We conducted a survey in selected rural areas in Hardoi districts and Lucknow urban slums among households having child aged between 12-18 years, age corresponding to standard 6 till 12th standard of education. In both rural and urban slums, we found 20% of children surveyed stopped going to school. In rural areas, those who dropped out, majority dropped after completing class 8 but in urban slums most of the children stopped going to school before completion of class 6.
The survey revealed cost of education was the main reason (71%) for the children not to continue beyond class 6 in urban slums, while in rural areas, the cost of education was reported as the main reason for drop out after class 8 by 33% parents. The other reasons quoted by the parents from rural areas were quality education (16%), distance of school (11%) and prevalence of child labour and child marriage (8%) for not continuing education beyond class 8.
We acknowledged that children can be retained in the school by creating an education eco-system including complementary education at the doorsteps. Basis on the various innovations for education in the Covid-enforced period and the evidence generated by the Quality Education India Development Impact Bond (QEI DIB), our solutions are based on harnessing education technology to benefit students across the nation. This could have wide applicability for creating tailored learning opportunities, alleviating education inequality, and improved GER for secondary stage (NEP 2020).