Socio-cultural issues & impacts on dropouts in the high school level of education: the ethnographic studies and its anthropological significance

Introduction

A drop out is defined as any students who leaves school for any reason before graduation or completion of a program of studies without transferring to another elementary or secondary schools. (http://web. nmsu. edu/~ruchavez/publications/Dropping%20out%20of%20School. doc) The number of drop outs from a single age group or specific grade of students over a period of time. The number of students in a particular grade span dropping out in one year divided by a measure of the total students in that particular grade span. This event rate, also known as the duplicate rate, does not count the number of students dropping out, but the number of occurrences of drop out. For example, if a student dropped out in more than one year, he would be reported as a drop out in each of the years. A cumulative rate is much higher than the event rate. The status dropout rate denotes the proportion of all individuals. in the population who have not completed high school and were not enrolled at a given point in time. (http://www. ncset. org/publications/essentialtools/dropout/part1. 2. asp) A drop out is a student who was enrolled at same time during the previous school year but who was not enrolled on day 20 of the current year school. A single individual may be conducted as a drop out more than once it he drops out of school in multiple years. Drop out events do not include students below the compulsory school age or students in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. A drop-out is defined as any student who leaves school for any reason before graduation or completion of a program of studies without transferring to another elementary or secondary schools. (http://web. nmsu. edu/~ruchavez/publications/Dropping%20out%20of%20School. doc)

The number of drop – outs from a single age group or specific grade of students over a period of time. The number of students in a particular grade span dropping out in one year divided by a measure of the total students in that particular grade span.

This event rate, also known as the duplicate rate, does not count the number of students dropping out, but the number of occurrences of drop – out. For example, if a student dropped out in more than one year, he would be reported as a drop – out in each of the years.

A cumulative rate is much higher than the event rate. The status of drop – out rate denotes the proportion of all individuals. In the population who have not completed high school and were not enrolled at a given point of time.

In English the term “ Education” has been derived from two Latin words Educare (Educere) and Educatum. “ Educare” means to train or mould. It again means to bring up or to lead out or to draw out, propulsion from inward to outward. The term “ Educatum” denotes the act of teaching. It throws light on the principles and practice of teaching. The term Educare or Educere mainly indicates development of the latent faculties of the child. But child does not know these possibilities. It is the educator or the teacher who can know these and take appropriate methods to develop those powers. In Hindi, the term “ Siksha” has come from the Sanskrit word “ Shash”. “ Shash” means to discipline, to control, to order, to direct, to rule etc. Education in the traditional sense means controlling or disciplining the behavior of an individual. In Sanskrit “ Shiksha” is a particular branch of the Sutra literature, which has six branches –Shiksh, Chhanda, Byakarana, Nirukta, Jyotisha and Kalpa. The Sutra literature was designed to learn the Vedas. Siksha denotes rules of pronunciation.

There is another term in Sanskrit, which throws light on the nature of education. It is “ Vidya” which means knowledge. The term “ Vidya” has originated from “ Bid” meaning knowledge. If we mention certain definitions of education of great educators of the East and the West, we may have a clear picture of the nature and meaning of the term education.

Aims and Objectives

The main objectives of the present study are as follows–

• The socio cultural issues behind the dropping out of the students of that level of education.
• The impacts of socio cultural factors issues on the drop outs.
• To propose some suggestions as policy measures for the welfare of the drop outs from the end of the present researcher.

Methodology

In order to reach at the proposed aims and objectives, the present researchers have spent time reading what other researchers have written about the present area of interest. The data have been collected through secondary sources like journals, books, newspapers, internet sources and administrative materials etc.

Discussions and Interpretations

The Socio-cultural Issues of Dropouts – the contexts of studies: the socio-cultural issues regarding the high school dropouts are one of the vital aspects of school education which has the relevance of studying the same in Educational Ethnography. The issues as carried out in the present observation vary in culture to culture. As per requirement of the present observation, discussions and interpretations, the present authors try to incorporate the important anthropological as well as ethnographic studies through the following section.

Literature Review (Global Context)

De-sauce, Samoa-c (1909) had sorted their research work about drop out children in upper primary level in West Virginia confiner to have one of the nation’s highest school dropout rates. In that study an ordinary least squares regression method was used to examine the implication of high school dropout in the economic development of west Bengal.

Pillai, Benjamin & Nair (1980) started their research work about the student engagement and its define that the main reason for dropout were ill-health household work and poverty.

Autar (1986) started their research work about drop-outer of high school and why? The researchers define that the main reason for drop-out of school facilities, teacher, attitude etc.

Kattar (1998) started their research work about when can school affect schooldrop-out behaviour? It was a longitudinal multilevel analysis. The researcher defined that major reason behind drop-out of such as child labor, low parental income, no tutorial support etc.

Obsohan Austin (1999) started their research work about “ impacts of drop-out prevention program; final report.” The researcher define that low literacy rate and the lack of consciousness about the education in the main cure of school drop-out.

Literature Review (Indian Context)

Chatterjee, B. (1975) in “ school drop-outer among Harijan children causer and care” studied the backwardness in education indicate that the economic and occupational status of the homes’ children came from the social class and neighbour have they belong to religious, caste and ethnic affiliation and above all their culture are factors that singly or in combination influence access to and performance in education the gist of the findings is that it is largely poverty that forces schedule caste children to give school.

Namita Pandey (1980) in her “ Study irregular attendance at school climate support for SC students”, examines the relationship between perception of school climate and attendance regularly of scheduled and non scheduled caste children.

Krishna Rao (1986) “ A case study of seven Tribal areas school in Assam” he studied different types of school such as primary Ashram Schools, Govt. High School, Tribal Welfare high School etc.

A. P. Barua, (1990) under look his study with he major objective of comparing the wastage sub division of Sivasagarand Golghat. Helod found the poverty and ignorance of the parents, poor health of pupils, bad family, environment, attending the social festival are the main characteristics of their dropping out.

Latchanna G. (1996) in his “ A comparative study of Grade repeaters and drop out in tribe and non tribal primary school” studied the problems relating to primary education of tribal and non tribal children enrolled in the backward area of Sri-Kulane. The main objective of the studies was to examine the causes of stagnation and to esteem the wastage.

Conclusion

The findings of the study indicate that the low literacy rate and guardian consciousness were increased the dropouts rate of the schools. But the present authors think that the distance between the school and house is a another reason for dropout. Because various number of students do not have any cycle and the fees of the higher education is a factor to increasing the dropout rate. On the other hand, as the number of economically active members of house holds increases, the likely hood of primary school dropout increases other factors held unchanged. This implies that a good number of the economically active people are actually unproductive. These findings points to the need to expand employment opportunities, especially for the youth. As a result of all these researches, the following conclusions arise:

• It has been confirmed that there is a strong connection between the family environment and the rate of school drop-out.
• The family related factors (standards of living, parent – child relationship) represent the main causes of drop-outs.
• School drop-out rate is highest in the poorer families.
• The low standards of living, as well as school drop-out are due to the same factors: low income, low educational abilities of the parents, no work place, excessive consumption of alcohol, divorce.
• Using teenagers in rural areas for labor is one more causes for school drop-out.
• Difficulties in learning and the lack of support, on the part of the parents, can also lead to school failure and drop-out.

According to present study the present authors would like to give some suggestions to prevent the drop-out in the high school level:

• To organize the awareness camp about school education.
• Give priority for the students in the education system.
• To help the students to prevent the fear among the education system.
• To aware their family about the education system in the primary to Madhyamik level.

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1. https://consult. education. gov. uk/…in…family…/Revised%20Family%20and%20friends (Accession date: December 14th, 2017)
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