Retention level figures give an idea of the proportion of the students enrolled in Class I continued through the school upto class V to complete primary school. Dropout (negative of retention) figures give an idea of the proportion of students who discontinue schools after enrolling themselves in Class I. Significance of the study of dropout lies in the fact that dropout generates inefficiency and doubles the cost of education. Once the incidence of dropouts is established, the task of the policy planers is to investigate the factors responsible for such a phenomenon and accordingly formulate specific guidelines for resource allocation as far as reduction of dropout is concerned.

In 1992, National Policy on Education has put a thrust of emphasis on improving learning achievement, widening access, reducing inequalities in access to primary education and reducing dropouts. According to the Annual Report of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (1990-91) the dropout rate was 48.6% in Classes I-V and 64.9% Classes I-VIII in the year i1986-87. The World bank in 1997 reports that 40% of the children in India dropout before completing primary education. Dropout means children who discontinue schooling after enrolling themselves in Class I. The rates have been calculated by reflecting the number of children in Class V and Class VIII as percentage of enrollment in Class I, five or eight years before as case may be.

Three primary causes of dropout have been identified by various studies:

1. Economic: According to the Indian Year Book of Education (1974), 65% of the cases of dropout are of economic origin. After the age of nine, the child works at home or outside the family and adds to family income directly or indirectly. The World Bank in 1997 has pointed out high cost of schooling as the main cause which force many poor to dropout. The direct cost of schooling has been estimated as Rs. 293 per child in 1994. According to another study the indirect cost (opportunity cost) per child has been estimated to be Rs. 13 per day per child in 1995. So both the direct and indirect cost of schooling put a heavy burden on the poor when they send their children to schools. Again in the absence of any visible economic benefit for the rural working force, people may loose interest in education.
2. Educational : According to some studies following factors have been founded to be responsible for the estimated 30% of dropouts:

1. Inadequate schooling facilities and incompleteness in school course;
2. Large incidence of stagnation (failure);
3. Dull character of most schools and their poor capacity;
4. Absence of ancillary services like school meals and school health check ups;
5. Defective method of examination and faulty curriculum together with large classrooms with inadequate instructors; and
6. Inability of the school to adjust its hours and vacation to local needs.

1. Social: Gender and Caste are two social reasons responsible for dropouts:

Gender : About 45% to 47% girls dropout in India every year due to (a) marriage at tender age; (b) unwillingness of parents to send grown up girls to a mixed school; (c) lack of appreciation for the education of girls; (d) lack of women teachers and discriminatory attitude against girl students; (e) discouraging girls from talking and interacting in classrooms; (f) lack of adequate facilities for girl students like separate toilets etc; and (g0 the prevalence of the idea that daughters are basically required for religious obligations, housework and emotional support; moreover investment in daughter education is useless as returns would flow to the husbands’ families.

Caste: major factors identified as responsible for dropouts are: (a) unfamiliarity of language in which text books are written and the contents are also not suitable; (b) poverty and pressure of work, force children to dropout, especially girls of background tribes; (c) past tradition of discrimination; (d) most teachers are not from Scheduled Castes or Tribes and hence not sensitive to cultural issues of the backward classes; (e) enforcing discipline within the classrooms is unattractive because tribal children are not used to such a life; and (f) tribal habitation of rural areas receive poor attention.

Dropout means children who discontinue schooling after enrolling themselves in Class I. Since the age group of 6 to 10 and correspondingly the Classes I to V constitute the period of primary education, any student who discontinues after enrolling in Class I is said to have not completed primary education and thus a dropout. Thus dropout rate for primary school students is calculated as [total number of students in Class I-total number of students in Class V] / [total number of students in Class I]. Such a definition does not take into account the failures and migration of students from one school to another after Class I.

The figures for dropout rates have been compiled for total population, separately for boys and girls as also separately for rural and urban areas for the two time points 1978 and 1986 for all-India as also for all he Indian states and union territories. Enrollment figures are provided by the Fourth All India Educational Survey (1978) and Fifth All India Educational Survey (1986) of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi.

Following observations are worth mentioning when incidence of dropouts of students from primary schools are compared between the all-India and the West Bengal:

1. There is no significant fall in the dropout rate at the all- India level [61(1978) to 55(1986)]. However, there is significant inter-state disparity.
2. For both the periods, West Bengal has witnessed dropouts larger than that of the all-India level [77(1978) and 62(1986)]. Thus there was no significant decline in dropout rate in West Bengal.
3. As far as the female-male differential in the dropout rate is concerned, at the all-India level, the ratio has risen, though only marginally [113(1978) to 116(1986)]. So is the case for West Bengal, though below all-India level[104(1978) to 109(1986)].
4. The urban dropout rate for both the time points is lower than the rural counterpart for all-India [urban:41(1978) and 34(1986); rural:66(1978) and 55(1986)]; so is the case for West Bengal [urban:61(1978) and 36(1986); rural:81 (1978) and 67(1986)]. Thus for both the time points, in both the rural and urban areas, West Bengal has witnessed a higher rate of dropout of school children. The rate is declining at both the all-India level and the West Bengal level for both the rural and urban areas. However, the magnitude of fall is larger in West Bengal compared to its all-India counterpart for both the rural and the urban areas.
5. The declining trend in both the rural and urban dropout ratios has been witnessed by almost all the states.
6. The female-male ratio of dropout rate has declined from 1978 to 1986 as far as urban India is concerned but it is the reverse for rural India [urban: 114(1978) to 107(1986); rural:116 (1978) to 119(1986)]. However, both the fall and rise are marginal only.
7. The state of West Bengal has witnessed a rise in female-male differential of dropouts in the said period for both the rural and the urban areas [rural:105(1978) to 110(1986)]; urban:103(1978) to 110(1986)].
8. In both rural and urban India, in the behaviour of female-male differential of dropouts, there is no homogeneity either across states or between states.
9. A phenomenon of declining rural and urban dropouts from 1978 to 1986 across most states together with rising female-male ratio of dropouts is a trend that is noticeable as far as observation on dropouts is concerned. Possible explanation for such a behaviour could be that male dropout rates declined at a faster rate than female dropout rates; as a result, female dropout rare as a percentage of male dropout rate has gone up.
10. Substantial rise in female-male ratio of dropout rate during the said period have been noticed for many smaller states like Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territories like Andaman and Nicobar islands.