A special blog written by Toby Underhill, UWE English Literature Placement
Today, Tuesday 24th January 2023, marks the fifth UNESCO International Day of Education, a day that serves as both a celebration and an acknowledgment of the privileges and disadvantages of children worldwide. Access to free education should be a fundamental right; provided for any child, anywhere in the world. But this vision strays far from reality.
The privilege of knowledge, inspired discussion, and welfare provided by our schools is something that is easily taken for granted. In light of the atrocities following the Taliban’s capture of the state of Afghanistan, UNESCO is dedicating this year’s International Day of Education to girls and women in Afghanistan who have been stripped of their right to an education (UNESCO, 2023). Girls and young women who had dreams of becoming doctors, journalists, and teachers, are now barred from their own aspirations, and instead forced to work on their families’ farms, doing household chores, and collecting water (Al Jazeera, 2022).
This regression is a stark reminder of how our education privileges are not immutable; they must be upheld and maintained.
I have grown up surrounded by teachers, my mother was a nursery teacher and pastoral support provider for my primary school, and I have seen first-hand the levels of care and support that teaching staff provide for children. A duty that is worn as an honour. When I was attending preschool, my mother came home with the clothes of my classmates, loading and unloading the washing machine for hours, because their parents could not afford detergent. I remember her cleaning children’s hair, gluing their shoes back together, and helping them brush their teeth. All within a working day.
This was 16 years ago, and without falling victim to rose-tinted hindsight, times were simpler for many. The Cost-of-Living Crisis is rapidly becoming an endemic issue, and it is difficult to fathom the weight of the burden placed upon the shoulders of families in today’s economic climate.
Eating or heating – a crude binary that has been forced upon millions since the skyrocketing of energy prices, and schools are suffering too, with some facing a 300% jump in gas and electricity (i, 2022). This means less money is available to spend on maintaining the school, to pay teachers, and to feed children through the Free School Meal program. Yvonne Wade, Deputy Head of St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School: “How can we save pennies, when there is no penny to be saved?”
Support schemes such as the FSM are vital in supporting children in Black and Minoritised communities, who are greatly over-represented in impoverished areas. More than half of Black children in the UK are now growing up in poverty, a statistic that will surely rise as children’s futures are potentially jeopardised by schools being forced to close in urban areas due to absences resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, and with this spike in poverty comes a plethora of challenges faced not just academically, but mentally, physically, and socially too. Children eating rubbers and pretending to eat out of empty lunch boxes to avoid judgment from classmates is now a reality that many schools are forced to deal with – and with that comes the crucial task of steering young children away from prejudices and racial bias.
Although some advancements in providing opportunities for Black children, such as the Target Oxbridge scheme, are being made, there is a lack of financial support for Black and Minoritised families.
In the UK, everybody, no matter their gender or ethnicity has the right to a free education, but that is not to say that our education system is free from adversity which I have highlighted in this blog. There is a multitude of areas within education and just as the International Day of Education reminds us to acknowledge the ruination of women’s right to education in Afghanistan; it is vital to consider and acknowledge the inequality within our education system. There is a clear evident lack of financial support from governing bodies to provide for children in education. Without this foundation of economic reinforcement, children are not able to learn, realise their potential, feel encouraged, and achieve more academically.
