ATTITUDE OF SCHEDULED CASTE STUDENTS TOWARDS HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NALBARI DISTRICT OF ASSAM

Education plays a vital role in the development of asociety. Specially, higher education plays a significant role in this context. Higher education can bring unimaginable changes in every aspect of our life. This stage of education can be considered very significant in the matter of reforming any society. Students coming from the Scheduled caste form an important part of our society. Therefore, higher education of the students coming from the schedule caste community also plays an important role in reformation of any society. So, we can say that the Scheduled caste studentsshould have a positive attitude towards higher education at the present situation. The investigator in this papertries to find out the attitude of schedule caste students towardshigher education.The main objective of the present study was to study the attitude ofscheduled caste students (both male and female)towards higher education. Another objectivewas to study the attitude of rural and urban scheduled caste students towards higher education. The investigator also triesto find out the attitude of scheduled caste students from Science stream and Arts stream towards higher education.The descriptive survey method was selected for collection of data for the present investigation.The sample of the present study was consisted of 120 students coming from different categories of scheduled caste community (20 male and 20 female, 20 rural and 20 urban and 20 Science and 20 Arts students)were selectedrandomlyfrom 4 ProvincialisedDegree collegesof Nalbari District.Self-prepared questionnaire was used by the investigator for finding out the attitude of the scheduled caste students towards higher education.The study revealsthat there exists significant difference in attitude of male and female scheduled caste students towards highereducation. The investigator has found significant difference in attitude of rural and urban scheduled caste students towards higher education. It is also found by the investigatorthat students who are enrolled in Science stream are more positive in their attitude for higher education than the students enrolled in Arts stream.