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Dropping out like flies: Keeping students in schools

21 Sep 2022

  • Parents highlight difficulties which drive students to pick work over school
BY Sumudu Chamara   Children dropping out of school due to the impacts of the economic crisis seems to be a growing issue, with many parties claiming that parents find it difficult to bear the increased expenses of sending a child to school. To look into this exacerbating aspect of the economic and social crises, The Morning spoke to several persons with insight regarding this issue.   Economic crisis’s indirect impacts   Forty-two-year-old father of two, Kamal Sampath*, claimed that his 13-year-old son almost dropped out of school in August due to financial issues. The prevailing economic situation is such that allocating money for education is seen as a not-so-necessary expense, according to him.  He explained his experience: “I am a mason by profession. The prevailing economic situation is not at all favourable to my profession. Since the beginning of this year, the prices of construction materials have been on the rise, and clients have been reluctant to continue ongoing construction work while finding new clients has become almost impossible. This affected my income and my family’s financial situation to a great extent. During the past several months, there were times when I did not have any work for several days in a row, and I did not earn half of what I earned last year. During the said period, there has not been a single day where I could save any portion of my daily income for another day. I am the breadwinner of my family, and therefore, my family had to ration what I earn for absolutely necessary expenses such as food.”    Owing to these difficulties, Sampath said, his 13-year-old son’s education, which had been affected for several months, reached a rather unstable situation last month. “Stationery items have become extremely expensive. The prices of some items have gone up by around three to fourfold. The amount of money we would have spent before the pandemic was not nearly enough to purchase what was necessary for my son. Our situation was extremely dire as we were not in a position to spend even that amount (old prices), let alone the increased prices. There were days when we could give our son neither food nor money to buy food. Sending him to tuition classes stopped immediately after the New Year. Although we tried to make it possible for him to continue his school education, by early last month, my wife, my son and I realised that we could not afford to send him to school. His school education, which had been disrupted since May, came to a halt last month. We did not send him to school for more than two weeks. We kind of got used to that. However, neither my wife nor I had any intention of sending him to work, and we hoped to teach him what we know at home.”  It is at this juncture that Sampath received support from one of his clients after the latter learnt of the above-mentioned situation. Sampath added that his client expressed willingness to bear all the costs relating to his son’s education for a period of one year. Without the help of this donor, Sampath said, his son would have had to completely forget about resuming education.   From school to work    However, not everyone receives a second chance. Speaking with The Morning, 60-year-old Somapala Ratnayake*, a relative of a 16-year-old General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level (O/L) student from Pasyala, revealed that the child had to quit school education in May due to economic issues. “The boy lived with his brother, who is too young to obtain a school education, and his mother, who works as a maid to make a living. As the country’s economic situation got worse, she could no longer bear the family’s expenses and making sure that there is food on the table was all that she could afford to do with her salary. The boy could not continue his school education. First, he stopped attending school a few days of the week, and then, a few weeks in a month, and finally, he quit school education.”  When questioned as to whether the child in question had received any kind of support from relatives or any other party, Ratnayake said that no such support was received as the closest relatives were also severely affected by the economic hardships. He noted that many of the child’s family’s relatives, including himself, do not have stable jobs, and that most of them survive on daily wage jobs that pay less than Rs. 1,500 a day. To the best of Ratnayake’s knowledge, some relatives had helped the child in question to purchase stationery on several occasions. However, that has not been sufficient to prevent the child from dropping out.  Ratnayake added that after dropping out of school, the child had started working with some of the latter’s family’s acquaintances who also made a living through daily wage jobs. He added that this group is very mobile and travels to various parts of the island for work and that the child also travels with them. When queried about his opinion in this regard, Ratnayake said: “The boy earns enough to support his family. I think that the child is safe with them since the child and the child’s family know them very well. As far as I know, thus far, there have been no issues. Although his education was disrupted, I think that what happened in a way is good, since the child can learn a trade from a younger age and excel at it by the time he becomes an adult. Education is not for everybody. The child was not good at school-based education anyway.”   Solutions to an exacerbating crisis   The Morning also spoke to several parents whose children attend school to ascertain what they think of this situation which is becoming a threat to children’s school education. According to most of them, even though children dropping out of school receives nationwide attention and is recognised as a pressing issue, the fact that a larger number of children are on the brink of dropping out does not receive the same attention. “The authorities may say that they are ready to address this issue. But, what they are actually saying is that they would help children who drop out of school. They do not seem to have any plan to prevent children from leaving school. What of the parents who are running out of all options to continue their children’s school education as we speak? There are a large number of families who have cut down on all other expenses just to ensure that their children have what they need to study,” 36-year-old mother of two school children, V. Kamala Iresha, said.  Speaking of her family’s situation, she said that in a context where her husband’s income has declined drastically, the family barely spends on anything other than food, medicines, and transport costs. She pointed out that costs pertaining to travelling to school, stationery, pocket money for food, and tuition fees have gone up to such an extent that spending for one of these needs means having to cut down on money allocated for another need.  With regard to increased expenses, some, with whom The Morning spoke, said that the authorities should start providing children with stationery at a concessional rate through schools in order to alleviate the burden of the economic crisis on school children to some extent.  In this regard, 41-year-old father of one school-going child Jaliya Perera* said: “We can somehow feed our children and transport them to school. One of the most pressing issues is the increased prices of stationery and other goods such as bags and shoes. If schools can provide at least the basic stationery such as exercise books and pens, that would be a great help.” He claimed that if the authorities can establish a fund with 50% contribution from parents and 50% from the Government for this purpose, the parents would happily contribute. Perera added: “The Government should do everything it can. Education is not a matter that can be taken lightly. We should not forget that we are talking about shaping the country’s future generation. There is no excuse for not doing our best to protect the education sector because the key to rebuilding the economy, in the long run, is to create a skilled and educated next generation. We cannot let our children drop out of school and become daily wage earners with no financial stability.” Meanwhile, some said that the prevailing situation also calls for more efforts to improve school education, to prevent the need for schoolchildren to attend tuition classes. They said that in a context where paying for tuition fees has also become a massive challenge, schools should, at least now, start providing quality education. Through this, they said, parents would be able to spend money that they save from not sending their children to tuition classes on other necessary needs and that it would help schoolchildren to continue their school education.  


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