ShibdasGhose
Dimapur, Nagaland
Before a baby’s arrival, every parents has certain expectations for their off-spring. Dance learning or music classes, sports and so on are often imagined as a part of a child’s upbringing. Many parents enjoy their children’s infancy and childhood, but find their teenage years a time of conflict. Parenting today seems more difficult than in previous years, because of the far-reaching technological and sociological changes that have occurred. Today, with increasing competitiveness, considerate variation in standards and amenities, and demand exceeding the supply, admission to a school of choice can be tension-ridden and emotionally and physically exhausting.
Pursuing prestigious professional careers like medicine, engineering, architecture, or aviation from a low-oncome background is a monumental challenge. The journey into medical and technology fields demands exceptional talent, but for youths from poor families, talents alone is rarely enough. Socio-economic conditions can act as invisible barriers, systematically filtering out brilliant mind from impoverished background. For professions like medicine, engineering and other special lised fields, the cost disparity between public and private universities can be astronomical.
Underprivileged students heavily rely on clearing highly competitive national entrance examinations to secure merit-based seats in government universities, where tuition fees are often a fraction of the cost charged by private institutions.
While, on paper, the framework of national entrance examination, educational loans, and scholarship programmes promises a meritocratic bridge to prestigious fields like medicines and engineering for millions of ambitious and highly capable students from economically marginalized backgrounds, these provisions can remain tantalizing possibilities rather than accessible pathway.
Without a university degree or advanced credentials, their intellectual potential may gradually go unfulfilled, facing many into low-skilled employment where their cognitive talents are underutilized and inadequately rewarded.
For impoverished parents, it is a profoundly heart breaking and devastating experience. They are often torn between immense prides in their child’s intellectual brilliance and an overwhelming sense of guilt, helpless, and self-blame for being unable to secure financial support. They often leave no stone unturned in exploring every possible avenue – seeking loans, appealing to relatives, or even considering selling their meagre assets to support their aspiring children.
Poverty should not determine the limits of a child’s aspirations or potential. Talent, dedication, and academic ability can flourish only when students have access to adequate educational opportunities and financial support.
