PREVALENCE OF SCHOLASTIC BACKWARDNESS AMONG FIVE TO EIGHT YEAR OLD CHILDREN

The present paper reports the findings of a study of scholastic backwardness among five to eight year old school going children. 1535 children were screened by their class teachers, of which 10.23% were found to have scholastic backwardness. No gender differences were noticed. The rates of specific difficulties such as reading, writing and arithmetic were found to be 4.69%, 5.15% and 15.96% respectively. About 26% of the scholastically backward children were also found to have psychological disturbance. In addition, they most often came from families which could not afford basic amenities, had fathers with alcohol dependence, inconsistent disciplining and poor parental interaction. They also had more frequent school changes, tution attendence and fewer hobbies compared to the scholastically superior children.