PRESENT EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TOTO TRIBES LIVING IN DOOARS

Totopara is a small village under Madarihat-Birpara block of Alipurduar district, they are one of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of West Bengal. This study has shed light on their present education scenario including its history. For this, we have followed ethnographic case study approach and employed focus-group discussion with the secondary level Toto students to select some of them as the participants of the study and later collected data from them along with their parents, teachers, political representatives, resource persons, folk artists, educated Toto youths and many more people through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. After collecting all the data, we have transcribed them, coded them as per my research questions and based on the similarities as well as differences three main themes have been generated such as academic factors, socio economic and cultural factors and lastly family related factors as the reasons behind their educational hardship followed by some suggestions to improve the situation.