School Dropout Feedback Loop

Context

This model simulates the relationship between economic pressure, school quality, and student retention. As economic strain rises or school quality falls, dropout rates increase, triggering longer-term human capital deficits.

Key Variables

Enrolled Students: Current school-going population.
Dropout Rate: Increases with rising economic pressure.
School Quality: Improves retention if high.
Economic Pressure: Family economic stress forcing children out of school.

Feedback Loops

Negative Loop: Economic stress → higher dropouts → lower human capital → persistence of poverty.
Positive Intervention Loop: Higher school quality → increased retention → more human capital.

Policy Relevance

Useful for evaluating mid-day meal programs, scholarship interventions, conditional cash transfers (like India’s National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship), or quality improvement programs.

Region/Application

Dropout hotspots in UP, Bihar, tribal districts, urban slum education projects.