Girl Child Friendly (NPEGEL) Schools and its Impact on Enrollment and Retention of Girl Child

Dr. L. Uma Devi, J. Kavitha Kiran, B. Prashanti

Abstract: Improving girls' educational levels has been demonstrated to have clear impact on the health and economic future of young women, which in turn improves the prospects of their entire community. The government of India launched National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) in 2003. It was an incentive to reach out to the girls who the SSA was not able to reach through other schemes. The present study was taken up to see the impact of girl child friendly environment in NPEGEL SCHOOLS on enrolment and dropout in three regions of Andhra Pradesh. The data was collected from 20 schools of each region. The study revealed that NPEGEL schools had better infrastructure, water, sanitation, toilet, menstrual hygiene and vocational courses than the non NPEGEL schools. The enrolment was found to be more and dropouts less in NPEGEL schools. A positive correlation was found between school facilities and enrollment

Keywords: Girl friendly environment, rural areas enrolment, dropout, NPEGEL Schools