Can you envision the place you’d be in today if you had no access to your school/college, textbooks & assignments, all your close buddies and teachers that aided you through having a terrible time learning math, or even the bare minimum skills like being able to read and communicate in English? Well, you successfully made it this far in life - all credits to the extraordinary teachers (including the few you weren't a fan of) you were blessed with who helped you comprehend and digest the mind-boggling information your textbooks fed your brain, and of course, your smartphones, tablets or computers that you can dig out data to any extent from, during any hour of the day or night.
However, what about students that can't afford to fund their education as we do?
Primarily during this time of the coronavirus global pandemic, with most schools still remaining on halt for physical classes, numerous government-funded schools in the rural areas of India are deficient of the fundamental technological necessities and equipment such as internet, laptops, smartphones etc, to organize and run day-to-day online classes for students.
Students who do have access to these gadgets, regardless, are dropping out of school due to the lack of finance to sponsor their education.
This is therefore leading to all these students losing their grip on academics or entirely quitting education and working to succour to their indigent family’s survival during this unprecedented crisis.
20-30 of every 300 students from school traced to the poverty-stricken rural areas of Delhi, India are dropping out every other month due to the catastrophe caused by covid-19.
A record of more than 2.84 million jobs were lost from the salaries population of rural India in April 2021 resulting in these families being incapable of financing their children's education which explains the massive escalation of dropouts.
A noticeable 48 per cent increase in child labour of ages ranging between 5 - 14 years old amid the coronavirus pandemic in the rural regions all across India.
Education being the gateway to discovering solutions for multiple complex economic issues such as poverty, unemployment, crime rates, etc of the country, this drastic fall out in student education can have a substantial effect on not only each individual student's life, but on our country and its evolution as a whole.
What must it be like for kids your age, your siblings' or your child's age to have to accompany their parents day and night with straining work, just with the desire to be able to attend school again? I'm sure this question must've crossed your paths before! But let's be real, we care. Indeed, we empathize with them, contribute donations and do our part in hopes and unreal expectations that one of those countless kids will get to be in a classroom someday in the near future.
This year being the commencement for all generations from elementary school pupils to retired veterans, acclimatizing to this new norm of revamping their work and learning spaces to a full-time online environment in response to the coronavirus predicament, we have a golden window of opportunity to undeniably make an impact on these children's lives and utilize our knowledge and expertise to foster their education.
Take out the time you can from your own flexible schedule and take advantage of the resources at hand and nonprofits in close proximity that are recruiting volunteers and willing to collaborate with you to deliver results of change. Investing even 15 minutes of your day in guiding underprivileged students with queries, tutoring or developing study material for them from the comfort of your own home, can ultimately lead to causing a vast influence on several young lives.
We have the power to enlighten them to dream again, encourage them to be educated the way they deserve to, and play even a tiny role in their lives that directs them back towards the path of learning and achieving milestones they once only thought were impossible.
You can also give a jumpstart to your passion for serving through Ed Lodge, like I choose to do - by creating worksheets & practice assignments and directly tutoring the disadvantaged yet remarkably talented students in and around the rural areas of Meghalaya or being a part of an exceptional initiative to spread awareness and encourage rural education through the organization’s buzzing social media and blogging platforms.
There's no better time and scope to get involved in this cause in any way, shape or form. So, let's get together to escort a part of our future generation into their tracks of learning and render them with the quality of education they are worthy of!
- Bharathi Kosaraju
