Examining Socio Economic Status and Intelligence of ST and Muslim Students in Secondary Education of West Bengal with Special Reference to Phansidewa Block of Darjeeling District

Abstract

India is experiencing with rapid change in which inclusive, high-quality education is of extreme importance for its future success. Being the second most populated country in world arena it constitute close to 1.37 billion with largest youth population in the world of 600 million young people below the age 25.Consequently there is a growing demand for educational provision in primary as well as in secondary education sector due to rise in the number of school-goers (241 million from 0-9age group and 252 million from 10-19 age group. From the dawn of new decade to 2017 India has made great progress in achieving universal primary education with elementary school enrolment increased 33 million from 156.6 to 189,9 million in 17 years. In this regard the SSA in 2001 and RTE, 2009 the major initiative by Govt. have supported enormous highlight issues of access inclusivity, physical infrastructure and quality in education. Despite of the success story in primary education over 50 per cent of ever enrolled students did not continue their study beyond upper primary. As a result dropout rates in Govt. school remains comparatively high at upper primary level and enrolment gaps from primary to secondary are matter of concern. Secondary education is struggling with many challenges of shortage of professional trained teachers, low expertise in method of instruction, low school readiness of many learners and overly ambitious curricula in rural areas. A large proportion of children from the poor socio economic background and socially disadvantaged groups and girls, especially in rural areas, are either denied access or are failing to complete secondary education. Some of the main factors that could be responsible for low-income children s intelligence are the lack of parent involvement, low expectations for children, and nutrition problems. SES and quality of education play a vital role in children s general intellectual functioning and academic achievements. newline