Combating Truancy Delinquency Need of an Action Plan

Truancy delinquency among school and college going students is a very serious problem world over, which is often not recognized, treated and controlled with due seriousness it deserves, especially by parents as well as by school/college authorities and the regulatory bodies in India. Later truancy misconduct results into serious educational, social, law enforcement and other problems. Moreover, it also results into wastages of precious public resources spent on education at different levels. While in other countries, various comprehensive and strict measures are taken to arrest the menace of truancy incidences among students with active involvement of parents, community and law enforcement agencies, perhaps no such remedial measures have so far been taken in India either by state, or regulatory bodies, or community or parents to tackle the critical problem of truancy, which incidentally creeps from primary school level itself and continues thereafter even up to higher education level. In the larger public interest, therefore, much needs to be done in India by all stakeholders concerned perhaps on the lines suggested by authors.