 87.5 2.9 5.4 91.7 Bihar 9.7 5.0 85.2 7.6 5.4 87.0 Chhattisgarh 4.4 8.6 87.1 2.2 5.3 92.5 Delhi 7.6 4.6 87.8 2.9 4.1 93.1 Goa 1.0 0.5 98.5 1.3 0.0 98.7 Gujarat 4.4 9.2 86.4 2.8 5.6 91.6 Haryana 2.3 3.9 93.8 3.3 4.0 92.7 Himachal Pradesh 0.8 1.3 97.9 1.4 0.8 97.8 Jammu and Kashmir 1.8 1.8 96.4 2.7 2.5 94.8 Jharkhand 9.4 3.9 86.7 3.6 2.3 94.1 Karnataka 4.8 8.5 86.7 2.2 5.2 92.6 Kerala 0.4 0.6 99.0 0.1 0.1 99.7 Madhya Pradesh 8.1 6.4 85.5 3.7 5.8 90.5 Maharashtra 3.2 4.9 91.8 2.0 3.9 94.2 Manipur 2.1 2.1 95.7 1.0 2.9 96.1 Meghalaya 7.6 5.4 87.0 1.2 1.9 96.9 Mizoram 1.9 5.5 92.6 0.6 2.3 97.1 Orissa 7.8 10.2 82.0 3.6 10.3 86.1 Punjab 3.1 5.3 91.6 3.7 4.6 91.6 Rajasthan 6.5 5.5 88.0 4.9 4.3 90.8 Sikkim 3.8 6.0 90.2 1.7 4.8 93.5 Tamil Nadu 0.6 3.8 95.6 0.6 2.6 96.9 Tripura 4.8 4.3 90.9 2.9 5.4 91.7 Uttar Pradesh 5.4 6.7 87.8 10.8 9.8 79.4 Uttarakhand 1.4 1.3 97.3 1.6 4.3 94.1 West Bengal 5.5 12.6 81.9 3.8 9.7 86.5 International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 10 Table-3 Schooling status for female in 10-14 age group by state, 2007-08 States Rural Urban Never Enrolled Dropout Currently Attending School Never Enrolled Dropout Currently Attending School India 9.7 7.5 82.8 5.4 4.9 89.7 Andhra Pradesh 7.9 12.5 79.7 1.9 5.1 93.0 Arunachal Pradesh 3.6 2.9 93.6 6.7 0.9 92.3 Assam 6.3 7.3 86.4 4.3 4.9 90.8 Bihar 20.3 5.4 74.2 12.1 4.0 83.9 Chhattisgarh 9.0 10.4 80.5 2.7 5.5 91.7 Delhi 5.7 7.8 86.5 4.2 5.0 90.7 Goa 0.6 3.9 95.5 2.1 0.5 97.4 Gujarat 7.8 14.5 77.7 3.6 8.6 87.8 Haryana 6.1 7.1 86.8 4.3 4.1 91.7 Himachal Pradesh 0.8 2.3 96.9 0.8 1.2 98.0 Jammu and Kashmir 5.6 3.2 91.2 2.4 2.2 95.4 Jharkhand 16.5 4.2 79.3 4.5 1.5 94.0 Karnataka 7.7 11.1 81.2 3.6 4.7 91.6 Kerala 0.3 0.7 99.0 0.0 0.2 99.8 Madhya Pradesh 11.2 8.2 80.6 4.1 6.0 89.9 Maharashtra 4.9 8.0 87.1 1.4 4.4 94.2 Manipur 3.7 3.2 93.0 1.8 1.6 96.6 Meghalaya 6.7 4.2 89.2 2.2 2.0 95.8 Mizoram 2.2 5.6 92.3 0.3 3.1 96.6 Orissa 14.7 11.5 73.7 5.0 7.3 87.7 Punjab 3.5 8.1 88.4 4.0 4.6 91.3 Rajasthan 17.9 9.9 72.2 7.6 5.4 87.0 Sikkim 3.1 3.5 93.4 7.9 3.0 89.1 Tamil Nadu 1.0 5.1 94.0 0.5 2.6 96.9 Tripura 7.5 5.0 87.5 2.2 4.5 93.3 Uttar Pradesh 10.7 8.5 80.7 13.4 7.9 78.8 Uttarakhand 2.4 3.7 94.0 1.3 2.7 96.0 West Bengal 7.4 9.7 82.9 4.9 6.7 88.4 Factors associated with school attendance of children: Table 4 gives the odds ratio associated with different factors that affect schooling of children. Model 1 shows the likelihood of being out-of-school for children from different socio-economic background while Model 2 gives the odds ratio for out-of-school in rural areas. The most significant finding from the analysis is that the urban poor has the highest probability for not going to school, even higher than children living in rural areas with poor economic status. Thus, it may be said that interaction of place of residence and economic status has a more influential impact on schooling of the child than the impact of either place of residence or economic status. For example, we may mention that urban poor have nearly 5 times higher risk of being out-of-school which is even higher than the probability of not going to school for poor children of rural areas. These results suggest that poor people particularly in urban areas are the most underprivileged when it comes to sending their child to school. The results of the analysis draw attention to a very motivating fact that the presence of literate female in a household may significantly reduce the chances of being out-of-school for a child. This has been observed in both models. On the basis of the results, we may say that if mother is literate, the child is more likely to be enrolled in school. Significant decline in the likelihood of out-of-school has been observed even if the literate female is any other member of the family but not mother of the chid. The results indicate that the literate female need not necessarily be the mother of the child to influence his/ her school attendance. These findings clearly indicate the importance of female literacy in improving overall levels of education through better education of children (table 4). Rich poor gap in out-of-school is clearly observed within rural areas. The estimated probabilities of out-of-school are very high in lower wealth quintiles than the richest wealth quintile. The results further suggest that, in rural areas infrastructure related International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 11 variables are also important because all weather road connectivity to the nearby areas has a significant association with schooling. Thus, we may say that, if rural areas are well connected to the nearest town or the place where schools are located, percentage of out-of-school are most likely to come down (table 4). Further we observe that among the religions, children belonging to Muslim religion have the highest probabilities of never going to school while children belonging to other religions are less likely to be never enrolled in school than Hindu. For comparing caste groups, we considered ‘others’ as the reference category. From the results, we may say that the three caste groups i.e. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes show higher probabilities of never attended school for both male and female compared to the reference category (table 4). Table-4 Odds ratio for out-of-school children in 10-14 age group, 2007-08 Background Characteristics Model 1 Model 2 EXP(B) Exp(B) Place of residence Urban ® 1.000 - Rural 0.730 *** (0.685, 0.779) - Sex Male ® 1.000 1.000 Female 1.605 *** (1.566, 1.645) 1.743 *** (1.686, 1.801) Religion Hindu ® 1.000 1.000 Muslim 2.239 *** (2.164, 2.316) 2.328 *** (2.221, 2.440) Christian 0.663 *** (0.619, 0.710) 0.689 *** (0.621, 0.766) Others 0.921 *** (0.866, 0.979) 1.061 (0.977, 1.154) Caste Group Scheduled Caste 1.660 *** (1.590, 1.733) 1.644 *** (1.550, 1.744) Scheduled Tribe 1.885 *** (1.805, 1.969) 1.787 *** (1.680, 1.900) Other Backward Classes 1.294 *** (1.247, 1.343) 1.315 *** (1.249, 1.384) Others ® 1.000 1.000 Wealth Quintile Poorest - 8.882 *** (7.749, 10.179) Second - 5.290 *** (4.615, 6.064) Middle - 3.257 *** (2.837, 3.739) Fourth - 1.873 *** (1.622, 2.163) Richest ® - 1.000 Combined effect of Residence and Wealth Quintile Rural Poor 4.093 *** (3.900, 4.295) - Rural Middle 1.901 *** (1.799, 2.008) - Rural Rich - - Urban Poor 4.945 *** (4.568, 5.353) - Urban Middle 2.600 *** (2.397, 2.820) - Urban Rich ® 1.000 - Adult female literacy No adult female is literate ® 1.000 1.000 Mother is literate 0.272 *** (0.261, 0.284) 0.301 *** (0.283, 0.319) Mother illiterate but other 0.524 *** (0.487, 0.564) 0.581 *** (0.521, 0.649) adult women is literate Distance to the nearest town Within 5 km ® 1.000 5-10 km - 1.007 (0.970, 1.047) More than 10 km - 1.027 (0.985, 1.072) All weather Road Connectivity No - 1.192 *** (1.139, 1.247) Yes ® - 1.000 Significance Level: ***p.01; ®: Reference category, Values in parenthesis gives the 99% CI for Exp(B) International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 12 What keeps children out-of-school: Reasons of never attended school and dropout for male and female are presented in table 5. On the basis of the results of our analysis, we may say that household economic condition is important for school enrolment since majority of the respondents agreed that children couldn’t attend school owing to economic inability to support the schooling. This trend is observed throughout all categories of background characteristics. It may be possible that the family need support from their children to bear the economic burden or to take care of their younger siblings so that parents may devote completely on wage earning. Household economic condition remains the major contributor in school dropout as well, although there is a decline in terms of percentage points. It indicates that other factors also come into play when it comes to school dropout. In this regard, earlier studies suggest proper implementation of government schemes which focus on employment generation, so that families may focus on the education of their children17. Individual interest and school related factors have comparatively greater contribution in dropout than it had in enrolment. The second important factor associated with never enrolled and dropout is individual related factors. The individual related factors include some sensitive issues like, not interested in studies, repeated failure and one specific reason for girls ‘got married’. It also gives rise to some important discussions that why children may be not interested in studies and whether still early marriage exist in India. All these factors need to be considered carefully while discussing about children who couldn’t attend school in India (table 5). In addition to all other factors, peer group influence in adolescence is another important factor that may lead to school dropout18. Although peer group influence is considered as an important factor, but this study could not examine its association with out-of-school children due to lack of data. Table-5 Reasons of being out-of-school for male by socio economic background, 2007-08 Background Characteristics Male Female Never attended school Dropout Never attended school Dropout Economic Individual* School Economic Individual ** School Economic Individual * School Economic Individual ** School Type of locality Rural 71.5 21.8 6.7 58.9 32.3 8.9 78.1 13.2 8.6 62.5 25.5 11.9 Urban 75.7 21.8 2.5 57.5 31.7 10.7 83.4 12.0 4.6 69.9 19.4 10.6 Religion Hindu 71.2 22.8 6.0 57.0 33.8 9.2 78.4 13.4 8.2 63.0 25.5 11.5 Muslim 74.8 20.8 4.5 61.6 28.5 10.0 80.3 12.6 7.1 66.3 21.6 12.1 Christian 72.1 18.2 9.8 62.2 25.7 12.1 77.8 13.6 8.6 58.6 25.5 15.8 Others 77.7 16.4 5.9 67.6 26.1 6.3 84.0 8.7 7.4 78.4 10.2 11.4 Caste Scheduled Caste 73.8 21.7 4.5 58.2 34.6 7.2 79.5 13.4 7.1 63.3 26.6 10.0 Scheduled Tribe 70.9 20.3 8.9 57.1 31.2 11.7 77.9 12.7 9.5 61.9 24.0 14.0 Other Backward Classes 73.1 23.0 4.0 57.6 33.9 8.5 80.4 12.4 7.2 64.2 24.3 11.5 Others 71.1 23.2 5.7 63.5 26.0 10.5 76.1 15.1 8.8 68.4 20.5 11.2 Wealth Index Quintile Poorest 73.2 19.6 7.2 58.9 34.2 6.9 79.1 11.9 9.0 62.9 26.1 10.9 Second 72.3 23.3 4.4 61.9 28.9 9.2 78.6 14.2 7.3 65.6 24.7 9.7 Middle 71.7 24.3 4.0 55.9 34.4 9.8 79.4 14.4 6.2 61.2 25.6 13.2 Fourth 71.6 24.5 3.9 53.4 34.8 11.8 80.0 13.6 6.3 69.1 15.3 15.6 Richest 65.3 30.2 4.5 54.2 17.1 28.7 79.4 13.6 7.0 62.8 17.8 19.4 Total 72.5 21.8 5.7 58.6 32.1 9.3 79.1 13.0 7.9 64.0 24.3 11.7 Note: Economic: Economic and Social Reasons, Individual: Individual Related Reasons, School: School Related Reasons. Economic and Social Reasons: Education not considered necessary, Required for household work, required for work on farm/family business, required for care of sibling, required for outside work for payment in cash or kind, cost too much. *Individual Related Reasons for never attended school: Not interested in studies, **Individual Related Reasons for dropout: Not safe to send girls, not interested in studies, repeated failures, got married. School Related Reasons: School too far away, transport not available, No proper school facilities for girls. International Research Journal of Social Sciences__ Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) International Science Congress Association The analysis on reasons of never attended school and dropout clearly point out that the economic and social reasons are the most important in deciding whether the child will be enrolled, continue education or discontinue school. Therefore, we further exami ned the economic and social reasons in detail. The results on economic and social reasons of never enrolled in school and dropout are presented in figure2 and figure3. A. Reasons for never attended school for male B. reasons for never attended school for female Figure-2 Social and economic reasons for never attended school for male and female The analysis suggests that, cost of schooling and helping parents in household work are the two most important reasons due to which children (both male an d female) were not enrolled in school. Another important finding is that nearly one fourth of parents don’t consider education as a necessity for their children. This gives rise to many other questions; like, what are the possible factors that lead to the decision of not sending children to school, whether the parents who did not end their children to school, have been deprived of education or they could not find a suitable job even after required knowledge and qualification. It has also been observed that, while boys are supposed to provide financial assistance by working outside the house, girls are confined to household activities. The reasons of school dropout 2320111234 Education Not Considered Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work On Farm/Family Business Required for Outside Work For Payment In Cash Or Kind Cost Too Much Required For Care of Siblings 253130 Education Not Considered Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work On Farm/Family Business Required for Outside Work For Payment In Cash Or Kind Cost Too Much Required For Care of Siblings Sciences__ ______________________________________ ___________ International Science Congress Association The analysis on reasons of never attended school and dropout clearly point out that the economic and social reasons are the most important in deciding whether the child will be enrolled, continue education or discontinue school. Therefore, we further ned the economic and social reasons in detail. The results on economic and social reasons of never enrolled in school and A. Reasons for never attended school for male school for female Social and economic reasons for never attended school for The analysis suggests that, cost of schooling and helping parents in household work are the two most important reasons due to d female) were not enrolled in school. Another important finding is that nearly one fourth of parents don’t consider education as a necessity for their children. This gives rise to many other questions; like, what are the decision of not sending children to school, whether the parents who did not end their children to school, have been deprived of education or they could not find a suitable job even after required knowledge and qualification. It while boys are supposed to provide financial assistance by working outside the house, girls are confined to household activities. The reasons of school dropout suggest that for female, household activity and cost of schooling are the most important factor s. On the other hand, for male, all the factors work simultaneously to result in dropout. All these analysis point to the fact that a sizeable proportion of households is still economically not sound enough to support the education of their child. On the o ther way, it may also be said that education is still a luxury in the society (figure 2 and figure 3). A. Reasons of school dropout for male B. Reasons of school dropout for female Figure - Social and economic reasons of school dropout for male and f emale Conclusion In this study, we examined the level and pattern of out children in India and the associated factors. The study considered children who were either never enrolled or dropped out before completing education as ‘out finds that , although the percentage of children who are not attending school has declined, but it is quite high in absolute terms. According to the projected population for India, the 10 19 year age group in 2011 has 240,304,000 persons of which 124,797,000 are male , and 115,507,000 are female. If the trend which has been observed from the study continues, then a large part of the population will remain illiterate or will be school dropouts. One of the common characteristic of out Education Not Considered Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work On Farm/Family Business Required for Outside Work For Payment In Cash Or Kind Cost Too Much Required For Care of Siblings Education Not Considered Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work On Farm/Family Business Required for Outside Work For Payment In Cash Or Kind Cost Too Much Required For Care of Siblings 1512182212 172312 ___________ ISSN 2319–3565 Int. Res. J. Social Sci. 13 suggest that for female, household activity and cost of schooling s. On the other hand, for male, all the factors work simultaneously to result in dropout. All these analysis point to the fact that a sizeable proportion of households is still economically not sound enough to support the education of ther way, it may also be said that education is still a luxury in the society (figure 2 and figure 3). A. Reasons of school dropout for male B. Reasons of school dropout for female - 3 Social and economic reasons of school dropout for male and emale In this study, we examined the level and pattern of out -of-school children in India and the associated factors. The study considered children who were either never enrolled or dropped out before completing education as ‘out -of-school’. The study , although the percentage of children who are not but it is quite high in absolute According to the projected population for India, the 10 - 19 year age group in 2011 has 240,304,000 persons of which , and 115,507,000 are female. If the trend which has been observed from the study continues, then a large part of the population will remain illiterate or will be school dropouts. One of the common characteristic of out -of-school 20 Further Education Not Considere Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work on Farm/ Family Business Required For Outside Work For Payment in Cash or Kind Cost Too Much Required for Care of Siblings 35 Further Education Not Considere Necessary Required For Household Work Required For Work on Farm/ Family Business Required For Outside Work For Payment in Cash or Kind Cost Too Much Required for Care of Siblings International Research Journal of Social Sciences___________________________________________________ISSN 2319–3565Vol. 2(5), 6-14, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci.International Science Congress Association 14 children is their residential background. It may be said that rural residence is an obstacle in enrolment and retention of children because the magnitude of out-of-school children is high in rural areas than urban areas. Another important finding of the study is that, the urban poor have the highest risk to remain out-of-school. It may be an indication that, although the place of residence is important but interaction of place of residence with wealth quintile is more important as a determinant of schooling. Enrolling the child to school is not the only responsibility, it is also important that children complete their education. One encouraging finding of the study is that the presence of adult literate female in a household helps in reducing the level of out-of-school children irrespective of residence background. Thus, we may say that, improvement in female literacy may be an important factor for improvement of overall literacy level of the country. The study further suggests that road connectivity is also an important factor leading to children being out-of-school in rural areas. Household economic condition has been identified as the most important reason of never enrolled and dropout. Further we observe that relatively higher percentages of girls are out-of-school due to economic and social reasons than boys. This finding is also supported by some earlier studies5,19 which also suggests, that, family size and income have a greater effect on schooling of the girl child in the family than boys. The present study also suggests that daughters have to withdraw from school in order to attend to younger siblings or help in different household activities while boys had to generate additional income to add to the family’s economic resources. In some cases, perception of parents regarding safety of their daughters’ may also lead to discontinuation of school. 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