A Cross Sectional Study of School Dropouts among Adolescents in Urban Field Practice Area of M. R. Medical College Gulbarga

Background - The dropout problem is pervasive in the Indian education system. Risk factors like poverty, low educational level of parents, family background and domestic problems create an environment which negatively affects the value of education. Objectives - 1) To know the socio-demographic factors of the study population.2) To identify the reasons for school dropouts and their association with socio demographic factors. Materials and Methods - The data was collected by house to house survey and a total of 111 adolescent school dropouts were included in the study. Data was analysed by percentage and chi square test. Results - The result shows that of the total 111dropouts, 50 were male and 61 were female.40.54 % children dropped school in secondary education.65.8 % of dropouts had 3-5 siblings and was found to be significant.77.48 % of dropouts belonged to nuclear family.54 % of the dropouts were of birth order 1 and 2. The most common reason among both male and female dropouts (43.24 %) is lack of interest in studies and poor performance at school and was found to be highly significant. The association between socio economic status and one of the reason of menarche and marriage was found to be significant Conclusion - The dropouts were more among nuclear families and in females. The most common reason among the dropouts is lack of interest in studies and poor performance at school.