DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2018.v06i01.036

Pages: 225-230

The present study is aimed at assessing attitude of parents towards the education of their children belonging to tribal and non-tribal block of Vadodara district. Educational development of scheduled tribes has been important agenda of Indian government. Some of the major hurdles of tribal education are distance of school from home, teachers absenteeism, curriculum not attractive for students, language barrier, poverty, lack of awareness of parents, etc to name a few. The study analyzed data from 398 parents and guardians, who had one or more than one school going children. Out of these, 199 parents belong to tribal block i.e., Naswadi and 199 belonged to non-tribal block i.e. Dabhoi of Vadodara district. The data is collected through a questionnaire consisting of 35 statements in Gujarati language, all pertaining to attitude towards schooling and education of children. The respondents are asked to rate each of the item on a three-point scale (Yes, No and Don’t Know) where score 1 is given to all the items showing positive attitude and score 0 is given to items showing negative statement as well as to statements answered as ‘don’t know’. This study aims to examine the significant difference between parents belonging tribal and non-tribal area, attitude of parent of male and female child and attitude of parent of regular and irregular child towards education through chi-square analysis. The results indicate that parents belonging to rural block have more positive attitude towards education than parents belonging to tribal block. Secondly, parents with positive attitude send their children regularly to school in comparison to parents with negative attitude towards education. Thirdly, there is no difference in attitude of parent of male child and parent of female child towards education. The study suggests that although there is awareness and positive response towards schooling and education, there is still scope of improvement.