A Socio-Psychological Study of Dropout Incidence

The Government of India is viewing with concern the fact that even after 73 years of independence, the constitutional directive contained in Article 45, which enjoys that “The state shall provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years’ has not been achieved. No doubt, a large number of schools were opened, and enrolment drives were launched to enroll children in grade I, but nothing tangible seems to have been done concerning those children who had already been admitted in schools to retain them till they get at least elementary education.


Introduction
In J & K, 50000 Children were found out of school. The number of out-ofschool children (OOSC) in J & K has increased manifold over the past few years, notwithstanding the govt. Efforts to achieve cent percent literacy. According to official data presented in the 208th meeting of the Project Approval Board of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), in June 2014, the number of out-of-school students in 2014 was 49.819. As per the data, the number of out-of-school children in the age group of 6-7 years is 13077.out of these 5391 are boys & 7686 are girls. Similarly, in the age group of 8-10 years, the number of children not attending schools is 16027. out. Oh these, 6605 are boys & 9422 are girls. The number of such children in the age group of 11-14 years is 20715, out of which 8391 are boys & 12324 girls.
The worry for the stakeholders is that the illiterate population in J & K is highest among the northern states & the number of out-of-school children is increasing with each passing year. A cursory look at the comparative data brings out the facts about the ever increasing rate of out-of-school children. While in 2012, 43153 children were recorded out-of-school (drop-outs plus who never enrolled) in J & K, the same increased by 6000 in2014. As per the data, the number of out-of-school children was 36281 in 2011.

Statement of the Problem
Various commissions and committees were constituted to look into the problem of dropout incidence. Researches were conducted to ascertain the causes of dropout incidence. Mostly researchers confined their research to two variables only, i.e., family and school. It is not only the school variable or type of the family on whom the responsibility of children's withdrawal from school can be laid; there are other variables that play the most important role in the development of healthy attitudes in the children. How a child behaves as he behaves and to what extent he can maintain relationships with his friends and peers is directly concerned with the pupil variables which attracted the present investigator to probe into and find out the personal and social adjustment of pupils both staying and dropouts at an elementary level.

Staying and Dropouts (sex-wise) differ
significantly in their Personal, social, and Total Adjustment. 5. Dropout incidence and adjustment (Personal, social, and Total) are positively related to each other.

Method and Procedure
The main focus of the study was to ascertain the Personal, social, and total adjustment of staying and would-be dropouts. This has been facilitated by making a comparison between the groups viz.., total dropouts, and total staying of two districts, Budgam and Srinagar. These groups were differentiated on the variables, i.e., Personal Adjustment, social; Adjustment, and Total Adjustment.

Sample
The sample of the study comprised 280 students, both boys and girls from Govt. schools of Srinagar and Budgam districts. The random stratified sampling method was used to select schools as well as students.

Tolls Used
The California Test of Personality developed by Louis P. Thorpe and others (1953) was used to collect the data on personal and social adjustment of the students and Dropouts scale developed by Rather, A.R. (1994) was used to collect the data on Dropout incidence.

Statistical Technique
Mean, S.D, t-test and product-moment method of the correlation were used

Analysis of Data
The data gathered have been tabulated in the following tables. The table shows that the total dropout rate of both the districts of boys comes out 28.2 percent & the total dropout rate of girls of both the districts comes out 54.47 percent. Thus it can be concluded that girls' dropout more in comparison to boys. It is clear from the above table that the t-value is 6.17, which is significant at .01 level of confidence.
It means that there is a significant difference between the stains & dropout groups in their adjustment. The above table shows that the t-value is 4.98, which is significant at .01 level of confidence. Moreover, the table shows a higher mean score of staying which implies that staying are convincingly different from dropouts in social adjustment. It is clear from the above table that the t-value is 4.39, which is significant at .01 level of confidence. It means that there is a significant difference between the stains & dropout groups in their total adjustment, which means that the two groups under study differ in their total adjustment. The above table shows that all the correlations are significant either at .01 or .05 levels of confidence, which means that adjustment (personal, social & total) are positively & significantly related to dropout incidence. However, in the case of Srinagar district, 'r' value for social adjustment & dropout incidence came out 0.04, though insignificant shows a positive trend.

Major Findings
After tabulating, organizing, and using various statistical methods, the researcher obtained the following results.
• The total dropout incidence rate was found 39.64 percent, and the total stay rate was found 60.35 percent in both districts, i.e., Budgam and Srinagar.
• In both the districts, i.e., Budgam and Srinagar, the total dropout incidence rate for boys and girls was found 28.02 percent and 54.47 percent, respectively, while the total stay rate for boys and girls was found 71.97 percent and 69.56 percent respectively. • Stayin and Potential dropout groups of both the districts, i.e., Budgam and Srinagar, differ significantly in their personal, social, and total adjustment. • Stayin boys and girls of both the districts, i.e., Budgam and Srinagar, do not differ significantly in their personal and total adjustment. • Dropout boys and girls of both the districts, i.e., Budgam and Srinagar, do not differ significantly in their personal and total adjustment. • Dropout incidence was found positively related to adjustment (personal, social, and total). However, in the case of district Srinagar social adjustment was not found significantly related to dropout incidence.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study are given as under: • Findings of the percent study reveal that high dropout incidence was found in girls as compared to boys. • Staying and dropouts significantly differ in their adjustment, social adjustment, and total adjustment. • Staying and dropout boys and girls differ significantly in their total adjustment. • Dropout incidence and adjustment (Personal and total) were found positively related to each other.

Discussion of Results
The concept of social adjustment has made the classroom teacher more conscious of the social factors that are largely responsible for the group organization of a classroom. Findings from the group dynamics have indicated the implications of group structure. A study of pupil's sociometric responses aids the teacher in identifying the undesirable cliques and cleavages, in locating pupils who are isolated and in discovering other deter mental elements in the classroom structure. The availability of such data enables the teacher to establish a firm base for arranging socially integrative classroom groups and for planning classroom experiences that contribute to improved social relations. It also provides information about such maladjusted cases and hard isolates who need special educational climate.
To meet the needs of pupils having varying abilities and coming from different socio-economic backgrounds, several special problems have arisen in the school. The teacher has to see how to meet the academic, social and emotional needs of exceptional children how to prevent juvenile delinquency among pupils how to reduce the dropout rate among pupils and how to deal effectively with discipline problems in the school. These are Some of the challenging and persistent problems faced by the modern school.
The improved social relations in a classroom group help the pupils in the process of learning in many ways, such as: • The security that arises from satisfying social relationships frees the people of emotional tension and enables them to concentrate more on their assigned learning tasks. • The social pressure arising from the feeling of being accepted by classmates increases the pupil's motivation to learn. This is partly due to the pupil's desire to maintain status in the group and partly due to his feeling of being a member of the group. • The increased social contact accompanying peeracceptance helps in clarifying and reinforcing the pupil's classroom learning experiences by providing greater opportunity to exchange ideas with his age mates.