UDAYAN -the rising

Context

There are millions of children in India who are living in impoverished homes. Besides being poor, their parents are not educated enough. They are also ignorant and unaware of many things that have an impact on their children’s lives. Many a times these children are denied of their basic rights.

Though, presently, there is a rise in the enrolment levels in the govt schools all over the country, levels of retention in schools is still a matter of concern. Children belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes continue to lag behind in the sphere of education and also face discrimination in schools and outside schools. This is more common in case of girls.

Even after 75 years of political independence, and Government’s numerous policies, programmes and schemes to raise the level of education among the poor, supressed and oppressed population of the country, the situation is not very bright.It is marked by students’ frequent absence from school, lack of interest in learning and poor performance in exams. Habitual absence from school and poor scholastic aptitude are interrelated and this eventually results in school dropout, which is again linked with child labour, child marriage, high infant, child and maternal mortality . This trend is more marked among rural students. Though financial constraints or domestic chores are the main reasons cited by teachers and others behind high drop- out rate and poor performance of children more particularly of girls in schools, the problem is manifolded. Teachers’ indifferent attitude, lack of skill and adequate interest in reaching out the students with low level of motivation and abilities, often found to be playing a central role in educational backwardness.