Pattern of Continuation of School Education of Rural Girls of
three Agro-climatic zones of Assam
Dr. Juri Baruah & Krishna Baruah
A study was conducted in three agro-climatic zones of Assam during 1996-97 to 2001-02 to determine the pattern of continuation of school education of girl students. The study was conducted in Lower Brahmaputra Valley, Upper Brahmaputra Valley and Barak Valley Zones of the State. A total of 14, 15 and 20 villages were covered in the three zones respectively. Girls students from 38, 33 and 53 schools from LBVZ, UBVZ and BVZ respectively were studied for their pattern of continuation in the school education from class I to VII. The dominant population in BVZ mostly belonged to other backward castes, while in UBVZ a mixed population was observed. Similarly in LBVZ it was a mixed population dominated by general and other backward castes. The highest dropout of girl students was observed in BVZ in all the class studies, while the lowest drop out was observed mostly in schools in LBVZ. The percentage of girls dropping out in class I ranged from as low as 0 in UBVZ to 25.97 in BVZ, while in class VII it ranged from o in LBVZ to 17.93 in BVZ. However, no definite trend could be observed in respect of drop out of girls with respect to classes. In BVZ quite a high percentage of girls were found to drop out even from higher class during the year 96-97. This is mostly due to several socio-economic factors like poor communication, early marriage, gender biasness, lack of motivation and many more. In general girl students from LBVZ were found to drop out in less number. The LBVZ of Assam is in general known for high literacy rate because of the fact that they are more exposed to the main land India. Although a general observation cannot be made, data revealed that with the advancement of class from I to VII the percentage of girls dropping out of the school declined in schools of all zones. However, in general there was a decline in...