Self-directed learning (SDL) refers to a student’s ability to integrate their attitudes, enthusiasm, and actions into their personal and academic lives, taking responsibility for the quality of their learning. India’s high dropout rate is largely due to unattractive teaching methods, lack of engagement in classroom activities, and a significant gap between expected and actual learning levels. As a result, they remain dependent on others for learning, rather than developing autonomy as they grow older. The objective of our education

system should be to cultivate self-directed learners who can independently determine how to achieve their educational goals. This evolution involves moving from pedagogy, where students are guided by teachers, to andragogy, where they take more responsibility for their learning, and ultimately to heutagogy, where they become fully self-determined learners. The goal of any teaching-learning system is to guide students through this progression, fostering their development from dependent to self-directed andeventually self-determined learners. This paper aims to assess the level of self-directedness in learning among students at variability with respect to various classification variables. A cross sectional survey was conducted on a sample size of 665 ranging from school education to higher education using a simple random sampling at Kolkata district of West Bengal. Sixty-five item SRSSDL questionnaire (Williamson, 2007) along with data on baseline characteristics of the students. The level of Self-directedness in learning was found to have significant variations with differences in gender, differently abled, class, stream,

locality of students and siblings.