Abstract:

Imparting primary education to the tribal children in India has more challenges than opportunities. High rates of school dropout are a silent epidemic afflicting a nation’s development. The problem is even more acute among the indigenous people. India has the single largest tribal population in the world. The tribal constitute 8.6% of the total population in India and their education is extremely important in the overall process of development. Despite huge investment in education and numerous flagship programs, high dropout rate still exists among tribal due to various reasons. The push and pull factors like availability of teachers, language barrier, illiteracy among parents, poverty, and poor infrastructure in the school among others contribute equally to end the journey of education prematurely for many tribal children. Although there are many factors responsible for high rates of dropout, there is no holistic model available to assess the causes and consequences of dropout. In the present study, the investigators have followed a systematic review of literature focusing on published case-studies on dropout, field-observations and semi-structured interviews of the teachers and parents in four select blocks of a tribal dominated district of an Indian state of Odisha to examine the causes and consequences of dropout. After an overall analysis of the study of the causes and consequences of dropout, we developed a four-dimensional (Bio-psychological, Socio-cultural, Institutional and Economic) model of causes and consequences of school dropout. Next, we tested the model with 125 stakeholders associated with primary school in the tribal region to examine the causes along with the positive and negative consequences of dropout. The results reveled teenage pregnancy (98.4%) –a Bio-psychological dimension, child marriage (96.2%)- a Socio-cultural dimension, non- availability of mid-day meal (96.8%) –an Institutional dimension and unstable source of earning (99.2%) -an Economic dimension) to be the modal causes of school dropout among the tribal. Involvement in consumption of drugs and alcohol (55.2%) –a Bio-psychological dimension, economic pressure on family as unproductive consumers (55.2%) –a Socio-cultural dimension, prone to child trafficking (97.6%) -an Institutional dimension and engagement in low paid work (99.2%) –an Economic dimension to be the key Negative consequences of school dropout among the tribal children. The Positive consequences of dropping out of school involves generation of Self Employment (56.8%) -a Bio-psychological dimension, engagement in the agriculture (94.4%) –a Socio-Cultural dimension, smooth running of the school (44%) –an Institutional Dimension and work to have some additional income (79.2%) –an Economic Dimension. The proposed model can be used by future researchers, policy makers and executives to assess the causes of dropout and suggest methods to address the short-and long-term consequences.

Keywords:

Dropout, Primary, School, Tribal.