Quality Education; Equal Or Not ?!
As I mentioned before, my primary course of research is from an interview I conducted with a close friend who grew up in Ecuador. She was born in the year 1980 and was unexpectedly ripped apart from her education. So to have better understanding of the situation I conducted an interview that helped me understand of the circumstances that led to many children having to leave school but more importantly what that has led to if not having a further education has negatively affected them in any way. My survey had 10 participants and the questions asked was
At what age where you pulled out of school, why were you pulled out of school,
Could something have been done to avoid you being pulled out of school
Has there been specific moments where not having a education impacted you negatively and if so can you estimate how many times that might have been
When looking over my responses I received one in particular that stood out to me the most just because it is of a individual that attended school only until the 4th grade and has struggled the most with his life he spoke a little more about why he had to drop out and unfortunately it was due to economic reasons he mentioned that last week he went to school him and his family were only eating bread because they had no other meals available to them and how he was pulled out of school because he had to start working to help his family out and he successfully did although he regrets leaving school very much his quote was “ I left school at the age of 9 and I managed to maintain my family, but now I am 40 and suffer from all the hard work my body had to go through at the time, he stated as a child you do not feel as tired easily but it definitely takes a toll on your body even though it may not show right away” he also spoke about how at that age he felt like he was doing pretty good at school and might have gone to become a lawyer because he has always loved to see court cases on Tv.
A different response I received was from someone who had to leave school at the age of 6 and left during 1st grade and spoke about how not having a education definitely impacted her she said she left school because as well her parents could not afford to keep sending her to school but she said if she could have a chance to go she definitely would. She left halfway through the school year and was just learning to write her name, when asked how this affected her later on in life she said when asked to sign my name I just print my name down because thats about all I learned I have no idea how to write a signature or a letter or anything she said “I know what 1+1 is and my parents assumed that was enough it was very upsetting to have to leave school and this is why I encourage my children and anyone in general to continue their education because we really are not aware of how good it is until it is snatched away from you.
Lastly I wanted to speak about a last response I had that stood out to me as well was from a girl who only attended the 6th grade. She told me she was fortunate enough to go to school up until the 6th grade and just attending 6th grade was a pretty big opportunity just because most kids dropout much sooner, but she spoke about how sadly she was not the best of students and unfortunately could not keep up with the school pace and that there were many moments where she had to assist summer school.
She had to attend in order to try to reach the grade standards but she mentioned as well there were many unfair institutions who would take bribes from parents to let their child pass the school year and continue onward leaving a very unfair advantage. She stated that “ I was always going to summer school and there was always some kids who had wealthy families and we would all fail but they would buy their way to the next grade” which goes to show that education was very different for everyone. There were the low income families that could not continue their education and there was as well the wealthy families who bought their way thru school. Education should be equal for everyone regardless of their socioeconomic background.
In conclusion, I believe these surveys brought much more information into perspective and will help me understand my research a little better and I will get the chance to find out how to better the quality of education for everyone.
