Dr. (Ms.) T M D Subashini
Department of Sociology
University of Kelaniya
Dr. T M Dhammika Subashini completed her PhD as a NCAS grantee at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, in July 2009. Her exact topic of the thesis was “Social Anthropological Study of Social Change in Fishing Communities in Sri Lanka with reference to Gampaha District.”
Hailing from the field of Sociology, her study was a social-anthropological investigation of the problems of social change among the fishing communities in the Gampaha District’s coastal belt in Sri Lanka. This study was concluded under the supervision of Dr. Jayantha Jayasiri, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Sri Jayawardanapura. After surveying the existing social change in the Gampaha coastal belt of Sri Lanka, Dr. T.M.Dhammika Subashini has suggested improvements and changes which would guide the policy makers, the government and the NGOs in implementing those improvements and changes. She proposes more participatory activities for the fisher folk living in these and other areas, also suggesting that the improvements of their livelihoods for sustainable development could improve the standards of living in these areas in general.
Research Abstract of PhD
Impact of poverty on early drop out of adolescents from schools in fishing communities in Sri Lanka (with reference to Bopitiya Village in Gampaha Coastal Belt)
The word “adolescence” comes from the Latin adolescere meaning “to grow into maturity”. As well as being a time of enormous physiological change, adolescence is also marked by changes in behavior and expectations. Traditionally, adolescence has been regarded as a prelude to and preparation for adulthood, a transitional period of life between immaturity and maturity. Owing to socio-economic and other related barriers, a large number of children in Sri Lanka do not continue school education, despite the existence of the Universal Primary Education Program.
Worldwide, an estimated 104 million children of the relevant school-going age are not enrolled in primary school. This means that close to 14% of the world’s 742.9 million children are not getting basic education. About 67% are girls. Almost – though not
all – out-of-school children live in developing countries. Further, 46 million (44%) and 44 million (42.3%) live in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) and south-western Asia respectively. These are the poorest and most indebted regions, with a large proportion
of the population living on less than US$1 per day. In a world that claims to have committed itself to universal primary completion by 2015, the Eastern and Southern African region is one of the furthest from realizing this goal. As a recent UNICEF report notes, ‘in the most disadvantaged regions and countries “business as usual” will not deliver’.
The Literacy rate is 92% in Sri Lanka- the highest in South Asia and second highest in Asia. Primary school enrolment rates are almost at target but there are still a small proportion of children that has been denied the right to education. These children
live in extreme poverty; are street children, children living in public institutions (orphanages) and in rural, coastal and plantation areas, children displaced by the ethnic conflict and belonging to marginalized groups in Sri Lanka. There were more children in school than out of school with little gender difference. More than forty % of the out of school children had dropped out early. More girls than boys had never been to school and more boys than girls were dropouts. More out of school children were in 10-14 age groups. The percentage of out of school children was higher among Tamil children. Almost 10 % had been absent hrough the two weeks of the survey and 44.5% had been absent for more than 5 of the 10 school days in Sri Lanka.
It has been used both primary and secondary data for this study. Secondary data was collected from secondary sources and primary data was collected from Mabopitiya village in Gampaha distrct. It was used interview schedule and observation method to collect primary data. The problem of this study is there any impact of poverty on early drop out of adolescents from schools. The objective of this study is to identify the reasons for early drop out of adolescents from schools, identify the impact of poverty on early drop out of adolescents from schools, identify the social problem create by this early drop out and identify the solutions for overcome or at least mitigate the problem of early drop out from schools in fishing communities in Sri Lanka. There are more than 60% of children stop their education before or after O/L examination in this village and they go to fishing with their parents or find other jobs. According to collected data it can be said that there is big impact of poverty on early drop out of adolescents from schools. So government, policy making bodies and NGOs have to take necessary actions to reduce the poverty in coastal areas and it can be motivated the parents and students to the importance of ontinuing education.