At least 78 percent of parents in rural India want to educate their daughters till graduation, says a new survey. 82 percent of parents also want to send their sons to college.
The survey, titled State of Elementary Education in Rural India — 2023, conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit, in a collaboration between NGO Transform Rural India and Sambodhi Research and Communications, based on responses from 6,229 parents from 20 states who had children between the ages of 6-16 years. Out of them:
6,135 had school-going students
56 had students who dropped out of school
38 had children who had never enrolled in school
The big findings:
Out of the 56 students who had dropped out of school, 36.8 percent were girls. The main reasons for girls dropping out of school were:
Need to contribute to family's earnings
Taking care of household chores
Taking care of siblings at home
On the other hand, 71.8 percent of the boys who dropped out of school did so because of their lack of interest in studies. However, “another 48.7 percent said boys are required to help out in earning for the family,” the study noted.
The study also pointed that as many as 49.3 percent students in rural India have access to smartphones, but this is what they are using them for:
76.7 percent use them to play video games
56.6 percent use them to watch movies
47.3 percent use them to listen to music
34 percent use them to download study material
18 percent use them to access online learning and tutorials
The larger picture: The data from this study looks even more promising because the Annual Status of Education Report 2022, released in January this year, showed that there has been an increase in the enrollment of girls in schools.
When the report came out, The Quint had reported:
"The percentage of girls aged 11-14 years who were out of school stood at 2 percent in 2022, but was 4.1 percent in 2018."
The study also showed that among older girls (15-16 age group), only three states have more than 10 percent of girls out of school which are Uttar Pradesh (15 percent), Madhya Pradesh (17 percent), and Chhattisgarh (11.2 percent).
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)