Phenomenology of Educational Exclusion at Secondary School Level in India

Secondary education redefines the academic foundation of the child and serves as a link between the elementary and higher education, which in turns help in developing a reservoir of intellectual human resource. India envisioned having universalization of secondary education and substantial progress has been made in achieving the goal. Many of the children entering the schools are unable to complete education and multiple factors are responsible for their dropping out. It necessitates to a deeper probe into the problem of exclusion of children from secondary education. Present study provides an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of educational exclusion at secondary school level in India. Empirical Phenomenological approach was adopted to carry out this study. The study was delimited to one state of India i.e. Punjab. A sample of 72 dropped-out adolescents (54 boys and 18 girls), their parents (61) was drawn from the selected areas of Punjab using ppurposive sampling technique. Open-ended questions were asked to generate data that led to a textural description. Data analysis revealed nine composite textural theme swhich included (i) Gender Bias (in case of girls), (ii) Finnacial Constraints (iii) School Distance (iv) Family responsibilities (v) Physical disability (vi) Demotivating and Hostile teachers (vii) Learning Difficulties (viii) Failure (ix) Early marriage in case of girls.