The Problems of School Drop Outs among Minorities with Special Reference to Muslims in India

50 The Problems of School Drop Outs among Minorities with Special Reference to Muslims in India Dr. Mujibul Hasan Siddiqui, Department of Education, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India ABSTRACT This paper highlights the problems of school dropouts among minorities with special reference to Muslims in India. According to C.V Good (1973) states that Most often designates an elementary or Secondary School pupil who has been in membership during the regular school term and who withdraws or is dropped from membership for any reason except death or transfer to another school before graduating or before completing an equivalent progress of studies; such an individual is considered a dropout whether his dropping out occurs before or after he has passed the compulsory school attendance age and, where applicable, whether or not he has completed a minimum required amount of School Work. Dropouts in rural areas are more in comparison to urban areas.there are several reasons for dropouts among the Muslims in India like low percapita income, low socio-economic status, children engaged in household activities, unawareness about the importance of education, large family size, many problems of schools, social problems like insecurity of girls,etc.this paper also highlights the remedial measures for removing the problems of dropouts among Muslims in India like increasing awareness of the importance of education, dynamic Muslim leadership, providing financial help etc. INTRODUCTION It is undeniable fact that not only for access of formal education, literacy is very important for maintaining good quality of the life of human beings throughout the world and the functional literacy plays significant role in this direction. Without making the people literate we can t think about any kind of education. In true sense education constitutes good awareness, knowledge,understanding, application, skill, values and attitude, aptitude and ultimately peace among the peoples of any country of the whole world. Education is a fundamental pillar of human rights, democracy, sustainable development and peace. According to National Policy of Education (NPE) 1996 Some minority groups are educationally deprived or backward. Greater attention will be paid to the education of these groups in the interests of equality and social justice. Even today, Indian population is legging behind in the field of Universalisation of Elementary Education and hundred percent literacy upto the age level of 14 years. Today we are having more than 64 percent literacy rate only in our country. Drop out is a great problem in Indian Education System in each and every level of schooling. If the education system of our country have become good and approachable with best facilities to each and every child of the Nation then there is no any problem of wastage and stagnation, drop out is one of them. It is general phenomena that drop out exists in each and every class level of schooling but high rate of drop out is dangerous for the existing education system and for the society as a whole. In our country the drop out means that leaving of the students from school before completing five years of Primary education and eight year elementary education. In the field of education, well accepted dictionary of Education by C.V. Good (1973) states that Most often designates an elementary or Secondary School pupil who has been in membership during the regular school term and who withdraws or is dropped from membership for any reason except death or transfer to another school before graduating or before completing an equivalent progress of studies; such an individual is considered a dropout whether his dropping out occurs before or after he has passed the compulsory school attendance age and, where applicable, whether or not he has completed a minimum required amount of School Work. From this well accepted definition of drop out, the following derivations have been made which are as under: 1. The student may leave the school either without completing, primary, elementary,secondary or any other level of schooling. 2. The students may leave the school for any reasons other than death or transfer to another school. 3. The students may leave the school during the academic session or between the terms of the academic session. 4. The students may leave the school before or after passing the compulsory school attendance age. Since independence, due to the worst and alarming situation of this dropout among boys and girls, the constructors of our Indian Constitution had incorporated

51 that the Education up to the age of 14 years must be compulsory and free for the sake of universalization of elementary education in our country. The Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1966, stated that it is the responsibility of the educational system to bring different social classes and groups together to promote the emergence of an egalitarian and integrated society. But unfortunately the educational development is very poor in India. Various efforts have been taken in the post-independent period to spread education among the masses. But result is not very satisfactory, specially in the context of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, minorities and other backward communities or weaker sections. A sample survey on educational status of the Muslim minority in some selected regions of India reveal the facts that, the enrolment of the Muslim students at school level is about 12.39 per cent and its dropout rate about 64.82 per cent. In West Bengal the enrolment figure of the Muslim students is about 46.38 per cent with a dropout rate of 58.97 per cent. INDICATORS OF SOME RESEARCH STUDIES There are several research studies have been conducted in the area of Dropout in our country. Some of the research studies very related to the Muslim School going students projected the situation of dropout which are as under: Punelekar (1975) finds economic hardship of the family, domestic exigencies like ill health, unawareness of the School programme and activities, no information to parents about child s classroom behaviour; performance & the like as main reasons for school drop-out among Harijan children. Indra Kumari (1976) finds several socio-structural and institutional factors in the Muslim community which responsible for dropout of education among women.in the factors she includes practice of seclusion, early marriage, low level of aspiration and subordinate role assigned to Muslim women. Pillai, Banjamin & Nair (1980) find ill health, house hold work and poverty as main reasons for dropouts in Primary education in Kerala. They include large size of the family and lack of education being influential in dropouts. They also find that it was higher among boys than girls. Sarkar (1980) finds that domestic work, accounts to 70% of the female dropout, inadequate income for living accounts for two-third of the female dropout and 80% of the male-dropout, and guardian s lack of interest and low marriage age of girls as the causes of drop-out. Shrivastava & Gupta (1980) found in the survey of the dropout children in the age group six to fourteen years in Ferozpur District. i) Number of dropout was high in rural areas than in urban areas, ii) Educational background of the parents was very poor due to dropouts iii) Parents of dropouts were economically backward, iv) The parents felt need of child to work in house, unsympathetic teachers, dull curriculum, lack of utility of education, lack of interest in education and texts-book, lack of separate schools for girls and narrow outlook of parents were main reason of dropout. Joshi (1981) finds the following reasons leading to dropout for certain tribe groups in Trivandrum District. i) Unfavourable attitude of the teachers the education of tribal children. ii) Poverty, ignorance of parents, child labour and parents compulsory among the factors responsible. Mohan (1981) found poor achievement motivation, highly neurotic condition and choices of subjects of learning as the main cause for withdrawl at the secondary stage. Vathsala (1981) made a study of potential drop-out at Middle School level and reached to the following conclusion : i) They hailed from poor, illiterate wife-learning families. ii) Poor achievement in reading and number abilities and failure were associated with them. iii) Potential dropout girls from large families. iv) They were neurotics, had lower self-acceptance and achievement motivation. v) They were more in rural schools than urban schools, vi) Dropouts disliked the school. vii) The other factors were Scholastic achievement, educational, social and economic status of parents, teacher-peer influence and stagnation. Mathur, Jain & Rahim (1982) concluded the following for the drop out of Rural youths: i) Most of the parents felt that the school learning were not suitable and did provide adequate opportunity to the children to be helpful in their family occupation. ii) The rate of dropout at Primary level was relatively high as compared to that at high school level. iii) The period of vocational classes in schools did not fall in line with the work pattern of agricultural families. iv) The major reasons for discontinuation of studies were parental ignorance of the value of education,

52 involvement in work, lack of interest in studies and failure in Examination. v) Poor economic conditions of families was mainly responsible for withdrawing children from school. Shah (l983) found in his study of Dropping out of children from Municipal & Local Authority Schools in Greater Bombay & Thana District: i) In Urdu medium municipal schools, the rate of dropout was the highest in standard I in 1975-76, in standard II in 1974-75, in standard III in 1974-75, in standard IV in 1976-77. ii) In English medium school highest in standard I, high standard V, the lowest in standard VI. iii) The highest among labourers, domestic trouble like ill health of parents, need to look after younger brothers or sisters and taking jobs responsible for dropout. Khanna (1983) found the following reasons for the girls drop-out in Delhi School. (i) The girl dropouts belonged to nuclear families of seven members on an average and with Rs.3000/-as an annual income. (ii) Parents wish was the most common reason as the girls had entered puberty. (iii) Parents were illiterate. (iv) Muslim parents sent them to special centres where they learnt to read the Holy Qur an. (v) 71% of girl dropout were oldest in the family and 29% were fully involved in house hold affairs. Gopal (1984) in his socio-psychological study of High Court Dropout found: (i) Male dropouts were low in intelligence, aggressive in nature, tough minded, uncontrolled and with tensions. (ii) Female dropouts were low in intelligence, affected by feeling, shy, tough minded and having sense of insecurity, (iii) Dropouts belonged to those families which were of large-size and who parents were less educated. (iv) Academic achievement of dropouts was low. Siddiqui (1995) Most of the causes of drop-outs are common to Muslims and non-muslims but the rate of drop-out among Muslims was much higher than Non- Muslims, information was found in the District of Aligarh which are as follows : Class I Class V Class VIII Muslim Boys 998 367 213 Muslim Girls 810 330 170 Non-Muslim Boys 878 501 333 Non-Muslim girls 665 375 223 The overall drop-out percentage is 53% at the end of Primary education stage and 71.9% at the end of Elementary education stage. At the end of Primary education stage it is 53.71% for boys and 52.21% for girls. At the end of Elementary education stage it is 70.79% for boys and 73.36% for girls. For Muslim boys it is 63.23% at the end of Primary education stage it is 78.66% at the end of Elementary education stage. For Muslim girls it is 59.26% at the end of primary education stage and 79.02% at the end of Elementary education stage. For non-muslim girls it is 43.61% at the end of Primary education stage and 66.4% at the end of elementary education stage. Qamaruddin (1996) found that the drop-out rate of students in Madaris was very low and gives the following figures as evidence. Year Total students on roll Total dropout Less percentage Fail percentage Dropout percentage 1989 106678 3554 90.82 5.84 3.33 1990 116228 3896 91.06 5.95 3.35 1991 147011 6170 90.75 5.06 4.2 If we compare dropout percentage of Madaris with the dropout percentage of school, the picture of Madaris seems to be very encouraging. While in the study of Siddiqui the case of Muslim boys and girls is 63.23% and 59.26% respectively at the end of elementary education and 78.665 and 79.02% respectively at the end of elementary education. There is a lot of difference in the percentage of Madaris and School. One apparent reason seems to be high percentage of Pass student in Madaris as compared to low-percentage of pass students in school. Some other Projections of Drop Outs Among Muslims: Some other projections of drop outs among Muslim are shown under the following tables: Table-1

53 Distribution of Population in terms of Education, Religion and Sex in Urban India (1987-88) Educational Christians Male Hindus Male Female Muslim Female Level female Male Not Literate 18.8 22.7 25.6 42.2 42.4 59.5 Primary 16.0 17.5 18.8 17.6 20.9 18.6 Pre-middle 36.7 33.4 30.5 25.3 26.3 16.8 Secondary 20.1 20.8 17.2 10.7 8.0 4.3 Graduate 8.4 5.6 7.9 4.2 2.4 0.8 Source: NSS, 43 rd Round, 1987-88, table 31.4. Table-2 Discontinuation and Drop-out 4 Towns of Uttar Pradesh Percentages of literate population Total Male Female Muslim Hindu Muslim Hindu Muslim Hindu Discontinuation 20.6 36.9 21.9 39.1 18.2 33.6 Drop-out 32.3 22.0 35.7 21.4 26.0 22.7 Source:Aijazuddin Ahmad; Muslims in India, Vol. II, Uttar Pradesh, Urban, New Delhi, p.164. table-5, 16. Table-3 Drop-out in terms of Major Educational Level, U.P., Urban Sample Towns Education level Percentages of literate population Total Male Female Muslim Hindu Muslim Hindu Muslim Hindu Primary 32.6 26.8 36.3 26.3 26.4 27.3 Middle 69.7 59.8 75.0 59.0 57.1 60.6 High School 2.9 10.2 3.6 10.6 1.7 9.6 Higher secondary 0.5 0.4 0.5 0.4 1.1 0.6 Source : Same as in table-2, pp. 166-67, tables-17(a), 5,17(b) Table 4 Occupational Structure in urban India, 1987-88 Occupation Christians Hindus Muslims Self-employed 21.4 35.9 53.4 Regular wage/salaries 56.1 46.7 28.9 Casual labour 12.3 12.1 13.4 Others 10.2 5.3 4.3 Source : NSS, 43 rd Round, 1987-88, table-28 R. Table 5 Drop-outs by Industrial Category of Workers by Sex and Communities Percentage of Literate population Sectors Muslim population Hindu population Total Male Female Total Male Female Primary 70.5 70.8 45.2 57.0 57.5 40.0 Secondary 73.6 73.8 68.0 55.3 55.3 72.2 Tertiary of 43.0 43.6 20.4 26.0 26.7 12.0 which Trade & 49.6 49.2 51.2 29.6 29.5 36.0 Commerce Services 27.1 28.1 13.6 20.1 21.4 8.3 Source : Same as in table-2

54 Table 6 Inter-city Comparison of Literacy and Drop-out Among Muslims Town Literacy* Drop-out** Total Male Female Total Male Female Sambhal 29.0 34.0 22.9 31.2 33.3 27.4 Ferozabad 22.5 29.0 15.0 34.9 40.0 23.5 Ghazipur 70.9 78.7 62.3 21.2 20.3 22.5 *Percentage of each category **Percentage of literate population Source : Same as in table-2 Medium of instruction Table- 7 Medium of Instruction in the Muslim managed Schools Level of Education Middle High School Higher Secondary Number % Number % Number % Urdu 193 46.7 172 42.3 29 18.2 English 24 5.8 29 7.1 23 14.5 Hindi 111 26.9 119 29.3 78 49.1 Regional 42 10.2 40 9.9 10 6.3 Source : HES, Educational Survey Report, 1982-83, p. 47. MAJOR FACTORS OF DROP-OUTS A. Socio-economic factor B. Psychological factor C. School factor D. Societal factor Socio-economic factor : (1) Improper attitude toward education, (2) Family background, (3) Employment/Occupational structures, (4) Financial problems. Psychological factor : (1) Readiness, (2) Improper thinking about education, in quality of life, (3) Unawareness about the importance of the education, (4) Improper understanding about the present situation of their environment, (5) Lack of realization and unhealthy emotions of the people and their generations. School factors : (1) Lack of proper management, (2) Improper building facilities, (3) Unhygenic condition, (4) Improper infrastructure, (4) Improper classroom facilities, (5) Lack of teachers competencies, (6) Medium of instructions, (7) Poor methodology of teaching, (8) Lack of continuous evaluation, (9) Improper incentives to the students as well as teacher. Societal Factor : (1) Insecurity of Girls Children, (2) Lack of parental cooperation to the school, (3) Most of the children becoming helping hand to their parents, (4) No more positive co-relation between education and employment, (5) Lack of good Muslim leadership at grassroots level in the field of education. REMEDIAL MEASURES For reducing and checking the drop outs among Muslim school going children. A model for educational development of Muslim could be adopted which consist the following: 1) Islam gives emphasis on knowledge. O! My Lord Advance Me in Knowledge 2) Education is necessary for self awareness. 3) Literacy is very important for effective communication 4) Education is very important for self development and the development of the community and nation as well. 5) Education is very important for Muslim mass mobilization. 6) Involvement and participation of Muslim community in various educational activities. 7) Efficient management of Muslim educational institution. 8) True and dynamic spirit towards the education. 9) Good quality of course contents in Muslim managed institution. 10) Proper facilities in classrooms. 11) Media of instruction in Mother tongue. 12) Proper incentives to the students as well as the teachers. 13) Good cooperation of parents and school. 14) Good dynamic Muslim leadership at grassroot level in the field of education. 15) Proper financial assistance to the schools from government as well as from the Local community.

55 REFERENCES [1] Aijazuddin Ahmad (1996) : Muslims in India, Inter India Publications, Hamdard Education Society, New Delhi. [2] Carter V. Good,(1973) Dictionary of Education, New York HG Grow Hill Book Company, 1973, p. 198. [3] Joshi N.O(1991)., Problems faced by certain Tribal Groups in Trivandrum District in relation to provision and use of School Facilities, Deptt. of Education, Ker U., 1991 (U.G.C. Finance). [4] Hamdard Education Society (1983): Educational survey Report on Muslim managed Schools and Colleges in India, 1982-83. [5] Kuraari,(1976) Indra Education and Social status of Muslim Women in Kerala Ph.D. Soc. Ker. U. 1976. [6] Mohan, S.A.(1981), Critical study of factors related to withdrawl at the Secondary stage. Ph.D. Edu. Ke.U., 1981. [7] Mathur J.S., Jain S.P. & Rahim C.A. (1987) Rural youth from Primary Groups, Dropouts and Nonstudents, A study of four state NIRD. [8] Punelekar, S.P.,(1975) School Drop-out among Harijan Children, Causes & Cure, Central Institute of Research & Training in Public Cooperation, New Delhi 1975. [9] Pillai, G.V.(1980), Benjamin J. & Nair K.R., A study of Dropout in Primary Education in Kerala State Planning Board, Govt. of Kerala, Trivandrum, 1980. [10] Qamaruddin (1996) Hindustan K Deeni Dersgahen (Kul Hind Survey) Hamdard Education Society, New Delhi. [11] R. Pandya and S. Bora (1997): A Study of Factors Causing School Drop-outs, Journal of Indian Education, November, 1997, pp. 32-37. [12] Sarkar, B.K.,(1980) A plot investigation of School Drop-out Reasons,Demography Research Unit, ISI, Calcutta, 1980. [13] Shrivastava S, & Gupta S.P.,(1980) Survey of the non-enrolled, non-attending and dropout children of the age group 6.14 in the Ferozepur District, Dev Samak College of Education for women, Ferozpur, 1980 (Planning Commission Finance). [14] Shah M.R. (1983) A study of incidence and factors responsible for dropping out of children from municipal and local authority schools in Greater Bombay and Thana Districts from standard I to VIII during the last four year i.e. 1973, 1974, 1977, 1983 (NCBRT, Finance). [15] Siddiqui, M.A. (1995). A comparative study of dropout rates among Muslim & non-muslim students in elementary Schools of Aligarh. [16] Vathsala (1981) Potential Dropouts at middle school level Ph.D., Madras U.1981. [17] Yadav, S.K. (1991): Educational of Scheduled Castes Commonwealth Publishers, New Delhi.