A comprehensive analysis of the secondary school system, compare the access & performance of boys & girls, examine the issues faced by boys and girls from different social groups with respect to secondary schooling and attempt to identify any strategies

that might help in addressing these issues, key strategies to enable all children especially girls from deprived Social groups to enter & successfully complete Secondary & Higher Secondary education.

 Field work for the study covered 6 villages, 9 educational institutions (6 High schools, 1 Primary School, 1 Junior College & a hostel for girls), includes tests to assess learning levels of 334 students, 19 class room observations, 15 school based FGDs with boys & girls separately, 9 FGDs with teachers, 8 interviews with HMs for school profiles, 9 FGDs with SMCs, meetings with different stakeholders for 6 villages profiles, 24 village based FGDs (out of school – boys & girls, parents of school going & out of school children) and 1300 plus respondents covering all sections of society.

Analysis of existing documents and data from schools and block level education offices , village observation, interviews with village heads, influential persons, Panchayath representatives.