Comparative Study of High School Dropout Students in Bangladesh: Evidence from Brahmanbaria and Habiganj Districts

Mohammed Amran Hossain, Mst. Farzana Akter

Abstract

Dropout becomes a global issue as millions of students around the world drop out of school every year while education is one of the basic needs of human. The Sustainable Development Goals includes one to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education so that students can complete their primary and secondary education in every country. Some countries make primary and secondary education free and compulsory to make sure cent percent enrollment. But dropout rate is not decreasing in that way which we want. This study is intended to show the scenario of dropout and influential reasons behind it in Habiganj district of Bangladesh and compare the status with Brahmanbaria district. The study revealed that most of the students drop out of school because of poverty (37.60%) followed by negligence of parents (19%) and then early marriage (13.30%). We discovered that almost half of dropout students had poor performance in school and  most of the students left school because of negligence of parents, self-negligence, family problem, mental illness etc. The dropout status of Habiganj and Brahmanbaria is almost similar but early marriage influenced more in Brahmanbaria than Habiganj. Government must take necessary steps regarding poverty alleviation, reducing early marriage, making school a better place of learning etc. so that students want to go to school and feel better for learning.

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