1. Parents’ Perception About the Factors
Influencing Students Drop Out in Tribal
Education Programmes Implemented by the
Government of Kerala
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the
Requirements for the Award of the Degree of
Master of Social Work
DOMINIC THOMAS
Reg. No. 1224602
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
CHRIST UNIVERSITY
BANGALORE, INDIA
MARCH, 2014

2. Parents’ Perception About the Factors
Influencing Students Drop Out in Tribal
Education Programmes Implemented by
the Government of Kerala
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the
Award of the Degree of
Master of Social Work
By
DOMINIC THOMAS
Reg. No. MSW – 1224602
Department of Social Work
Under the Guidance of
Dr. Bino Thomas
Assistant Professor and Head
Department of Social Work
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
CHRIST UNIVERSITY,
BANGALORE
MARCH, 2014

3. I
DECLARATION
I, Dominic Thomas, hereby declare that the dissertation, titled Parents’ perception about
the factors influencing students drop out in tribal education programmes implemented by
the Government of Kerala is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the
award of the degree of Master of Social Work. I have completed this study under the
supervision of Dr. Bino Thomas (Assistant Professor and HOD), Department of Social
Work, Christ University.
I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any
degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other title.
Place: Christ University
Date:
Signature of the candidate
Dominic Thomas
Reg No:1224602
Department of Social Work
Christ University, Bangalore

4. II
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Dominic Thomas, 1224602 titled
‘Parents’ perception about the factors influencing students drop out in tribal education
programmes implemented by the Government of Kerala’ is a record of research work
done by him under my supervision in partial fulfillments for the award of Master of
Social Work.
This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma,
associate ship, fellowship or other title.
Place: Christ University,
Bangalore Signature of the Guide
Date: Dr. Bino Thomas
Assistant Professor and HOD
Department of Social Work
Christ University, Bangalore

5. III
RECOMMENDATION FOR EXTERNAL EXAMINATION
As per the certificate issued by the research supervisor on completion of the research
work, the candidate is hereby recommended for appearing in the external viva voce
examination.
Dr. Bino Thomas
Head, Department of Social Work
Christ University
Bangalore

6. IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Bringing out this this dissertation, in its present form has been an interesting and
challenging experience. Facing this challenge would not have been possible without the
support and understanding of many. They have eased my efforts and I am indebted to
them.
I thank Dr. Bino Thomas, my research guide for the focused guidance. I am
especially grateful for his timely guidance and support while completing this study. I will
never forget the contributions of all my MSW classmates for instilling the necessary
values, skills and knowledge required to undertake especially Pratima Meher, Tony
George and Justin Philip in fact, any research study.
Finally I have to thank a few who stood by me; My father, M K Thomas, Mom,
Mercy Thomas, M K James, uncle who have fulfilled all my dreams and backed me up
with education as a good investment.
Most importantly, I thank the Lord for giving me insights and also sustaining
them throughout the study.
Dominic Thomas

7. V
ABSTRACT
In all the five year plans (1951-2013), priority was given to educational
development of children in tribal community. Major chunk of the non-plan expenditure
of the ministry of tribal affairs in Kerala has been spending on educational development
activities including scholarship, boarding and lodging charges, incentives to the parents
etc. According to DPI statistics (2007-08), 5,365 students have dropped out from
Malappuram district.
In this context, this study was conducted to assess the parents’ perception about the
factors influencing students drop out in tribal education programmes implemented by the
Government of Kerala. The study consisted of 50 participants who had a child dropped out
from school before six months during their primary education. Parental attitude, culture, lack
of infrastructural facilities and poor economy in family leads to dropout in Nilambur region.
Parents have moderate level of positive attitude towards child’s education and involvement in
the academic matters of the child. Paniyalar and Paniyan’s show more involvement in the
academic matters of the child. Involvement in academic activities of the child and perception
towards schooling showed significant scores in the age group of 30-35 years. Most of the
parents are aware of the tribal educational programmes which are availed in their community.
The study implies that newer strategies need to be designed to engage the dropout children in
educational activities in Nilambur region.
Key words: Tribal education, Dropout, Tribal educational programmes

8. VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sl.no Contents Page no
1 INTRODUCTION 1-9
2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 10-15
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16-21
4 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 22-45
5 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 46-49
6 REFERENCES
7 APPENDIX

9. VII
LIST OF TABLES
Sl no Tables Page
no
Table 4.1 Socio demographic data 22
Table 4.2 Parent’s perception towards schooling and education 27
Table 4.3 Gender of the parent and perception towards child’s education 30
Table 4.4 Age of the parent and their perception towards child’s education 31
Table 4.5 Sub-cast of the parent and their perception towards education of
the child
32
Table 4.6 Family monthly income and perception of parents towards child’s
education
32
Table 4.7 The person who encourages for education and their perception
towards education
33
Table 4.8 Involvement of parents in academic matters of the child 34
Table 4.9 Educational attainment of the parent and involvement of parents
in the academic matters of the child.
38
Table 4.10 Occupation of the parent and their involvement in the academic
matters of the child
39
Table 4.11 Sub-cast of the Parent and their involvement in the academic
matters of the child.
40
Table 4.12 Family monthly income and involvement of parents in the
academic matters of the child.
41
Table 4.13 Perceived reasons for dropout 41

10. VIII
LIST OF FIGURES
Sl.no Figures Page
no
Figure 4.1 Reason for drop out responded by parents 26
Figure 4.2 Parent’s perception towards schooling and education 29
Figure 4.3 Involvement of parents in academic matters of the child 37
Figure 4.5 The awareness and accessibility of tribal educational programmes 43
Figure 4.6 Benefits availed from tribal educational programmes
44
Figure 4.7 Sending children only for midday meal
45

11. 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This chapter imparts a summary of the status of tribal education in India and the
dropout rate of children from primary education in Kerala. This chapter discusses about
the significant factors influencing tribal dropout, parent’s perception about child’s
schooling and education, involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child and
different tribal educational programmes implemented by Government of Kerala and in
Nilambur region.
1.2 Tribal education
After independence, India’s primary education has gone through numerous
changes and adaptation. The Article 45 of Indian constitution guarantees free and
essential learning for all children up to 15 years. In 2012, 96.5% of children within the
age group of 6 to 14 years were registered in school. Nationally, the percentage of
children (6 to 14) who are not joined in school has gone up considerably, from 3.3% in
2011 to 3.5 in 2012. Learning outcomes of the students were very low but steady in the
years leading to 2012. The eighth annual status of education report shows that children’s
ability to read, write and do the basic arithmetic have declined. Although compliance with
norms and recommendations specified by the RTE Act 2009 has improved most of the
children in school today, but still the quality of education are 3 grades behind where they
supposed to be. (ASER, 2012).
In all five year plans (1951-2013) main concern was for the informative progress
of ST students. The significant reason for the leisurely development of schooling
concerning tribes is the unbalanced way of their living. Large group of Scheduled Tribes
are resides in remote places which are far away from schools. Poverty and deficiency of
schools in tribal region were reasons for slow educational attainment among the tribals.
Moreover, the tribal parents being illiterate, as a result, they rarely give much significance
to schooling or insist the children to attend class regularly. (Government of Kerala, 2001)

12. 2
Ministry of tribal affairs sees schooling and education as indispensible for
supporting tribal children to handle with national integration. The education defines
success, achievement and security in their life. The union and state government spent
adequate amount of money to assimilate and meet the unfulfilled dreams of the tribal
youths (Mahipal, 2014).
1.3 Status of tribal education in Kerala
According to census, (2001) there are 12642 educational institutions in Kerala.
Out of these 7278 aided schools, 4501 are government schools and 863 unaided schools.
Malappuram district has the highest number of school (1472), followed by Kannur (1293)
and Kozhikode districts has (1237) (Economic review, 2010). Enrolment of students in
2011-12 has decreased 2.67% over the previous year. As per the statistics of 2011-2012,
12.18 ST students constitute 1.86% of total enrollment in schools (Government of Kerala,
2011).
The Scheduled Tribal Development Department gives prime importance to
education of the Scheduled tribes. Accordingly, the department is granting educational
concession and assistance to the Scheduled Tribes from pre-primary stage to postgraduate
education. Apart from exempting them from all kinds of fees, they are given Lump sum
grant for purchasing books, stationary, dress and monthly stipend at varying rates
depending on the course of study. (Government of Kerala, 1998-99)
In 1991 Total Literacy Programme was launched to ensure quality education to
Scheduled Tribes, model residential schools, Peripetic schools and Ashram schools are
being implemented. Special coaching is given to ST students to promote and encourage
them in taking part in competitive exams and athletic competitions. (Government of
India)
1.3.1 Status of tribal education in Malappuram
Out of 35 ST notified for the state, Paniyan’s are the most populated tribe with a
population of 81,940 forming 22.5% of the whole people of the state. At district level,
Paniyan’s have the highest percentage (56.3) in the total ST population in Malappuram.
The overall literacy rate of the ST in state has increased from 57.2 to 64.4 recorded at
2011 census. About 2/3 of the constituencies in Malabar area have worse literacy rates

13. 3
than the other districts. It is to be noted that more than 65% of the tribal residents of the
state lives in the Malabar region ( Krishnan, 2014).
BAI, (2003) discussed about the educational development in Kerala. In his study
the analysis of district wise details of literacy rate discloses that in six districts such as
Malappuram, Palakkad, Kasargod, Wayanad, Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram has low
literacy rate than the state level literacy rate. Despite the high level of per capita income,
Malappuram has got 10th
rank out of 14 states. The directory of economic review 2001
reveals that Malappuram has got sixth place in schools per lack of population. In the
distribution of colleges per lack of population reveals the neglect of Malappuram in the
provision of higher education facilities with 14th
rank in the district.
1.4 Factors influencing dropout
Dropout has been defined as the proportion of children that cease to remain
enrolled in the schooling organism. The reasons of dropout have been examined by
various social experts across the world, as dropout problem has turned to be a global
concern. According to Weber, the reasons for discontinuing school can be classified into
3 broad categories such as family related reasons, school related reasons and personal
related reasons. Family related reasons involve socio-economic grade, underprivileged
groups, parent’s qualification and single parent families. School related factors such as
daily attendance of the child, marks, educational achievement, interest in school and
school assignments. Personal reasons comprise of disciplinary problems, other
moderating situations like marriage etc. ( Roy, 2011).
There are several school related factors that lead to student drop out such as
unfriendly environment, deprived knowledge, lack of attendance, boldness and behavior
of the teacher, and repeating the same class for more than one year etc. when students fail
in a class, they tend to be unsatisfied with less achievements and wind up isolated and
segregation direct them to dropout (Chugh, 2011).
The school experience of tribal students varies from discrimination to complete
isolation. Students from Scheduled tribe groups come across a series of difficulties such
as communicating long distance to school in bad environmental conditions, exploitations
and ill treatment of teachers and other students, struggle in understanding the medium of
instruction etc. (Manjumder, 2002).
Economic hardship is a major cause for increasing tribal children’s dropout.
During the time of agriculture tasks, tribal children are requisite to assist their family

14. 4
members in sowing, weeding, plantation and harvest operations, resulting irregular
attendance in classes and subsequent dropout from school. In addition, the non-
availability of schools within easy access for more than half the predominantly tribal
habitation poses a serious impediment to the enrolment of children, especially girls
(Karuna, 2007).
Insufficient educational institutions in tribal communities, poverty, lack of health
and nutritional care programmes, deprived enrollment and alarming dropout from primary
education etc. prevent the actual educational attainment among tribal’s. Furthermore, the
tribal parents are normally illiterate and they cannot insist their children to attend classes
regularly (Sinlung, 2013).
Tribal students take up paid works early in their life for more satisfying personal
wants rather than supporting their households. They spent income on dress, footwear etc.
in order to imitate the modern society which they are attracted to. Non enrollment in
school is due to parental unconcern than to deliberate choice by the child itself. Usual
community differences are detected in the case of enrollment and continue the studies.
Most of the tribal’s being slow learners, uncongenial environment at home for studying,
lack of facilities like, study room, no furnutire, and not even proper food is provided on
time ( Krishnan, 2014).
1.4.1 Social factors: The tribal parents feel that education makes their children naughty,
impolite and alienate them from the community. The prior experiences of highly educated
students from the community leaving to distance places for jobs and the situation of their
parents makes them think of not send their children to school
1.4.2 Economic factors: Most of the tribals live in deficiency and lack of access to study
materials. The parents tend to involve their children to undertake agricultural activities
along with them in support and continue with their traditional occupation.
1.4.3 Less attention in recognized education: In most of the states, the ST students are
trained from the similar syllabus taught to the general population which becomes difficult
for the slow learners from tribal areas. The contents of the syllabus rarely appeal to them
who came from not the same ethnic circumstances.
1.4.4 Suitable teacher: Lack of teachers to support the children in tribal areas and their
attitude towards them in appreciating the values of tribals. Teachers behave with the tribal
students with a sense of dominance and consider them as unclean and not civilized; as a
result they fail to establish a rapport with the students.

15. 5
1.4.5 Lack of facilities: The medium of instruction is a major problem in tribal schools.
Most of the tribal languages are in basic level with no literatures. The states provide the
same curriculum for the tribal student which makes it uninteresting and offended to the
students in certain circumstances.
1.4.6 Nature of habitat: Tribals are usually scattered and engaged in agriculture and
animal husbandry. Unless the school is situated in the community or the school is more
convenient for parents and students only then they send their children to school.
1.4.7Tribal school teachers: The lower primary education centres in tribal region are
usually managed by one teacher and his/her attendance is not monitored by any authority.
The interest of parents in sending their children to school also be determined by the
school timing in altered seasons (Nazer, 2008).
1.5 Dropout rate in Kerala and Nilambur
Kerala has attained the merit of having the lowermost dropout rate of school
students among the Indian states. In the year 2009-10 Kerala had 0.51% dropout. In the
same year in Lower primary school, Upper primary school and High school, 0.38%,
0.32% and 0.85% student’s dropout respectively. (Government of Kerala, 2011).
Even as the state Government is giving prime importance to education, there is no
extensive decline in the number of students who quit from school. According to the data
available with the DPI, 38,255 students discontinued their studies during the 2009-10
academic years. The highest number of dropout was reported from Malappuram district.
According to the statistics, 5,365 students in Malappuram quit school in 2009-10 (Joseph,
2012).
Table 1.1 Dropout rates of ST (selected educational statistics, 2002-05)
Year Primary school ( 1-4)
Boys Girls Total
2002-03 50.8 52.1 51.4
2003-04 49.1 48.7 48.9
2004-05 42.6 42.0 42.3

16. 6
1.6 Parent’s perception about child’s education
Parent’s optimistic attitude towards child’s education is significant in defining
school attendance and academic accomplishment of the child. Parent’s encouraging and
appreciation towards child’s education increases parental involvement. Socio-economic
status of the parents has adversely affected the involvement of parents in the academic
maters of the child and since the tribal constitute the marginalized population, it is
predictable that the attitude of tribal parents have unfavorable towards schooling and
education ( Samal, 2012).
Parent’s expectations about their child’s education have greater influence on
child’s educational progress. Parent’s anticipations of child and their performance at
school have shown a positive relation with child’s achievement in school. Parents have a
perception about school that apart from learning basic skills, aptitude to connect with
other students and to prompt their outlooks and thoughts with each other’s ( Bhutto,
2005).
1.7 Parent’s involvement in child’s education
Parents and educational institutions have functioned together from the beginning
of the formal education. It was well recognized that parent’s school participation has an
encouraging effect on school associated result for them. The parent’s contribution for
school increases their skill and evidence, which will help them to understand their
children in their school linked happenings. (Hill N. E., 2004).
The different categories of parent involvement in school are student discussion
with parent about school related matters, parent contact with school, parent volunteerism,
parent expectation, parent participation in PTO, parent visit school, structure of home-
learning environment etc. (Feuerstein, 2000). The home based involvement represents
parents’ practices related to assisting children with school related tasks, engaging children
in intellectual activities, creating a quiet place for children to study, responding to
children’s academic accomplishments and discussing with children about academic
problems. (Pomerantz, 2007)
Parent’s contribution in their child’s learning and decision making of future career
has increased momentum again and has become an anxiety for educational strategy
makers. The structure of teaching and learning are a part where the parents-teachers and
the schools slopes the equilibrium of control towards the students. Parent’s participation
through the establishment of associative groups and administration in which parents are a

17. 7
part of day-today functioning of school that stimulated institutional policy makers to give
more consideration to the important matters of beginners attainment (Saiti, 2005).
The role of parent’s in child’s initial stages of life is the major encouragement on
their improvement. Feature of home-based environment adds to child’s practical
knowledge and collective understanding of society than parent’s employment, schooling
and salary (Government of Kerala, 2012).
1.8 Programmes for the Scheduled Tribes by Government of Kerala
1.8.1 Article 275
Education is requirement for removing the barriers of backward class and
marginalized in the community. Therefore the education of ST has been a priority for the
Government of India. Here are the description of some of the programmes and schemes
launched for the promotion of education among this advantaged section of society. Under
the provision of Article 275 (1) of the constitution, grants are given to encounter the
expense of schemes for the tribal development and increasing the level of supervision of
Scheduled region within on par with the rest of the state or union territory. A portion of
the funds are utilized for setting up inhabited school for giving value learning to students
in tribal region.
1.8.2 Research institutes for tribal
14 tribal institutions are being set up in different states in India. The institutions
are involved in suggesting preparation feedbacks to the state Government, carrying out
examination, data gathering, conducting trainings, seminar and workshops for the tribal’s.
KIRTADS is a governmental organization focused on to carry out investigation that helps
to encourage development among the scheduled communities in Kerala. It also identifies
the needs and problems provoking the marginalized section of the population and
suggests recommendations to the government in finding a solution for their overall
development (KIRTADS, 2014).
1.8.3 Boys or girls hostel for ST
Hostel for girls was introduced in 3rd
five year plan by providing support of 50%
cost of construction to the state and union territory institutions in Kerala.

18. 8
1.8.4 Educational support to girl child
The programme ensured to reduce the difference in literacy ranks with the
common people and tribal womenfolk, by providing 100% admission of tribal girls in the
recognized districts, for the most part in zones occupied by aboriginal tribals and
decreasing drop out at the fundamental level by generating adequate atmosphere for
education. The system distinguishes the enhancement of the knowledge level of
underprivileged girls to enable them to share successfully in and benefitted from overall
development.
1.8.5 Special coaching for ST
The ST students from disadvantaged and underprivileged background find it
problematic to play with others from well socio-economic circumstances. It also aims to
encourage them to partake in sports and give them a more opportunities to flourish to
expensive exams. The Ministry for tribal affairs funds for coaching for underprivileged
ST students in providing value coaching associations to support them to productively
strive in studies for admission to qualified courses.
1.8.6 Grants to parents
The tribal parents who sent their children every-day to school get an annual
allowance of Rs. 300 per month.
1.8.7 Scholarships
The main aim of the programme is to provide economic aid to students from ST
category studying post matriculation from professional colleges from recognized
institutions. The programme includes practiced, non-professional and non-technical
courses at different stages and the programme also comprises correspondence courses
with distance and ongoing education ("The major schemes/programme,”).
Tribal development plan focus on providing elementary education and to increase
community organization and participation. It includes awareness campaign to increase
enrolment, growing participation of Scheduled Tribals in education committee in tribal
villages. Empowerment of community leaders from tribes to inspire and accompany them
from a definite household, with an aim of schooling needs of children from specific
household. Several workshops are organized for the leaders to develop and achieve
capabilities for managing community mobilization and connecting them with the school
administration.

19. 9
The special schemes and promising rules for tribal include schooling assurance
schemes and Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) centres within 1 km radius to all
non-enrolled children and drop out. Making changes in the school schedule to avail the
children and giving situation focused solutions such as hostel, grants or any specific
facilities according to necessary ("Tribal development plan," 2010).
1.9 Rational of the study
Government of Kerala has introduced many programmes like Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal programme, reservation for the tribal students, free hostel
facilities etc. to improvement the enroll rate of tribal children and to reduce the number of
dropout. In spite of government taking up these various activities, still the dropout rate
has not reduced as per expectations (Kakkoth, (2012)). So, this study attempt to find out
the complex phenomenon of dropout and effectiveness of tribal education programmes in
Nilambur Taluk.
Although there are studies conducted (Roy 2011, Samal 2012. George, 2011 et.al)
about the attitude of parents towards primary education from different perspectives such
as parents of the economically backward class, uneducated parents, parents of slum
children etc. There are hardly any studies conducted about the attitude of parents of tribal
children especially tribal parents of Kerala in Nilambur region.
Even though Nilambur region has got the highest number of schools in the
Kerala, Malappuram is one of the districts in the state which has lowest literacy rate.
Since the sample frame was located near to the forest and lack of infrastructural facilities
to reach school is one of the prime factor to increase dropout in this area. This study aims
to identify the factors affecting drop out in Nilambur region and parent’s perception
towards schooling and education, parent’s participation in child’s education and its
impact on child’s achievement and awareness and accessibility of tribal educational
programmes.
The research hopes that this study would provide a base to identify the factors
influencing student dropout in Nilambur Region. This study would help in bringing out
measures to reduce the dropout rate and more awareness programmes about the tribal
educational schemes among tribals. The result of the study can be used for conducting
further studies in this region and renewing the existing policies for maximum utilization
of tribals.

20. 10
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction
The researcher went through various literatures related to the study. All the
reviews done revolve around four major concepts such as parent’s perception about
child’s schooling and education, their involvement in the academic matters of the child,
perceived reasons for dropout and awareness and accessibility of tribal educational
programmes implemented by Government of Kerala. The following consist of the studies
about parent’s perception about schooling and education, involvement of rural parents in
the academic matters of the child in India about the tribal parents.
Bhutto & Narejo, (2008) suggests that Parental perception has a vital role in life
of children throughout and after their education in terms of performance and career
choice. Parent’s perception is formed by a number of factors such as age, gender, income,
occupation, education, language, attitude, values, personality and interest. Research
reveals that almost all parents have a desire about their children to be a good by
contributing for the well-being of the society and grow intellectually towards real-world
situations. The study was administered through self-administered questionnaire among
100 parents in Sukkur district. The results shows that parent recognize their children to
get educated with the intention of improve economic security and become part of the
educated society. They also perceive their children to acquire academic related skills
while getting educated for better career choice and entrepreneurial skills. The result
develops the understanding of parent’s perceptions in terms of insight concerning their
child’s education. The study recommended that Parents must encourage children to study
and attend school because; if their children are educated the success will follow them too.
In study by Guðlaug, (2010) parental involvement interpreted to have various
sound effects on students, such as academically and behaviorally. He also indicates that
parents participation won’t affect reading achievement of child on the initial years of
education, but it continue to affect the reading and academic progress of children
especially in primary and secondary schools. Parental involvement in child’s education
takes on various methods such as parent involved as volunteers in school, communicating

21. 11
with teachers, contributing in school decision making and associative learning of child at
home. The aim of the study was to identify the relation between the educated parents at
Combretum Trust School and their participation in child’s education. A qualitative
research was conducted using descriptive research design. The research tool consist of 40
question comes under six different factors such as parental involvement in school factors,
monitoring child’s home-work, discussing the school matters, participating in school
events and their expectation about child future. The data was collected through semi-
structured interview. The finding of the study emphasis the need for good relationship
between parents and school through-out child’s schooling. The study also reveals that
parental involvement has effect on both academic and non-academic factors such as
attendance, child’s behaviors, attitude towards schooling and education and other skills.
The study suggests that parent’s involvement had a positive effect on the academic
attainment at Combretum Trust School irrespective of their family and socio-economic
backgrounds.
A study conducted Premji, (2004) indicate that a large section of parents feel that
educating children is very important. In this study 56% of parents agree that formal
education of child helps in increasing their knowledge level and to become a good citizen.
The reason for educating girl child is to provide equal opportunities and empower them to
make a strong appearance in the society. The study aimed to assess the perception of
parents regarding education in their region, to assess the quality of education in the school
and to determine the involvement of parents in education system. A structured
questionnaire was used to collect the data. The questionnaire consists of both open ended
and closed ended questions. The participants of the study were adult individuals and
parents selected randomly from various villages in North East Karnataka. The study
reveals that 80% of parents believe that parents have to play their part in terms of
enrolment, attendance and the learning process of the child by the way of involvement
and meeting teachers. The study suggest that equal participation and contribution from
parents, teachers and head masters can make an adequate change in the quality of
schooling and education.
A study was conducted by Sook & Bowen, (2006) shows the parent’s
participation, parental income and the success gap in elementary school. This study aims
at examining the level and impact of five parental involvements on children’s academic

22. 12
performance by ethnicity, cast and educational attainment of parents. Parental
involvement represents two central aspects of the influence on child development such as
connection among adult and the similarity in behavior, values and attitude across the
setting. He has proved with the help of articles that parental involvement at school has
more influence on children than parental involvement at home. Parents with diverse
background play different types of roles in helping the child in terms of their income,
education, experience and self-assurance in the system. The sample of the study consist of
415 children studying in third standard living in major urban centres of southeastern
United States. A simple random sampling technique was used to identify students from
the district database. The research tool includes 5 categories of parental participation in
family and school was examined. Parents participation in school was assess with six
complex variables. They also measures parent’s physical visit to school through parents
and teachers reports. The result shows that parental contribution have considerably varied
across demographic groups in terms of child’s achievement. Educational expectation and
frequency of home-work help didn’t differ among three ethnic groups. Parents with
higher education show considerably more involvement at school, discussion with child at
home and higher educational expectation about their children. The study suggests that
different types of participation at home, school and different cultural groups should be
formed for better achievement among students. The study also emphasis to develop more
policies to increase involve of parents at school.
Roy, (2011) in his research point out reasons for dropout in primary education
and the impact of RTE (Right to Education) act. According to him dropout means the
proportion of children who cease remain enrolled in the educational system. He has
explained the factors that prevent from schooling such as caste, occupation, economical
compulsion and poverty, seasonal migration, child labour, linguistic problems, and
educational attainment of parents. The aim of the study is to propose a linear simplified
model for estimating dropout. He has used six variables such as pupil teacher ratio,
student classroom ratio, percentage of repeaters, percentage of SC, ST students,
percentage of Muslim minorities and gender parity index to find out the significant
variables and state reasons of insignificance of other variables. The result shows that
pupil teacher ratio, student classroom ratio, and SC/ST have a positive influence on
dropout rate. On the other hand, percentage of repeaters, Muslim community and gender
parity index can help to control dropout. The percentage of ST students is found to be an

23. 13
insignificant factor to explain the dropout in this district. 57% of the model can be
explained with the significant factors such as student classroom ratio, percentage of SC
students and percentage of Muslim students. The study recommended for a revised and
reorientation of policies required controlling these situations. Student – classroom, ratio
needs to be reduced in order to keep up the quality of education. Several remedial
measures such as motivational learning have to be implemented to strengthen the
disadvantaged sections like SC/ST. In other hand social transformation needs to be started
to bring a positive society to demolish the cultural lag bringing the students under the
school roof.
George, (2011) discussed about the higher education in Kerala and how inclusive
is it to SC/ST. This study emphasize that even though SC/ST have been considered in the
main stream of developmental activities, still socio-cultural barriers and inadequacy of
Government programmes prevent them to compete with the other sections of the society.
The quality of education given to St/St students seems to be poor which leads to major
difference in the achievement of disadvantaged group. Under the invest of state in
education, the share of expenditure of on new programmes, schemes, institutions and
courses is getting less and less as the year advance. The utilization of sanctioned
expenditure on education also came down from 80% to 53.1% in 2008-09. The
educational support from Government in different forms, reservation and helping in
admission helped the ST students to avail of educational opportunities to a large extent.
Though, there are government reservation policies for ST students, still they are
inadequate to meet the non-fusion fees and other nonacademic expenses.
Chugh, (2011) stated from her study that both home and school associated aspects
were accountable and seems correlated with each other. The adolescent dropout was not
only due to poverty and financial constrain but also because of the inappropriate response
of the school in preventing dropout. The study was aimed at examining the features that
leads to drop out at secondary level. The empirical study carried out on the deprived
group of children living in slum areas of Delhi. The findings ponders different ways to
control potential dropout and providing suggestions preventive measures for changing the
system. The paper recommends that the state need to adopt a holistic and broader sense of
understanding to tackle the issues of poverty by strengthening the socio economic
situation and poor delivery of education. Even though it was a micro level study, the

24. 14
analysis delivers certain insight to educational policy makers who are aimed at civilizing
quality education and implementing proper intervention for target groups at native level.
He suggested the importance to moderate the private cost of education through
scholarship and incentives such as uniform, text books and stationary.
Kakkoth, (2012) points out that even though the government is providing
infrastructure and educational inputs to tribes, still the dropout is prevalent among them.
Lack of freedom, early marriage and home related issues are the main reasons for
dropout. In this study majority of male students drop out due to get involved in collecting
resources from forest though they have a desire to continue their studies. The negative
impacts of residential schools are because of due respect to traditional culture and force to
perform other religious rituals and physical and emotional abused while surrendered by
sickness and ill. The aim of the study is to assess the personal experiences of Ashram
school dropouts and to identify perspective of different category of people such as
children, school personnel and tribal development officials and suggest different
measures for the improvement of Ashram schools. The study suggests providing, primary
education in their own settlements rather than alienating them from parents. After long
years of formal education, the other tribal students hesitate to interact with each other.
The curriculum contents should boost their norms and values to make them proud of their
culture.
Zacharias, (2003) indicated in his study the tribal educational programmes
implemented for Kadars have positive impact. Even though many students made several
attempts to pass the exams, there is significant growth in literacy and schooling of
Kedars. The study concluded by stating that some programmes have failed to meet the
goal, others were moderately succeeded, and others have achieved the target at all. But
the actual consumption of the remunerations is not achieved as expected. The study was
conducted in Palakkad and Trichur on the basis of Kadar settlement. Cluster sampling
method was used to collect the data from participants. The study suggested that the
programme implementing agency should have proper understanding of the tribal life style
which leads to successful implementation of the programme. The authorities also should
do the follow up steps to find out the deficiency of the programme and timely monitoring
is important to make necessary changes in the implementation.

25. 15
Basumatary, (2012) describes the reason for dropout and the factors that affect
dropout. The reason for dropout can be categorized under school centric and parent
centric. Poverty is the main cause of school dropout. The poor family circumstances are
important to meet the hidden and open cost of schooling and failure of which leads to
permanent dropout. Poor quality in education and complicated theory based classes are
another reason for dropout. The parent centric factors including, the number of family
members at home, the health of the family members, educational attainment of the
parents, single parenthood and influence of drop out children in family. The aim of the
study was to identify the variables that have greater impact upon school dropout. The data
was collected from planning commission, Census report and DISE report 2009-10. The
study was concluded with an argument of number of school dropout vary from country to
country across the region. There are many factors with affect the drop out in school.
Possible suitable solutions are required to prevent the dropout rate so more initiatives and
policies should be incorporated to mitigate dropout.
2.2 Knowledge Gap
The researcher came across many studies (2002 – 2012) on parent’s perception
about tribal education and the accessibility of tribal educational programmes and most of
them were based on Indian scenario. The available literatures have not included the
variables like the relation between gender of the parents and their perception, age and
their perception, perception of different sub-casts and their perception towards schooling,
the participation of parents in the academic matters of the child such as parent’s
agreement to education, parents monitoring the performance of the child, parental
encouragement to share the problems at school and comparing them with parents age,
gender, monthly income and sub-cast of the parent.
Most of the literatures have mentioned about the perception of parents from rural
area, parents living in urban slum and tribal parents in different parts of the world. This
study aims to understand the factors affecting dropout among tribal communities in
Nilambur region and to asses if the parents involvement have influenced child to dropout
from school. There are hardly any studies conducted in Nilambur region to identify the
parental perception about the factors affecting student dropout in Nilambur region. This
study also aims to suggest remedies to prevent the dropout in Nilambur region.

26. 16
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter consists of an overview of the methodology used in this research. It consists
of the aim, and objectives of the study. All the variables of studied are given operational
definitions with respect to the study. The inclusion criteria and the exclusion criteria
related to the selection of samples are mentioned and the universe and the population of
the study are also mentioned. The research design is described in detail along with the
sample size, sample method, ethical issues related to the research and the limitations of
the study are also discussed in this chapter.
The study on Parents’ perception about the factors influencing students drop out
in tribal education programmes implemented by the Government of Kerala is based in
different tribal communities in Nilambur, Kerala. 50 parents of drop out children were
selected through snow ball sampling.
A pre-test was conducted to study the effectiveness of the questionnaire covering
five parents of the drop out and necessary changes were made in the questionnaire. The
participants were selected according to variables such as age, sub-caste; gender etc. to
understand the likely response pattern of the participants. This was followed by data
collection, interpretation of results and concluding the research finding.
3.2 Aim of the study
The aim of the study is to find out the parents perception about the factors
influencing students dropout in tribal’s education programmes implemented by the Govt.
of Kerala
3.3 Objectives of the study
 To identify the socio economic profile of the parent whose child is a drop out.
 To assess the parents perception towards tribal education and schooling.
 To assess the areas of involvement in the academic matters of the child.
 To understand the accessibility of tribal education programmes felt by the parent.
 To identify the reasons for dropout.

27. 17
3.4 Operational definition
3.4.1 Parents
Father or mother of a child whose child is a dropout from primary education
before six months and who reside in a tribal community in Nilambur Taluk, Kerala.
3.4.2 Dropout
Dropouts are defined as students, who enrolled in primary education and for
some reason other than death leaves school before completing the grade without
transferring to another school. The duration which exit is more than six months.
3.4.3 Factors influencing dropout
Any factors such as individual, family, schools, economic and community risk
factor that influences child to drop out from school.
3.4.4 Tribal educational programme
The educational programmes implemented by the Government of Kerala to reach
the tribal children and benefit them in Nilambur.
3.5 Significance of the study
The significance of the study is to identify the factors affecting dropout and tribal
parental perception about child’s schooling and education in Nilambur region. The study
also focuses on the involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child and the
awareness and accessibility of tribal education programmes. The findings of the study
would be helpful for designing different policies or that aim on parenting to prevent
dropout in Nilambur region and to understand the root causes of dropout in the selected
six communities. The results of the study can be used as secondary data for the further
researches on the same communities.
3.6 Research design
Descriptive research methodology was used in this study to get a synopsis of
parent’s perception about the factors influencing student dropout in tribal education
programmes implemented by Government of Kerala. It is an effective design to

28. 18
understand the socio demographic profile, perception of parents about schooling and
education, involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child, perceived reasons
for dropout and awareness and accessibility of tribal educational programmes
implemented by government of Kerala.
3.7 Inclusion criteria
 The parents who reside in Nilambur Taluk.
 The parents whose children have dropped out school for more than six months.
3.8 Exclusion criteria
 The parents of children with disabilities. ( Mental retardation, Cerebral Palsy,
Physically Handicapped)
3.9 Sampling Design
The universe consisted of the all parents in tribal region in Kerala. The population in
the study comprised of the parents with dropout children between the age of 6 to 11years
living in Nilambur Taluk, of tribal domicile. The study consisted of 50 participants (33
fathers & 17 mothers) who had a child dropped out from school before six months during
their primary education. All of them resided in tribal communities in Nilambur Taluk of
Kerala. The participants were recruited from Ambumala, Palakkayam, Parekkatt,
Vettilakolli, Vailasseri and Perumbadavam area.
The participants for the study were identified with the help of school records and
discussion with teachers from 8 schools (aided, unaided, government and private school)
in Nilambur Taluk. The attendance registers of previous years and teachers contacts were
used to identify the dropout’s parents. The data was collected from 7 communities in
Nilambur Taluk. 50 participants were selected through snowball sampling. From each
community one participant was identified with the help of community Mooppan
(Community Leader) and the other participants were identified with the help of
participants who already took part in the research.

29. 19
3. 10 Tools of data collection
The researcher used a self-made tool to collect the data. Basic structured schedule
to answer socio demographic details of the participant such as age, sub-cast, family
monthly income etc. and to answer the questions prepared by the researcher according to
each objective. The tool was prepared by referring to the studies which has got similar
objectives, after understanding the real situation of the sample frame by pilot visit and
discussion with people who work in this area and with the help of research guide. The
researcher conducted a pretest to identify the appropriateness, drawbacks, fishing out the
wording issues, lack of clarity in instruction in the questionnaire, estimating the response
rate, estimating the time to complete the survey and understanding point of likely dropout
etc.
The questionnaire has got four objectives and socio demographic details. The first
part tries to identify basic information of the participant followed by the details of the
drop out child. Each question has got close-ended answers which made the respondent to
answer easily. Under each objective few questions are made to understand parent’s
perception towards tribal education and schooling, to assess the areas of involvement in
the academic matters of the child, to understand the accessibility of tribal education
programmes felt by the parent and to identify the reasons for dropout. (APPENDIX 1)
The pretest was conducted with five potential respondents covering 10% of the
sample size using the same method of administration. The tool was validated by the
experts in this field who was able to pick up potential difficulties which might not be
revealed in a pretest with respondent. For example the arrangement of questions and the
response answers which could be easily coded after the data collection. The pretest was
conducted in all types of respondent in terms of age, occupation etc. and the questionnaire
was explained by the researcher to the participants in local language.
3.11 Process of data collection
The researcher used a self-made questionnaire for data collection. Seven
communities were identified which has got the highest rate of dropout, with the help of
secondary data available from the school records and ITDP office in Nilambur. The seven
communities were Ambumala, Palakkayam, Parekkatt, Vettilakolli, Vailasseri,
Perumbadavam and Edivanna estate.

30. 20
The collection of data was done through questionnaire administered through
personal interview method after obtaining informed consent. The researcher was
introduced to the community with the help of Community Mooppan. 50 parents of
dropout children were interviewed through a semi-structured interview.
3.12 Data analysis and interpretation
After the collection of data, the researcher entered it in SPSS 17.0. Each response
in the questions was coded in numerical form. A code of 1, 2, 3, 4 were given to the
response according to the range in each answer. After entering the data, the frequency
tables, cross tabulation, mean, standard deviation, chi-square were done to identify the
significance of variable with the other variable. For each objective an overall domain
score was identified to understand the level of parent’s perception, their involvement,
awareness and accessibility of tribal educational programmes. Two variables were
compared with socio-demographic details and other factors to identify the relation with
each other. The interview took around 20 to 30 minutes to complete and was varied
according to the each respondent’s ability to understand the question.
3.13 Ethical consideration
The collected data would be used for academic purposes only. The researcher has
collected data from the participants only through informed consent. The researcher
assured that the data collected from the respondents would be kept confidential. The
purpose of data was clearly defined to the participant. The research has been objective by
not letting personal biases influence the research process. Plagiarism was checked and
proved that this work is genuine.
3.14 Limitations
 Lack of time on part of the respondents and researcher
 Further research can be done on a bigger sample size and more factors influencing
dropout can be studied.
 The sample was a representative of only few villages in Nilambur Taluk, Kerala.

31. 21
3.15 Conclusion
The research design used is a descriptive design. The study describes about the
factors affecting dropout, parent’s perception about schooling and education, involvement
of parents in the academic matters of the child and the accessibility and awareness of
tribal educational programmes implemented by government of Kerala. The study was
conducted on a sample of 50 tribal parents of the dropout children of Nilambur Taluk.
This chapter has also demonstrated about the ethical considerations that were taken into
account while performing the study along with the limitations of the study.

32. 22
CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter deals with the analysis and interpretation of the data collected and its
results. The arrangement of tables and graphs are based on socio demographic details,
parent’s perception towards schooling and education, the areas of parental involvement in
the academic matters of the child, the accessibility and awareness of tribal education
programmes felt by the parent. The results are analyzed to explain the factors affecting
dropout with regard to parental involvement in the academic matters of the child, their
perception towards schooling and education, accessibility and awareness of tribal
educational programmes.
Table 4.1 Socio demographic data
Sl.no
Frequency (N=50) Percentage
1
1
Age of the parent
21-25 1 2.0
26-30 13 26.0
31-35 28 56.0
36-40 6 12.0
41-45 2 4.0
2 Gender of the parent
Male 33 66.0
Female 17 34.0
3 Marital status
Married 41 82.0

33. 23
Widow 7 14.0
Widower 2 4.0
4 Educational attainment of the parent
Illiterate 2 4.0
Literate 45 90.0
7th STD 3 6.0
5
Occupation of the parent
Unemployed 5 10.0
Agriculture 45 90.0
6 Family monthly income
Below 5000 43 86.0
5000-10000 7 14.0
7 Sub cast of the Parent
Muthuvan 10 20.0
Paniyalar 16 32.0
Paniyan 12 24.0
Kattunaikkan 9 18.0
Malapanikkar 3 6.0
Domicile of the respondent
Ambumala 12 24.0
Palakkayam 14 28.0

34. 24
Peruvambadam 2 4.0
Parekkatt 10 20.0
Vettilakolli 7 14.0
Vailasseri 5 10.0
9
The last class attended by the child
1st std 9 18.0
2nd std 10 20.0
3rd std 17 34.0
4th std 17 34.0
10
The class from which the child dropped out
Before 3rd
21 42.0
3nd 23 46.0
Above 3rd
6 12.0
11 Duration of dropout at the Time of research
Below 6 months 4 8.0
6-12 months ago 14 28.0
12 and above 32 64.0
12 Distance between school and house
Below 2km 14 28.0
2-4km 23 46.0
Above 4km 13 26.0

35. 25
13 Time taken to reach school
20ms 19 38.0
20-40 26 52.0
40 and above 5 10.0
14 Mode of going to school
Walking 46 92.0
Cycling 4 8.0
15 The person who encourages child for education at home
Father 8 16.0
Mother 35 70.0
Sibling 7 14.0
The above table shows the socio-demographic details of the respondent and the
details of the child who dropped out. 56% of the participants fall in the category of 31-35
years of age in which 66% of them are males and 34% of them are females. 82% of the
parents were married, 14% of them were widows and 4% of them were widower. 90% of
the respondents were literate which means who knew to read and write. Only 6% of them
have completed their 7th
standard. 90% of the participants have agricultural occupation
and 10% of them were unemployed. 86% of participants were earning below 5000
annually. Only 14% of them are earning more than 5000 per month.
The participants of the study fall in five different sub-casts such as Muthuvan,
Paniyalar, Paniyan, Kattunaikkan, and Malapanikkar. The study was conducted in six
communities in Nilambur Taluk such as Ambumala, Palakkayam, Peruvambadam,
Parekkatt, Vettilakolli and Vailasseri. The last class attended by the drop out child was
third (34%) and fourth (34%) standards. 46% of the children were dropped out from 3rd
standard and 42% of them were before 3rd
standard. 64% of children were dropped out
before 12 months from school at the time of research Which shows that there is reduction
in the dropout rate in Nilambur Taluk.

36. 26
46% of children had to walk 2 to 4 Km every day from school to home which
would take 20 to 40 minutes. 92% of children choose the mode of walking to school
every day. In 70% of families, mother encourages the child for schooling. Okumu, (2008)
reveals that the there is no significant relation between distance to school, gender of
respondent and gender of the household head.
Figure 4.1 Reason for drop out responded by parents
The above pie chart shows the reason for dropout stated by the parent. 28% of
students drop out because of alcoholism of father, 24% of students drop out because of
lack of economic resources to meet their educational expenses by the parents. 16% of
students drop out because of lack of transportation facilities and distance to school. 12%
of students were dropout because of the peer influence. 8% of students drop out due to
lack of parental interest in sending their children to school, ill treatment by the teacher at
school and poor learning ability of the child. 4% of children drop out because of the
physical disability and lack of facilities to reach school on time.
Following studies also supports the same reasons for dropout identified by the
researcher. Okumu, (2008) found out that primary students tend to dropout from school
due to economic and socio-cultural factors. He also mentioned about the influence of the
community by providing employment opportunities to children during school which
cause for dropout. As the number of students employed, the number of dropout also
increase. Wajid & Muhammad, (2011) indicated in his study that high level of poverty,
gang
dropout
12%
alcoholism of
fathers
28%
lack of
economical
resources
24%
long
distance to
school
16%
physically
handicapped due
to accident
4%
lack of parental
interest
8%
Ill treatment
by teachers
and child's
poor learning
ability
8%

37. 27
lack of money to purchase stationary for education, low academic achievement and
inadequacy of academic supervision at school and family leads to dropout among
children. Manjunatha, (2012) also reveals that the educational attainment of parents does
not have any significant effect on the perception towards child’s schooling and education.
Table 4.2 Parent’s perception towards schooling and education
Sl. no Frequency (N=50) Percentage
1
All-round development of the child through education
Not sure 3 6.0
Disagree 12 24.0
Agree 35 70.0
2 Better education provides better job
Not sure 5 10.0
Disagree 21 42.0
Agree 24 48.0
3 Schooling will help in carrying out family occupation
Not sure 19 38.0
Disagree 15 30.0
Agree 16 32.0
4 Education help to deal with challenges in life
Not sure 21 42.0
Disagree 13 26.0
Agree 16 32.0

38. 28
5 Education is an obstacle in income generation
Not sure 18 36.0
Disagree 14 28.0
Agree 18 36.0
6 Education helps in real life
Not sure 13 26.0
Disagree 17 34.0
Agree 20 40.0
7
Education does not matter in later life
Not sure 8 16.0
Disagree 13 26.0
Agree 29 58.0
8
Absenteeism in school does not affect the future of the child
Not sure 12 24.0
Disagree 20 40.0
Agree 18 36.0
The above table shows that 70% of the parents agree that education helps in all
round development of the child. 48% of parents said better education provides better jobs
in the future but 42% of the parents disagree with the statement. 38% of the parents are
not sure if schooling helps in carrying out the family occupation. 32% of parents agreed
that education will help in dealing with the challenges effectively.
36% of parents each agree as well as not sure that education is an obstacle in
income generation.40% of parents agree that education helps in real life. 58% of parents

39. 29
answered education does not matter in later life and 40% of parents agreed that
absenteeism in school affect the future of the child.
Figure 4.2 Parent’s perception towards schooling and education
The above pie diagram shows overall response of parent’s perception. The overall
perception of parents is calculated by adding the total of 8 responses of the question about
parent’s perception about schooling and education and categorizes them as low, medium
and high level of perception. The mean for the total score is 5.5800 and the standard
deviation is 3.25872. If the response comes below 23.47 is called as low level of
perception, if the response comes in between 23.47 and 30.53 is called medium level of
perception and if the response is higher than 30.53 is called as positive perception
towards child’s schooling and education.
Parent’s perception towards schooling and education include statements like
education will provide an all-round development to child, better education for better jobs,
schooling is a hindrance for carrying out the family occupation, and education helps in
effectively deal with the challenges and the relevance of school lessons to real life. 74%
of parents show medium level of support towards sending their children to school, 18% of
parents have a very positive opinion about their child’s schooling and education and 8%
of parents have negative attitude in sending their child to school.
Samal, (2012) has indicated in his study that in spite of government’s endeavors
in providing free education to all, the attitude of parents was not highly favorable. He
mentioned the low socio-economic status can adversely affect the attitude of parents
towards schooling and education.
Low
8%
Medium
74%
High
18%
Parent’s perception towards schooling and education

40. 30
The above table shows the relation between gender of the parent and their
perception towards child’s education. In this study 66% of participants are male
population so the male parents show medium level of positive attitude in sending their
children to school. Moreover 36 parents out of 50 support children in an average level to
send them to school. There is no significant relation between gender and perception of
the parent (.210). In Samal, (2012) study conducted among tribal parents reveals that
there is no significant difference in the gender of the parent and their perception towards
schooling and education. He also mentioned that mothers were more favorable to child’s
schooling and education.
Table 4.3 Gender of the parent and perception towards child’s education
Gender of the
parent Perception of parents towards child’s education
Low Medium High Total
Male
Female
6 24 3 33
1 12 4 17
Total 7 36 7 50

41. 31
Table 4.4 Age of the parent and their perception towards child’s education
Age of the parent Perception of parents towards child’s education
Low Medium High Total
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
1 0 0 1
2 9 2 13
1 22 5 28
0 4 2 6
0 2 0 2
Total 4 37 9 50
The above table indicates the age of the parent and their perception towards
child’s education. 56% of parents in the age group of 31 to 35 show a positive attitude
towards child’s education. 74% of parents nevertheless of any age have a positive attitude
(medium) towards child’s education. Parents in the age group of 21 to 25 and 41 to 45
have a negative attitude towards child’s education. The point to be noted is only few
participants fall in the age group of 21to 25 and 41 to 45. The Chi-square test reveals that
there is a significant relationship (.056) between age of the parent and their perception
towards child’s schooling and education.

42. 32
Table 4.5 Sub-cast of the parent and their perception towards
education of the child
Sub-cast of the
Parent Perception of parents towards child’s education
TotalLow Medium High
Muthuvan
Paniyalar
Paniyan
Kattunaikkan
Malapanikkar
1 8 1 10
1 11 4 16
0 11 1 12
1 6 2 9
1 1 1 3
Total 4 37 9 50
The above table reveals the sub-cast of the parent’s and their perception
towards child’s education. The Paniyalar and Paniyan’s show a positive attitude towards
child’s education. 8% of Paniyalar shows high level of perception in sending their
children to school. However, 74% of parents have moderate support for sending their
children to school.
Table 4.6 Family monthly income and perception of parents towards child’s education
Family monthly
income
Perception of parents towards
child’s education
TotalLow Medium High
below 5000
5000-10000
4 31 8 43
0 6 1 7
Total 4 37 9 50

43. 33
The above table indicates the family monthly income and the perception of
parents towards schooling and education. Even though parents are earning less than 5000
annually, still they have a positive attitude towards schooling and education of the child.
In Samal, (2012) study, he has mentioned the parents who earn Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4000 had
an unfavorable attitude towards schooling and education of the child.
Table 4.7 The person who encourages for education and their perception towards
education
The person who
encourages for education
Perception of parents towards
child’s education
Low Medium High Total
Father
Mother
Sibling
0 8 0 8
4 23 8 35
0 6 1 7
Total 4 37 9 50
The above table reveals the person who encourage for education and their
perception towards schooling and education of the child. 70% of mothers encourage
children to go to school and 46% of mothers show moderate level of attitude in sending
their children to school. The father and sibling also have a key role in encouraging their
children to send to school.

44. 34
Table 4.8 Involvement of parents in academic matters of the child
Sl.no Frequency (N=50) Percentage
1
Number of days child attend the class in a week
Every day 31 62.0
Two days 2 4.0
3 days 3 6.0
More than 3 days 14 28.0
2 Parental agreement to child’s education
Not sure 4 8.0
Disagree 21 42.0
Agree 25 50.0
3
Performance of the child in the class
Bad 2 4.0
Average 5 10.0
Good 41 82.0
Very good 2 4.0
4 Parents involvement in child’s assignments
Never 2 4.0
Sometimes 17 34.0
Often 19 38.0

45. 35
Regularly 12 24.0
5 Parents provide a study environment at home
Sometimes 16 32.0
Often 26 52.0
Regularly 8 16.0
6 Parental encouragement to share the problems at school
Never 2 4.0
Sometimes 19 38.0
Often 21 42.0
Regularly 8 16.0
7 Meeting of parents with teachers to discuss about child’s performance
Never 8 16.0
Sometimes 22 44.0
Often 8 16.0
Regularly 12 24.0
8 Parents preparing food in time to send the child to school
Never 4 8.0
Sometimes 6 12.0
Often 14 28.0
Regularly 26 52.0

46. 36
9 Buying study materials for the child
Never 2 4.0
Sometimes 16 32.0
Often 26 52.0
Regularly 6 12.0
10 Checking child’s class notes and ask questions about it
Never 6 12.0
Sometimes 24 48.0
Often 12 24.0
Regularly 8 16.0
11 Enquiring reasons for coming early or late from school
Never 4 8.0
Sometimes 28 56.0
Often 10 20.0
Regularly 8 16.0
The above table shows the areas of involvement of parents in the academic
matters of the child. 62% of parents responded that their child attend school every day.
50% of parents have agreement towards child’s schooling and education. Nevertheless of
sub-cast of parents 82% of them responded that child perform well in the class. 38% of
the parents often involve in child’s assignment. 52% of parents often provide a study
environment for the child at home.
42% of parent often encourages the child to share their problems at school. 44%
of parents sometimes meet the teachers to discuss about the performance of the child in

47. 37
class. 52% of parents agreed that they prepare food on time to send their children to
school. 52% of parent often buys the study materials for the child for the education. 48%
of parents are sometimes checking the class notes of child and ask questions about it. 56%
of parent sometimes enquires the reason for coming early or late from school.
Figure 4.3 Involvement of parents in academic matters of the child
The above chart shows the overall involvement of parents in the academic matters
of the child. The levels of involvement is calculated by adding the response of each
question answer and categorize them as low, medium and high level of involvement. The
mean score of the domain is 27.000 and the standard deviation is 3.53986. The response
fall under the category of low level when the response is less than 23.47, the response fall
under moderate category if the response is between 23.47 and 30.53 and high level of
perception means the response above 30.53.
72% of parents mostly engage in the academic matters of the child such as
checking the attendance and performance of the child, helping the child in doing the
assignments, providing a study environment at home, encouraging child to share the
problems at school, meeting the teacher to discuss about the performance of the child,
preparing food on time to send the child to school, buying study materials for the child,
checking the class notes of the child and asking questions about it and enquiring reasons
for coming early or late from school. 14% of parents are highly involved in the academic
matters of the child and other 14% of parents are least bothered about child’s education.
In Guðlaug, (2010) study he has mentioned parental involvement such as interpretation,
mathematics, behavior, school attendance which has high effect and influence in the
education of the child.
Low
14%
Medium
72%
High
14%

48. 38
Table 4.9 Educational attainment of the parent and involvement of parents in the
academic matters of the child.
Educational attainment of the parent and parental Participation in the academic matters of
the child
Low Medium High Total
Illiterate
Literate
7th STD
0 2 0 2
7 31 7 45
0 3 0 3
Total 7 36 7 50
The above table shows the educational attainment of parents and the involvement
of parents in the academic matters of the child. The parents who are literate are mostly
involved in the academic matters of the child. parents shows a medium level of interest in
helping the children in their assignments and involved in enquiring about school related
issues, buying study materials, providing a proper study environment at home etc.
The chi-square test reveals that there is no significant relationship (.706) between
educational attainment of the parent and involvement of parents in the academic matters
of the child. Okumu, (2008) also found that educated parents children are more enrolled
and show keen interest to continue with the education. The educated mother’s contribute
more time to help the academic matters of the child.

49. 39
Table 4.10 Occupation of the parent and their involvement in the academic matters of the
child
Occupation of the parent Involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child
Low Medium High Total
unemployed
agriculture/self-employment
1 3 1 5
6 33 6 45
Total 7 36 7 50
The above table shows the occupation of the parent and their involvement in the academic
matters of the child. The parents who are self-employed or farming have average
involvement in the academic matters of the child. 90% of parents are either self-employed
or farmers in this study. The table shows that unemployment of parents does not affect the
involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child because they also provide an
average support to children in the academic matters. The result indicates that there is no
significant relation between occupation and involvement of the parent in the academic
matters of the child (.820). Hill N (2004) indicated that parents from lower socio-
economic background face so many barriers to involve in the academic matters of the
child due to non-flexible work schedule, lack of available resources and stress about
occupation.

50. 40
Table 4.11 Sub-cast of the Parent and their involvement in the academic matters of the
child.
Sub-cast of the Parent Involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child
Low Medium High Total
Muthuvan
Paniyalar
Paniyan
Kattunaikkan
Malapanikkar
1 8 1 10
1 12 3 16
3 9 0 12
1 6 2 9
1 1 1 3
Total 7 36 7 50
The above table shows the sub-cast of the parent’s and their involvement in the
academic matters if the child. Paniyalar parents provide a medium level of involvement in
the academic matters of the child. Malapanikkar are least interested in involving the
academic matters if the child. As a total the parents in Nilambur region provides a
medium level of involvement in the academic matters if the child.

51. 41
Table 4.12 Family monthly income and involvement of parents in the academic matters of
the child.
family monthly income Involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child
Low Medium High Total
below 5000
5000-10000
7 31 5 43
0 5 2 7
Total 7 36 7 50
The above table shows the family monthly income and the involvement of parents
in the academic matters of the child. Though parents are earning below 5000 still most of
the parents (86%) engage in the academic matters of the child. 72% of parents are
moderately involved in the academic matters of the child. in Guðlaug, (2010) reveals that
there is a positive relationship between socio-economic status of parents and involvement
of parents in the academic matters of the child. The students from low economic
background face more problems than the normal population.
Table 4.13 Perceived reasons for dropout
Sl.no Frequency (N= 50) Percentage
1
Detain child for household works
Never 4 8.0
Rarely 5 10.0
Sometimes 28 56.0
Often 13 26.0
2 Teacher showing partiality to child
Never 4 8.0

52. 42
Rarely 14 28.0
Sometimes 25 50.0
Often 7 14.0
3 Schooling obstruct from getting a job early in life.
Strongly agree 5
10.0
Agree 10
20.0
Disagree 33
66.0
Strongly disagree 2
4.0
4
Dropout because school is far from home
Strongly agree 4 8.0
Agree 23 46.0
Disagree 19 38.0
Strongly disagree 4 8.0
5 School does not give quality education to child
Strongly agree 4 8.0
Agree 18 36.0
Disagree 28 56.0
The above table shows the perceived reasons for dropout by the parents. 56% of
parents sometimes detain the child from school for household works. 50% of parents said
sometimes teachers show partiality to the students in school. 66% of parents disagree with
the statement that schooling obstructs from getting a job early. 46% of parents agree that
children dropout because school is far from home. 56% of parents agree the statement
that school provides quality education to students.

53. 43
Figure 4.5. The awareness and accessibility of tribal educational programmes
The above table shows the awareness about tribal educational programmes,
awareness about free education and awareness about hostel facilities for tribal students.
78% of parents agree with the fact that they are aware about the tribal educational
programmes offered by the Government of Kerala. 12% of parents disagree with the
statement and 10% of parents are not sure about it. In terms of awareness about free
education, 56% of parents are aware about it, 34% of parents disagree with it and 10% of
parents are not sure about it. 42% of parents are not sure about the hostel facilities
provided by the Government for the students, 32% of parents disagree with it and 26% of
parents agree with it. In short, most of the parents are aware about the tribal educational
programmes except about the hostel facilities.
Krishnan, (2014) in his study reveals that most of the parents were aware of the
schemes such as Lump sum grants, hostel facilities, incentives to parents etc. Moreover,
large number of respondents was unaware of the several other schemes in processes
which are not available in their village or neighboring village.
10 10
42
12
34 32
78
56
26
Awareness bout tribal
educational programmes
Awareness about free
education
Awareness about hostel
facilities
Awareness of parents
not sure disagree agree

54. 44
Figure 4.6 Benefits availed from tribal educational programmes
The above chart explains the accessibility of tribal educational programmes by the
children of the respondent. 64% of parents said they haven’t benefitted anything from
Government reservation programmes. 26% parents responded that they have benefitted
from this programmes. 60% of parents agreed that their children are getting free
education from the school. 66% of parents said that they are receiving Rs.300 as
scholarship per month from school. 88% of parents agreed that their children have
received midday meal from school. Only 22% of students have stayed in the in the hostel.
50% of parents disagreed that their children have received free uniform from school. 70%
of children have received coaching for the competitive exams from school and 48% of
parents disagree with the statement of child has received coaching for extra-curricular
activities. 50% of parents agreed that their child has received encouragement for athletic
and arts programmes from the school.
Krishnan, (2014) pointed out in his study that most of the educational schemes are
yet to be utilized by the tribal population. The important schemes made use by the tribal
population are Lump sum grant, incentives to parents, monthly stipends and hostel
Benefitt
ed from
Govt.
reservat
ion
progra
mme
Free
educati
on from
school
Rs.300
as
scholars
hip per
month
Midday
meal
from
school
Resided
in the
hostel
Free
uniform
from
school
Coachin
g for
competi
tive
exams
Coachin
g for
extra-
curricul
ar
activitie
s
Encoura
gement
for
athletic
s and
arts
Agree 26 60 66 88 22 44 24 42 50
Disagree 64 28 28 10 62 50 70 48 44
Not sure 10 12 6 2 16 6 6 10 6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Benefits availed from tribal educational programmes

55. 45
facilities. The facilities like special coaching for athletic and arts and facilities for better
education etc. are not properly utilized by the tribal students.
Figure 4.7 Sending children only for midday meal
The above chart explains the statement if parent send their child only for midday
meal or not. 80% of parents disagree with the statement, 18% of them agree and 2% of
parents are not sure about it.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that student’s in Nilambur region dropout due to the
alcoholism of parents and lack of economic resources in family. Parents have moderately
positive level of perception and agreement to child’s schooling and education. Parents are
mostly involved in the academic matters of the child. Tribal parents have awareness of
benefitted from the tribal educational schemes such as Lump sum grant, incentives to
parents, monthly stipend and hostel facilities to school going children. Very few parents
send their children to school only for midday meal.
18%
80%
2%
Sending child only for midday meal
Agree Disagree Not sure

56. 46
CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Introduction
The study examines the perception about the factors influencing students drop out
in tribal education programmes implemented by the Government of Kerala based on six
different tribal communities in Nilambur. 50 parents of drop out children were selected
through snow ball sampling. The data was collected through self-made questionnaire and
validated by the experts. A pre-test study was conducted to study the effectiveness of the
tool covering five parents of the drop out and necessary changes were made in the
questionnaire. The data was analyzed by using SPSS software Statistical package and
various statistical measures. The data was analyzed and interpreted according to each
objective.
5.2 Findings of the study
 Among the total respondents 56% of the participants fall in the category of 31-35
years of age in which 66% of them are males and 34% of them are females.
 In this study 90% of the respondents were literate which means who knew to read
and write.
 Present study testifies that 64% of children were dropped out before 12 months
from school at the time of research.
 In 70% of families, mother encourages the child for schooling.
 28% of students drop out because of alcoholism of father, 24% of students drop
out because of lack of economic resources to meet their educational expenses by
the parents.
 The research indicates that 16% of students drop out because of lack of
transportation facilities and long distance to school. 12% of students were dropout
because of the peer influence.
 74% of parents show medium level of support towards sending their children to
school, 18% of parents have a very positive opinion about their child’s schooling.
 The study reveals that 74% of parents have a positive attitude (medium) towards
child’s education.

57. 47
 There is a significant relationship (.056) between age of the parent (31-35) and
their perception towards child’s schooling and education.
 The Paniyalar and Paniyan’s show a positive attitude and involvement towards
child’s education.
 42% of parent often encourages the child to share their problems at school. 44%
of parents sometimes meet the teachers to discuss about the performance of the
child in class.
 52% each of parents agreed that they prepare food on time to send their children
to school and often buys the study materials for the child for the education.
 The study shows that 72% of parents mostly engage in the academic matters of
the child.
 There is no significant relationship (.706) between educational attainment of the
parent and involvement of parents in the academic matters of the child.
 Unemployment of parents does not affect the involvement of parents in the
academic matters of the child because they also provide an average support to
children in the academic matters.
 56% of parents sometimes detain the child from school for household works.
 Among the total respondents 78% of parents are aware about the tribal
educational programmes offered by the Government of Kerala.
 60% of parents agreed that their children are getting free education and 66% of
parents are receiving Rs.300 as scholarship per month from school. 88% of
parents agreed that their children have received midday meal from school.
 The important schemes made use by the tribal population are Lump sum grant,
incentives to parents, monthly stipends and hostel facilities. The facilities like
special coaching for athletic and arts and facilities for better education etc. are not
properly utilized by the tribal students.
 80% of parents disagree with the statement that sending their children only for
midday meal.
5.3 Implications of the study
5.3.1 Implications for social work practice
The result of this study suggests that the perception of parents and their involvement
in the academic matters of the child have a positive influence in the dropout rate among

58. 48
tribal students. Social work interventions in the forms of case work and group work
community organization can help students, parents and community for contributing the
educational attainment of the child. In order to reduce the dropout rate, social workers
should directly work with children, teachers and parents to help the children at risk of
leaving school. Social worker can facilitate parents with low socio-economic background,
and boredom students by conducting activities, teaching the students about modern
agricultural practices which can support their parents. Social worker can bring awareness
on the importance and quality of education and the government schemes for the
marginalized. The results suggest the need for developing more policies which can reach
to maximum marginalized population. Specially designed curriculum should be
implemented in Ashram school and Model residential school.
5.3.2 Implications for social work education
The social worker can be trained to deal with various issues concerned with dropout
and marginalized society. The study also demanded community social worker’s
hypothetical understanding about the issues of children at school. The social worker can
understand the life style, tradition, culture and difference between the general
populations.
5.3.3 Implications for social work research
Keeping this research as a base, more researches on factors influencing dropout and
perception of parents towards schooling and education can be done in different tribal
settings. A research can be done in the same region to explore other factors leading to
dropout.
The paper has already been presented in ISWC conference, organized by Madras
school of Social Work.
5.4 Limitations of the study
The limitations of the study are taken into consideration and some of them are
mentioned below.
As it was difficult to get access to various tribal communities, the researcher had
to take the local support and help from community Mooppan (Leader) to collect the data.
The study is limited as the semi structured close ended questions had uneven number of

59. 49
negative and positive questions framed under each objective. The study was conducted
with self-structured tool, and hence the result has its limitations.
5.5 Suggestions for further studies
The present study is not much comprehended and exhaustive due to the time frame of
post-graduation course. There are some limitations in design. Even though Kerala has
achieved the highest literacy state, the dropout rate among marginalized and those who
have never attended the school are unnoticed by the authorities. So it needs modification
to assess the factors leading to dropout from schools located in tribal communities and
government run schools for tribal students. Some suggestions for further research are
given below.
A comparative study can be conducted to identify the parent’s perception towards
schooling and education of general parents and tribal parents in Nilambur region. A study
can be conducted to identify the accessibility of educational and tribal development
schemes implemented by Government of Kerala in Nilambur region. The research had its
limitation regarding the sample design for the study.
5.6 Conclusion
Dropout is a universal phenomenon in Indian context. Parental attitude, culture,
lack of infrastructural facilities and poor economy in family leads to dropout in Nilambur
region. Parents have moderate level of positive attitude towards child’s education and
involvement in the academic matters of the child. There is a significance relationship
between age and perception of parents towards schooling. Paniyalar and Paniyan’s show
more involvement in the academic matters of the child. There is no significance
relationship between occupation, educational attainment of parents and involvement of
parents in academic matters of the child. Most of the parents are aware of the tribal
educational programmes which are availed in their community. Further studies have to be
conducted to explore the reasons for dropout which could help in developing more
policies to reduce the dropout rate.

60. REFERENCES
Basumatary, R. (2012). School dropout across Indian states: An econometric
study. International Research Journal of Social Sciences, Retrieved
from http://www.isca.co.in/SOC_HU_SCI/soc-hu-sci-doctorate.php
Bhutto, N. A., & Narejo, R. A. (2008). Parents perception regarding children's education.
Retrieved from . Sukkur
Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur
BAI, M. (2003). Regional development in Kerala; a study of Malappuram district. Cochin
University of Science and Technology,
Chugh, S. (2011). Dropout in secondary education: A study of children living in slums of
Delhi. National University of Educational Planning and Administration,
Feuerstein, A. (2000). School Characteristics and Parent Involvement. Retrieved
from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27542300. 94(1), 29-39
Government of Kerala (2001) State tribal development department, Trivandrum, A broad
spectrum of tribal development: Role played by the Govt. of Kerala. Report of the
State tribal developmenent department, Ch 5.
Government of Kerala. (2012, April 26). Children and young people. The role of parents
in a child’s learning. Retrieved
from http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/
families/a00203160/role-of-parents-in- h l ’ -learning
Government of Kerala (11, March 2014). Ministry of tribal affairs. The major
schemes/programme of the ministry of tribal affairs Retrieved
from http://tribal.nic.in/Content/schemes.aspx
Government of Kerala, (11, March 2014). Economic review. Retrieved
from http://indiabudget.nic.in/survey.asp Chapter-11EDUCATION.
Government of Kerala, (11, March 2014). Ministry of tribal welfare, Tribal development
plan, Trivandrum Retrieved from.
http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layou
t=blog&id=97&Itemid=297.

61. Government of Kerala (11, March 2014). Report of the Tribal Sub- Plan for Kerala. A
broad spectrum of Tribal development.
Guðlaug, E. (2010). Effects of parental involvement in education. M.Ed. Thesis in
Educational Administration,
George, K. K. (2011). Higher education in Kerala: How inclusive is it to scheduled castes
and scheduled tribes?. Education Exclusion and Economic Growth, 1(4),
Kakkoth, S. (2012). A study on the perceptions of tribal school drop-outs in kerala. Child
Rights and You,
Hill, N. E. (2004). Parental school involvement and children's academic achievement,
Pragmatics and issues. sage publications , 161-164.
Karuna, C. (2007). Education, social stratification and mobility. ICSSR Journal of
Abstracts and Reviews,42(7), 590-98.
KIRTADS. Government of Kerala (2014, feb 17). Ministry of sc/st development.
Retrieved from http://kirtads.kerala.gov.in/
Krishnan, C. (2014, feb). Awareness and utilisation of educational development schemes
by tribesfolk of wayanad, kerala. Retrieved from
http://www.cds.ac.in/krpcds/publication/ckrishnan.htm
Manjumder, A. (2002). Isolated communities and ignored claims: Tribal ch l ’ h
to education in India. Social Indicators Research
Manjunatha, R. (2012). An investigative study on school drop-outs in tribal settings a
case of three selected tribes in south Karnataka. Antrocom Online Journal of
Anthropology, 8(2), 421 - 427.
Nazer, M. (2008). A study of land alienation and indebtedness among tribals in tamil
nadu, Kerala and Karnataka states. Research Department of Commerce of Khadir
Mohideen College,
Okumu IM, Nakajjo A, Isoke D. [11 March 2014] Socioeconomic determinants of
primary school dropout: the logistic model analysis. Economic Policy Research
Center, Makerere University. MPRA Paper No. 7851.http://mpra.ub.uni-
muenchen.de/7851
Pomerantz, E. M. (2007). The How, Whom, and Why of Parents' Involvement in
Children's Academic Lives: More Is Not. American Educational Research
Association, 77(3), 373-410.

62. Premji, A. F. (2004). Community perceptions on education a study in north east
Karnataka. Research & Documentation Team, Bangalore, Azim Premji
Foundation.
Roy, C. (2011). A study on the dropout problem of primary education in Uttar dinajpur,
West Bengal, India. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, Retrieved from
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40319/
Sinlung. (2013, Feb 14). Indian tribals. http://indiatribals.blogspot.in/2009/05/study-
dimensional-problem-of-tribal.html
Samal, R. (2012). ’ attitude towards schooling and education of children. National
Institute of Technology, Rourkela
Saiti, A. (2005). Parental perception of the education of their adolescent children:
Evidence from Greek secondary education. Journal of Career and Technical
Education, 22(1),
Sook, J., & Bowen, N. (2006). Parent involvement, cultural capital, and the achievement
gap among elementary school children. American Educational Research
Journal, 43(2), 193-218.
Wajid, S., & Muhammad, S. (2011). The impact of multiple factors on dropout trend in
government primary schools in district Mardan. Interdisciplinary Journal of
Contemporary Research in Business, 3(5).
Zacharias, S. (2003). The micro-level impact of tribal development programmes among
the Kadar tribe of Kerala. Kerala Research Programme on Local Level
Development Centre for Development Studies. Trivandrum.

63. APPENDIX
Informed Consent
This study entitled “Parent’s perception about the factors influencing students drop out in
tribal education programmes implemented by the Government of Kerala” is conducted in
fulfillment of my Master’s degree in Social Work dissertation from Christ University,
Bangalore.
The study will be carried out in Nilambur Taluk of Malappuram district, Kerala. The purpose
of this study is to add the research knowledge and studying the parent’s perception about the
factors influencing students drop out in tribal education programmes implemented by the
Government of Kerala.
Participation in this study is voluntary and the participants are free to withdraw from the
study, if they feel any discomfort or inconvenience from answering the questions at any point
of time. You have the right to clarify the doubts or ask for more information throughout the
study. It is purely for academic purpose and confidentiality will be maintained.
I request you to support in this effort, if you have understood the study and wish to
participate. Please sign the consent form and answer the interview schedule.
Signature / Thump impression of the Participant Signature of the Researcher
Date: _______________________ Name: Dominic Thomas
MSW student
Christ University, Bangalore–29
Mob: 9686097636
(E-mail: dominicthomas11@gmail.com

64. 1. Name :
2. Age :
3. Sex : □Male □Female
4. Religion : □ Hindu □Christian
□Muslim □Any other -
…………...
5. Educational Attainment of parent. : □Illiterate □ Literate
□7th
STD □Matriculate
6. Marital Status : □Married □ Widow □
Widower/Other
7. Occupation : □Unemployed □Agriculture/Self
Employed
□Private sector □Govt. Job
8. Your Family monthly income. : □Below 5000 □5000-1000 0
□10000-20000 □20000 and above
9. Educational qualification of the child : □1……□2 …… □3……
10. Which child has dropped out? : □First □Second □Third
11. From which class your child has
dropped out? : □……. □…….
12. When was the child dropped
out of school? : □Below 3months □6 months ago
□1 year ago □Above 1 year
13. What was the reason for dropping out? : □……………………………………
14. What is the distance between
School and your house? : □Below 2km □2-4 km □4-
6km
□6-8km □Above 8km

65. 15. What is the timing of the school? : □Opening ----- □Closing -----
16. How many minutes/hours child
takes to reach school ? : □20ms □20-30 □30-40
□40 and above
17. Who in your family encourages
about child’s education ? : □Father □Mother
□Siblings
□Any other-……………...
18. What is the mode of going school? : □Walking □Cycling
□Public Transport □Any other
Parent’s perception towards schooling and education
19. Education will help my child for his all round
development. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
20. Better educational qualification will help in
getting better jobs in the future besides
agriculture. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
21. Schooling will make my child more
productive and help to adopt family
occupation. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
22. Education helps in learning ways to deal
with challenges in future : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
23. Education is an obstacle in the path of
income in near future. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
24. I think most of the things my child learns
at school are not relevant to real life. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
25. When my child grows up to be an adult,

66. it hardly matters if he attended school or not: □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
26. I will not face any real problem in future
if I did not send my child to school. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
Involvement of parents in academic matters of the child
27. How often does your child attend the
class in a week : □Every day □Two days □3
days □More than 3 days
28. My spouse and I have agreement with
regard to child’s education. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
29. How does your child perform in the class : □Bad □Average □Good
□Very good □Don’t know
30. I involve in my child’s assignments
or homework ? : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
31. I provide an environment that suits
for the child to study at home. : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
32. I encourage my child to share about
his/her problems at school with me or
my spouse : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
33. I meet the teacher to discuss about my
child’s performance. : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
34. I prepare food in time for my child so
that he/she can attend class in time. : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
35. I buy materials for my child that are

67. required for studies other than things given
from school. : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
36. I check your child’s class notes and ask
questions about it? : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
37. I enquire with my child if he/she is
coming late/early from school : □Regularly □Often
□Sometimes □Never
Perceived reasons for dropout
38. I detain my child from going to school
because of household works or problems. : □Often □Sometimes
□Rarely □Never
39. I come across instances of teachers
showing partiality to my child. : □Often □Sometimes
□Rarely □Never
40. I think schooling obstruct my child from
getting a job early in his life. : □Agree □Strongly Agree
□Disagree □Strongly Disagree
41. I do not send my child to school because
it is very far. : □Agree □Strongly Agree
□Disagree □Strongly Disagree
42. I feel that the school does not give
quality education : □Agree □Strongly Agree
□Disagree □Strongly Disagree
The awareness and accessibility of tribal educational programmes
43. I have heard about tribal educational
Programmes. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
44. I have benefitted from the Govt. reservation

68. Programme. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
45. I know that the Govt. is providing free
and compulsory education to all the children : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
46. My child is getting a free education
from school. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
47. I pay educational fees towards my
child’s education. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
48. I have received -----------amount in
Scholarship monthly/ annually. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
49. My child receives midday meal from
School. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
50. I am sending my child only for
midday meal. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
51. I know that there are hostel facilities
available for the children who are coming
from far villages : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
52. My child resides in the hostel. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
53. My child has received free uniform from
the school. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
54. My child has received special coaching
for competitive examinations. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
55. My child has received special coaching
for studies or extra-curricular activities : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
56. My child has received encouragement in
athletics and arts. : □Agree □Disagree □Not sure
57. Any other information?