Barriers in Access to Science Stream at Senior Secondary Stage

All human societies from the simplest to the most complex exhibit some form of social stratification based on various forms of inequalities among individuals and groups. Man’s dream of establishing an egalitarian society is as old as his civilization. Inequalities of wealth, education, power and prestige have resulted in the formation of various strata arranged hierarchically and the membership of a stratum determines an individual’s life chances from chances of survival at birth to good health, to completing a certain level of education, to entry into a certain occupation and to earn a certain income. Thus, the members of a lower class have lower chances of survival at birth, as the infant mortality rate is highest among the poor. These infants, if lucky to survive, have fewer chances of going to school, complete an elementary education and still fewer chances of completing high school education and almost no chances of entering a college, when compared to the children from the middle class families. Again, the former have fewer chances of entering non manual occupations as compared to the latter. Similarly, in the traditional Indian caste structure, the sudras where doomed to illiterary, unclean occupations, low income and perpetual servitude. Despite the fact that education is a basic right in itself and an essential pre-requisite for reducing poverty, improving the living conditions of rural people and building a self-sufficient society, access to education in rural areas is still a great concern as compared to urban areas. Although the rate of literacy both in rural and urban areas in the past couples decades has significantly gone up still the percentage of literacy among rural areas as compared to percentage of population in the urban areas in not very impressive. More over non-attendance in school, early drop out of students, adult illiteracy and gender inequality in education are found disproportionately high in rural areas as is poverty. From the various studies it has been noted that some socioeconomic variables certainly barring the students’ for access to science stream at the senior secondary stage. Those may be Parents choice, Personal ambitions, Friends influence, Teachers influence, Religious factors, Gender differences, Availability of Institutions, Availability of jobs, Relatives, Neighbours, Financial factors, Teachers availability, Climatic conditions , Distance of the institution, Location of the institution, Availability of the tuitions, Advertising factors etc., Hence the present study attempts to decipher various factors act as barriers in access to science stream at senior secondary stage in Asom by looking at the demand and supply side factors.