Conducted by Aninha Lobo, head of psychology department, and Andrea Coutinho, senior lecturer in education department of the college, the study profiled school dropouts in the city and suggested ways of retention.

According to the Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad (MPSP), 12.33 per cent students drop out of school at the primary level and 20 per cent at the upper primary level in the state. Similarly, 3.45 per cent students drop out at the primary level and another 9.71 per cent at the upper primary level in Mumbai, MPSP’s figures say.

Lobo and Coutinho collected data from a sample group of 319 school dropouts of diverse age, education and linguistic backgrounds in the city over two years (2005-07).

The questions put to them included: What were the reasons? What are their attitudes towards learning? What is their motivation to learn? Did they need specific learning programmes or development of skills?

“It is widely acknowledged that a significant proportion of children drop out of primary school. Besides an understanding of dropouts, the study is also an attempt to sensitise students towards the issue,” said Lobo.

The findings indicate that while the number of students dropping out increased from Standard V to VII, 61.1 per cent regretted having dropped out and 43.3 per cent would like to go back if given a second chance.

Lobo said the profile of the dropouts at the upper primary level was more complex and weaker students wanted additional support to for a viable future and to develop skills.

Besides exam phobia, 56.7 per cent of the dropouts said they preferred sports, music and crafts to studies and only 21.3 per cent enjoyed listening to explanations. Again, preference was shown for skill or job-related training or subjects as compared to academic learning subjects, Lobo said. “This shows instead of teaching and learning by rote, we need to make classes full of fun and interactive with the inclusion of practicals and simple technologies,” said Lobo.

“For understanding some of the variables associated with dropouts as well as motivation to continue learning, we also studied the association between gender, fear of exams and gender and parental motivation to attend school regularly and dropout regret,” said Lobo.

While the difference between genders on fear of tests, parental motivation or dropout regret was not significant, more girls wanted to go back to if given another chance as compared to boys.