Majority of children drop out in Topsia

ONE OUT of every two children in Topsia, near Kolkata, does not have the access to education. Topsia has four government schools for 3250 students in Ward number 59, therefore the demand for education is more than what the government is actually providing. Here, a majority of the children drop out of school even before they reach Class V.

“Our school has no affiliation, though we have been trying hard to get registered since 2003. Hence, our students, do not get an opportunity to study anywhere else. They don’t get admission. Our students are facing a big hindrance to pursue higher studies. They have high ambitions like every other children but due to acute inadequacy they are obliged to drop out from the pursuit of education,” said Kishwar Sultana, principal of Aulad Hussain Islamic Academy, Topsia.

Topsia has a school at every corner of the street, but most of them are ‘Urdu’ medium schools; the problem is that there are no ‘Urdu’ medium higher secondary schools. Hence when students pass their class X examinations from these schools, their further education is automatically blocked due to lack of convergence of the medium of education.

“In Topsia the drop out rates are extremely high, the main reason being financial problems and the unawareness of our community. People here are primarily workers with a below average income, so providing education to five children in one family becomes a difficult task; the parents rather prefer sending their children to work. Moreover the common perception is that due to structural discrimination, the people here rarely get government jobs; so the poor parents think that it’s waste of money to send their children to schools, because they see no future. We need government aid for developing the current educational system,” said FA Kubhai, principal of Huda Public school.

Over 65 per cent of the children who drop out of school are girls and the reasons mostly being privacy and security problems. They mostly lack the support of their family members, since parents are not very keen on educating the girl child. The primary reason for boys’ dropping out is the poor financial status of their families, which compels them to earn a living at a tender age, when they ought to be enrolled in schools.

Source: http://www.merinews.com

Date: 12th March, 2010

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