To understand the nature of learner participation in elementary education in municipal schools

Education, as an important instrument for development, is planned and implementedby the State in India as per the Constitutional philosophy and the overall needs of thesociety. After independence, Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) has beenone of the important goals of education. As per the Census 2011, the literacyrateis74.04%, with 82.14% male literacy and 65.46% female literacy. This shows that therehasbeen an improvement in the literacy rate from 1951 (18.33%, male 27.16 andfemale8.86%). Though there is a considerable improvement in the literacy rate and it is still short of hundred percent. At the same time, the number of learners continuingtheirelementary education has increased. On studying the goals of various efforts for UEEmade at international and national level, one notices that there has been nowa shift ofemphasis from enrolment to retention of learners in schools. In the larger frameworkofdevelopment and a sustainable future for all, United Nations has adopted MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDG), 2015 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) tobeachieved by 2030. Among various goals under each, education is important as per MDG2 and 3 and SDG 4. The term used by SDG in this respect is completion of elementaryeducation. It is significant to understand what makes learners to complete elementaryeducation as the learning from this will help to facilitate those learners who aretobehelped to complete elementary education by all children of the respective age cohort. Also, as more learners complete elementary education, it will lead to creation of societywith more literate adult learners. In an attempt to understand this, it becomes necessarytogain an understanding of learners, the schools where they study and the broader