These days, people worry about their child’s school and college education. Let’s put some light on a child’s challenging future.
Lost in the excitement of married life, we hardly envision the future when the toddler makes it to the first day at school. Reaching that tender school-going age was hard enough with all the babysitting, nurses and doctors. Health issues, learning parenting, walking and lisping had their trials and tribulations amidst the mystical joy concerning each little aspect. Look at all those glossy pictures that form a little biography yearly!
Importance of school and college education
Perhaps the upper classes do not have much to worry about in terms of school and college education, jobs, marriages, and their children’s future. For almost everyone else, the immensity of the nightmare is just dawning. Finding an appropriate school within an affordable budget that includes the donation would keep you rushing like mad. If lucky, some wise advice may come from the neighbour in the apartment block or the swimming instructor.
Getting The School Life Together
Besides the money question, the problem of uniforms, bags, and books besides safe transport within a reasonable distance from home can be formidable tasks. Why not boarding schools that take much of the fuss away? Yet many parents, especially mothers, cannot imagine life without the child from home. Boarding schools are far more expensive than the usual day school but would result in the independence of spirit in the child so crucial for the 21st-century citizen.
Naturally, the parents are wide-eyed and beaming with intense happiness during the preceding years. Yet we realise that eternity is only commencing. Good academic performance would ensure the child’s future, yet many depend on tuition. Expenditure once again arises with additional transport and fees.
Lucky is the child so well adjusted to the school culture that ten years or more are spent in the same institution. In many cases, the parents, for whatever reason, change schools several times during the twelve years. Maybe the child failed, had discipline problems, or did not like the buildings, teachers, or students. Further expenses arise with a new donation, new uniforms, and perhaps books if the examination board changes. In genuine cases, there may be no cause to regret if some substantial benefit arises in the child’s life. If it is merely fussiness, things may not go so well in the future!
Ego, it seems, observes no limits and joining clubs, buying digital stuff, and practising hobbies could all be costly. A child getting spoiled at the time of school and college education is becoming somewhat familiar even with substance abuse, the misuse of the internet, and money problems. Violence is only a severe issue that crops us on school campuses.
The College Adventure Commences At Last
Lucky indeed are the parents whose child has survived schooling and produced an academic percentage that qualifies for higher things. By that time, the grown-up teenager is waiting to indulge in further adventure and has an inkling of what remains in college and university. The college entry is the second round of the parental battles. College courses often decide the life and career of the child. Campus recruitments, in many cases, provide plush appointments that may remain forever, leading to significant positions and payments.
The tension-filled days have begun again, and planning must occur well in advance. Luckily the all-powerful online media, in addition to the broadcasting and print media, deliver a world of information that puts you up to date. It is hardly necessary to travel to faraway colleges and institutes anymore. They would happily oblige if you filled up the contact form online or downloaded the prospectus.
Yet digital life sometimes seems unsatisfactory. The human touch seems to be receding. Though smarter and faster than the traditional practice, the older generation would undoubtedly feel something is lacking. Many colleges have applied, and the decision is waiting.
Children Nowadays Aim For Higher Degrees
Enrolling in tutorials with an eye on the entrance examinations only makes things more complicated and far more expensive. Yet it is often worth the while in most cases. Children nowadays are not content with anything less than a master’s degree or maybe even a doctorate. The undergraduate course sufficed in the olden days but is nowadays hardly considered anymore.
The Value Of Professional Qualifications
Perhaps children should search for lucrative appointments early rather than accumulating degrees. Seniority at work is probably as important as academic qualifications. Opportunities for study may arise later, too, after getting sponsored in many cases by employers themselves.
Study opportunities in evening colleges, online courses, and distance education will also help consolidate academic qualifications later. Yet most who accumulate degrees find openings higher on the corporate ladder, like those who must do an MBA before starting any job!
We must agree that parents are superhuman for having survived that one and half decades or more of the child’s school and college education! In many cases, having more than one child is a more significant risk and an incredible adventure! In countries where education is subsidised and scholarships offered to the deserving, like Bhutan, the parental problems are somewhat alleviated. Even then, the moral strength required to persevere through more than a decade of schooling can be most daunting, followed by the uncertainties of college.
Don’t forget the food, medicine, clothes, and whatever else is required for the child’s success. Ample reasons for the aged parents to expect something in return, but sadly, many children fail that duty. Parents, too, have their egos and insist upon their sparse pension incomes and dilapidated accommodations. Life is like that strangely enough when it comes to the sunset years.
Are there any alternatives? In advanced America, children obtain loans to educate themselves and may repay loans into their fifties! Backward economies cannot certainly imagine such a scenario. Insurance is a precious commodity that should cover every aspect of life, like health. What if it could cover education too?