All I want is good education for the kids –sons and daughters of the florist, vegetable vendor, servant maid, water boy and the cook.
I try my best to guide them for the basic R’s but somehow my attempt fails mainly due to the ignorance and stubborn attitude of the parents. They feel if their kids also follow their profession, it would suffice.
My heart broke when I saw the X th class girl of the florist joining the mother in selling flowers and after giving my piece of mind, I told them to make her continue her studies . During her vacation I wanted them to send her for computer crash courses so that she can look for the simplest jobs once she completes her studies.
But the father is reluctant. Here the parents fail, the first thing is they lack the drive and they fail to motivate their kids. I keep looking for some jobs for these children to do in winter so that they get exposure to the outside world!
Infosys has come up with an excellent programme for helping those who pass class ten to continue studies and when I told this florist, he said his daughter has not cleared 2 papers in class ten. My coaxing to the maximum failed and now the girl sits along with her parents in selling flowers.
Next is the cook’s daughter, who has done up to SSLC and does not want to study further but would like to get a good salary. Who will offer without the basic computer application and English?
I keep finding jobs in malls, show rooms, and other places. She is rejected only on the basis of Lack of English knowledge, and PC application. She has to understand that, on my compulsion she joined a computer class but gave up as she was lured of a big amount in the form of salary for the cook’s job in PG Accommodation.
Now my only concern is the boy who has appeared for class ten exam, awaiting results. I keep telling him every time I see him, not to give up studies and I would do my best to help him. He seems to be a smart boy who understands the value of studies.
Though I do my best to make them study, either the concerned party is reluctant or the guardians least interested. All they want is quick money at the cost of education.
This post reminds me of an incident when I was in Trichy a few years back. When I was coming out of a provision store, there was this girl selling vegetables and studying at the same time.I bought some from her and found out that she was studying in plus two. She seemed to be a bright girl and she told me that she gets good marks in all the subjects except English. I was really very pleased to see this vendor girl taking so much interest in studies. I told her that I will teach her English and asked her to come to my house and learn. She came and I found out to my utter dismay that she could not read anything..not even a three letter word. She was studying in a tamil medium govt.school and the English book prescribed was same as that of Anusha's! How can we expect a child in a tamil medium school learn high level English? Most of the children studying in tamil medium come from below poverty line families. All they need to know in English is to be able to read and write simple sentences and understand them. There is no need for detailed grammer studies. Unless English is made simpler for them they will not have any motivation to study because neither they can understand by themselves nor anyone to assist them at home.
ReplyDeleteFrankly speaking the education system is also to be blamed, one side the children learn from the scratch and on the other it is high for them to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteIn KVs in early eighties, the SS sub was to be studied in Hindi , and the Hindi language had Bal Barathi. Here the lesson started with अ .आ ....... क,खा गा घ ......., how can a child who is in the first year of learning a language read roti, kapda , makaan etc that too as the first few lessons.
I had a tough time in teaching it.