'Lack Of Interest' Is Why Children Are Dropping Out of School: NFHS-5 Report

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya released the National Report of the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) in the presence of Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat and Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, at the 'Swasthya Chintan Shivir' being held at Vadodara, Gujarat recently. The report comprises of detailed information on key domains of population, health and family welfare and associated domains like characteristics of the population; fertility; family planning; infant and child mortality; maternal and child health; nutrition and anaemia; morbidity and healthcare; women’s empowerment etc.

In the report it stated that the most common reason reported for children dropping out of school is not cost or access, but a lack of interest in studies, according to the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5, conducted in 2019-21. Indeed, this was the main reason found for children abandoning their education in previous rounds of the survey as well.

According to NFHS-5, “not interested in studies” was the reason given by 21.4 per cent of girls and 35.7 per cent of boys aged between six to 17 years for dropping out of school before the 2019-20 school year.

The study, conducted under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by the Mumbai-based International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), had surveyed 20,084 boys and 21,851 girls on their reasons for dropping out.

While the NFHS does not mention India’s dropout rate, the Ministry of Education’s statistics present a worrying picture, especially for students in higher classes.The latest data released by the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) in 2020-21 shows that at the primary level, the dropout rate in 2020-21 was only 0.8 per cent, but at the secondary level (Class 9-10), it was 14.6 per cent.

Although it is an improvement from 16.1 per cent in 2019-20, it still translates to lakhs of students.The top reason for dropping out, as mentioned earlier, is “not interested in studies”, with boys (nearly 36 per cent of respondents) much less enthused than girls (about 21 per cent).

The next most frequently cited factor was cost, with about 16 per cent of boys and 20 per cent of girls surveyed attributing dropping out to it.

Next in the list was “required for household work”, due to which about 13 per cent of girls and 10 per cent boys had to abandon their education.

Family’s attitudes towards the child’s education and gender roles also appear to play a role in school dropout rates.

NFHS-5 data shows that about 7 per cent of the surveyed girls had to drop out from school because they got married, while the same reason applied to 0.3 per cent of boys.

Similarly, about 6 per cent of boys (but only 2.5 per cent of girls) left school to “work for payment in cash or kind”, while 4.4 per cent of boys and 2.3 per cent of girls were required to work on for their farm or family business.

“Did not get admission” was cited by about 5 per cent each of boys and girls. Some students also quit school due to “repeated failures” (about 5 per cent for boys and 4 per cent of girls) and roughly 4 per cent of each gender felt further education was “not necessary”.

Distance from school isn’t a big deal-breaker for students as only 2 per cent boys and 6 per cent girls cited it as the reason for dropping out.

Other reasons listed for dropping out for girls included lack of proper facilities (1.7 per cent), no female teacher (0.2 per cent), and safety concerns (2 per cent).

A tiny percentage claimed they didn’t know why they weren’t in school any longer (0.2 per cent each).

Less than 1 per cent of students said they left school to take care of siblings or due to a natural disaster/calamity.

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