School dropouts
Also called: Dropout · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Human Capital Formation in India"
Meaning
School dropouts are children who leave school before completing their education. Many drop out because of poverty, and many of them go into child labour. Each dropout is a loss of human capital: the child loses future skills and earnings, and the economy loses a more productive worker.
Example
In Class 8's example, Shivay left school in grade 6 after his father lost his job. Without more schooling, he is likely to stay in low-paid, low-skill work.
Don't confuse with
- Out-of-school children who never enrolled: dropouts joined school and then left. Some other children never enrolled at all.
- Detention (holding back): under the 2019 amendment to the RTE Act, states may hold students back in classes 5 and 8. Such a student repeats a class but stays in school, so they are not a dropout.
Related concepts
- Literacy rate
- Adult literacy rate
- Educational attainment
- Gender equity in education
- Tertiary education
- Education pyramid