Poverty is a global issue, so it can be a development issue in the least developed countries and developing countries. Poverty, in general is scarcity, dearth or the condition of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multi-faceted concept, which entails social, economic, and political elements. According to the latest study conducted by Asian Development Bank, in Nepal 25.2% of the population lives below the national poverty line. Over the past decades, unfortunately, the economic gap has widened between Nepalese families. Educational outcomes are always influenced by family incomes. Despite the existence of the organizations working for poverty alleviation in Nepal, poverty has remained a stubborn fact of life. The Ministry of Co-operatives and Poverty Alleviation was established on 18 May 2012 by Nepal Government with a vision to prioritize co-operative sector and poverty alleviation, foreseeing the growth of cooperative sector in the nation, citizens’ curiosity and the world co-operative movement.
It is evident that socioeconomic disadvantage has a negative impact on the life outcomes of many Nepalese children. There are countless areas influenced by poverty. This write-up just lays emphasis on the impact of poverty on a child’s educational outcomes. Children from low-income family backgrounds often start school already behind their age-mates who come from more affluent families. School readiness reflects an individual child’s ability to excel at both academics and social life in a school environment. For holistic development of a child, physical well-being and appropriate motor development, emotional health and a positive approach to new experiences, age, appropriate social knowledge and cognitive skills are a must. It is proved that poverty decreases a child’s readiness for school through aspects of health, family life, schooling and neighborhoods.
A child’s home has a particularly strong impact on school readiness. Children from low income families often don’t get motivated and show willingness to learn the social skills required to prepare them for school. The children who are raised in poverty-stricken family usually lack parental care, inspiration, and supervision. A report by Thomas concluded that children from lower income score significantly lower on measures of vocabulary and communication skills, knowledge of numbers, copying and symbol use, ability to concentrate and cooperatively play with other children than those who come from higher income families. Moreover, study by the Institute of Research and Public Policy (Montreal, Quebec) showed that differences between students from low and high economic neighbourhoods were evident by grade 3; children from low socioeconomic neighbourhoods were less likely to pass a grade 3 standard test.
In Nepal, poor schoolchildren are forced to go to work do the worst jobs or risky jobs to support their family financially. They don’t go to school regularly; as a result, their academic performance is obviously declined. On the one hand, they miss lessons at school, and on the other hand, they aren’t able to afford to pay tuition fees of extra classes. When they are present at school, they are unlikely to be attentive due to their tired body as well as hopeless mindset. They are to rather think that their future is bleak. They are filled with pessimism. They feel inferior complexity.
Another thing that adds to their woes is feud. A feud between a husband and a wife in poor family set-ups is common. When a child’s parents get into arguments frequently at night, the child tends to leave home forever. Leaving home means leaving school too. Not only this much, when a father and a mother quarrel over trivial matters, the father is likely to exert his anger on their children by tearing away their textbooks, notebooks and throwing away bags and stationery. When children are mature enough to understand their family condition, they will shift their attention from studies to employment. Another example, some parents agree to send their children to relatives’ or acquaintances’ homes to work as a domestic worker on condition that they take responsibility for the child’s education and accommodation. But only a handful of them turn out to be committed.
Even if children attend classes regularly, they fall behind their classmates in terms of presentation, English speaking skills, and mathematics because their parents cannot provide them with materials to carry out school projects, and hone all four skills of English; and self-practice materials for Math. Apart from these, such children are deprived of everyday access to newspapers and the Internet. They fail to keep abreast of current affairs or global news. A lack of these sources prevents poor children from outdoing other competitors in the academic field. According to this year’s SLC results, most of the students who failed SLC examination were from government schools; and the cause of such a poor result, doubtlessly, can be associated with low economic status.
Even if the children are very talented, he or she cannot perform up to the mark at school due to parents’ demotivation and unawareness. Instead of boosting up their morale by at least keeping promises, parents demoralize and discourage them assigning their economic circumstances. Parents aren’t aware of the real stories of those great personages who overcame economic, social and physical hurdles and difficulties to rise. Poverty also leads to discrimination and failure of grasping opportunities. Many poor parents are not conscious of benefits they are entitled to reap for their wards at school. The very sorry thing is that poor parents don’t show up at the PTMs (Parent-Teacher Meetings) to question teachers or schools about their offspring’s education, attendance and participation in extra-curricular activities.
Poor parents, unlike well-to-do cum educated parents, offer counseling, inquire into their necessities and sit with them to help them with their difficult homework and prepare for their exams. Furthermore, poor parents fail to inculcate good culture in their children. Consequently, they tend to be disruptive, rowdy and impulsive. In the end, they get expelled from their school. Parents, to an extent, are responsible for misconduct and mischief of a child.
The children raised in poor families cannot benefit from higher level of cognitively stimulating materials available in their homes compared to those children raised in the wealthy families. Owing to poverty, children ought to go to a low quality school where their talents are neither searched out nor nurtured. Besides, financial strain limits the housing and neighbourhood choices available to low-income families, forcing them to live in neighbourhoods characterized by high levels of crime and unemployment, low levels of resources, and a lack of collective efficacy among the residents. Children get brainwashed into having engaged in anti-social activities at the prospect of earning money rather than getting an education. Neighborhood residence, in turn, is associated with child and adolescent school outcomes above and beyond the effect of family poverty.
In a nutshell, government has to launch awareness programs, educate all citizens and create as many fair employment opportunities as possible to raise each family’s living standards at a fast pace.
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