SCHOOL DROPOUTS OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE URBAN AREA OF COLOMBO, SRI LANKA WITH REFERENCE TO MODARA AND MATTAKKULIYA AND POSSIBLE STRATEGIES TOWARDS CONTINUOUS EDUCATION

Abstract

This sociological study is done based on children who are considered to be the school dropouts of adolescents in Modara and Mattakkuliya areas, belonging to the Colombo Divisional Secretariat in the Colombo district. These adolescents live under the care of their parents, grandparents and with other caregivers. The school dropouts in the urban area of Colombo are found to be the victims of a society which is strongly corrupt due to socio-economic factors. The main objective of this research work is to look into the main causes for students to dropout halfway of their schooling. The primary and secondary data were collected by providing questionnaires, interviews and observations using accepted data collecting methods. The collected data are presented using the most suited methods to analyse data by charts, tables and descriptive methods. It is observed that adolescents show an interest towards primary education amidst various social issues, yet the secondary education has been disrupted by these adolescents. It is found that less attention of parents has largely affected the adolescents. Thus, adolescents lack the proper guidance to nurture their own career paths and achieving their life goals in this society. The primary socialization process has been less among parents, grandparents and other caregivers like close relatives. Therefore, a considerable portion of the children are subjected to a de-socialization process instead of a successful primary socialization process in our selected sample of adolescents. The parents, teachers and key informants are interviewed as to why the percentage of school dropouts in this area is high and in a vulnerable state. The contribution and the support from the parents are found to be very poor in providing a proper education to their child. This fact is further confirmed and proved by the schoolteachers and by the key informants of the sample selected for the study. This study clearly manifests the necessity for considerable attention and contribution of parents to lead adolescents toward a proper education. The socio-economic and demographic background of the school dropout adolescents, factors and agencies that create the reasons for school dropouts, impact of the school dropouts on their family and society and the attitude about continuous education have been discussed in the study. Apart from this, the Zonal Education Director, Grama Niladhari and police OICs of Modara and Mattakkuliya were consulted for lengthy discussions to gather information on the topic. The following were spotlighted as reasons for the school dropouts. Poverty, low level of education of parents and caregivers, drug addiction of parents and adolescents, their attitudes towards education are the key factors identified.

Therefore, in order to reduce the above-mentioned causes in this society, remedial measures have been proposed and recommended in this study. Among them, promoting parent-teacher relationships, initiating continuous counselling sessions for needy parents and adolescents, engaging in more extracurricular activities, introducing vocational training in interested fields, initiating scholarship programmes for adolescents who are from the absolute poverty level, getting attention and support from the religious leaders in the area, necessary curriculum revision to introduce practical orientation in education, children should be cared for by loved ones and giving proper attention to their education are prominent. Thus, these recommendations will help policy makers and educationists to work on school dropout adolescents in Sri Lanka.