Retaining the school dropouts

Many developing Asian economies are reportedly having a negative impact in their socio-economic development graph due to children dropping out of school. A recent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report by the global logistics company DHL revealed the fact after a thorough study in several countries including Bangladesh. The report suggested that the high rate of school-drop outs is causing as much as 2.0 per cent loss to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in these countries. This is alarming and could be a threat to efforts to tap the potential for sustainable development.
Though in Bangladesh the school drop-out rate has lowered in the recent years, it is not enough to celebrate. Despite an array of facilities provided by the government like free books and no tuition fees, the dropout rate is still quite high, particularly in the vast rural segments. The reasons mainly include poor academic infrastructure, poor health of the children, lack of motivation and household socio-economic status.
It is an incontestable fact that education plays the key driving role to propel socio-economic growth of any nation. It is imperative to enable all children have access to education and at the same time, to ensure that they complete the ladder of education at all levels. However, in all cases, the challenges come up in the journey when children get de-motivated due to the absence of proper and desired learning facilities or that the social and economic conditions at their households or communities distract them.
In most of the surveys on school drop-out, it has been unanimously observed that child marriage is an important factor, particularly for girls at the secondary level. As such, all investments made for them at the primary level go in vain. No matter what incentives are awarded to them even at the tertiary level, such drop-out trends pull down the opportunities for greater economic growth and social security.
Child marriage is undoubtedly a social menace but this trend cannot be uprooted immediately. Factors like faith and poverty are closely interlinked with it. It demands greater efforts for educating and incentivising the parents.
Continued school drop-out trends can also contribute to creating threats for social security. In today's world of growing terrorism, school droppers would have greater inclination towards committing crimes. It has been observed that more and more out of school boys tend to be addicted to drugs.
Another major reason for high extent of school drop-out is the lack of proper educational infrastructure which includes the quality of teaching and learning process provided at the institutions. It is a visible fact that most of the schools lack qualified and motivated teachers. Teachers need to develop their capacity not only teaching the students but for making the process of learning interesting which could help in retention.
Given the fact that school drop-out syndrome is causing a huge dent in the socio-economic growth parameter, it is a dire necessity to prevent it and ensure retention. The challenges -- child marriage, school facility development, child labour, teachers capacity building and so forth -- must be addressed with due priority. The private sector, in their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts, should come forward in this regard, particularly in the vast rural domain in the country.

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