Hard to strike a work-class balance
In this issue of our yearlong series, we revisit Class 12 students who have to juggle between dreams and livelihood. We find out how these students plan to take time out of their busy working lives to prepare for the approaching board exams. TESTING TIME
On Sunday, the last day of 2017, Class 12 student Amit Kumar* hopped into his green and yellow autorickshaw at six in the morning and drove down to Saket Metro Station. He was going to ferry passengers looking for short distance rides to neighbouring colonies. From the first day of the new year, however, he took a break from his job. For the next two months, he plans to prepare for his Class 12 Board examination.
Amit, a student at the Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Sangam Vihar, colloquially known as the Pahadi School, is one of the many school students who help their families make ends meet. They work as wedding waiters, autorickshaw drivers, street hawkers, and security guards, before and after school.
With just two months left for the Board examinations, the Pahadi School’s working boys are taking a break from their jobs to make up for the classes they missed while they were at work. This decision hasn’t come easy for the boys whose families depend on their earnings.
But Amit’s study break is a bet on the future: that India’s faltering education system and stuttering economy shall somehow provide him with college degree and a meaningful, and well-paying job so he never has to ride his rickshaw again.
“I wish I could have studied more during the year,” Amit said. “But, I am not sure if this education will help me.”
Amit and his friends often speak of going to college, and the prestige of getting a degree, “But no one knows how the degree will help in getting a job.”
WHY STUDY?
Amit and his friends are not the only ones confused by the importance of finishing school.
Atul Gupta, another auto driver, goes past the Pahadi School several times each day. Gupta was a student of this school till 2013 when he dropped out at 14 to work as a mechanic at an auto spares shop to support his family after his father fell sick.
Gupta would have been in Class 12 if he had continued to study, rather than ply his auto to earn about₹10,000-₹14,000 per month.
“I don’t regret that I could not study. My family needed me and it was my duty to help them,” Atul said.
“Anyways, most people around me are doing similar jobs. Even if I had finished school what more could I have done? Also, I was never really interested in studies,” he added.
WHY CHOOSE JOBS OVER SCHOOL
Teachers at the Pahadi School explain Atul’s decision as that of a child uninterested in studies. But experts caution against such easy conclusions.
“There would be very few students who would say ‘I love to study’. Will a middle-class family allow their child to leave school if the child is not interested in studies?” said Geetha B Nambissan, a professor of education at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“The teachers might say kids have made a choice to leave school but these kids are struggling to study and have constrained choices,” she added.
Nambissan, whose research examines the links between poverty and education, said children can only choose from the opportunities available to them, and a student’s decision to drop out or stay in school is influenced by the kind of jobs people around her do.
“It is the responsibility of the school system to ensure that they continue to study. The system should look into reasons for why a child is finding classes boring,” Nambissan said, “Is there something wrong with the curriculum or is n the teaching method not interesting enough?”
MONEY VS TIME
One day in December last year, Pahadi School’s Hindi teacher KS Tyagi was handed a crumpled piece of paper by a Class 12 student, Karim, who goes by one name. In the letter, Karim asked the teacher to grant him leave for a few days so that he could earn ₹1,210 to clear his dues and sit for the Board examination. (The amount includes ₹600 exam fee for five subjects, ₹80 each for three practicals, ₹250 for migration certificate and ₹120 for additional subject.)
Moved by the letter, the teacher paid the fees himself and told Karim to return him the money whenever he came by it.
Every evening after school, Karim works as a hawker selling clothes in San- gam Vihar market. He earns between ₹3,000 and ₹4,000 per month which is a vital contribution to the collective family income of ₹15,000 to ₹17,000 .
His two younger brothers dropped out of school after failing in Class 8 and Class 9, respectively. They felt that learning a business was a better use of their time.
Karim also failed Class 9, but he stayed in school.
“When I failed, my family wanted me to quit school as they thought I won’t able to pass again. But I persisted. Now, I work and study,” he said but wondered what he will do once he graduates.
“Till now there was a clear path but after school there is no clarity,” he said.
Karim plans to stop working from January till March when he will be focusing on Board exams. He is, however, worried how his family will cope with the loss of income.
“If I leave work, I will get the time to study but I won’t have money for tuitions that I want to take up. If I work, I won’t have enough time to study,” Karim said.
Karim wants to join a college and study Political Science but he knows that he will have to continue to sell clothes to pay his way through college.
“I cannot leave my work permanently till I have another source of income. I want to do BED and become a teacher and get out of Sangam Vihar. But sometimes I wonder if I will get a job,” he said.
The worry among students about finding a j ob after school and graduation is not unfounded, said Jayati Ghosh, a professor of Economics at JNU, as the education system does not equip students to enter the job market.
“The Board exam system is just making the students rely on rote learning. The system is not necessarily equipping them for jobs,” Ghosh said.
And the jobs market is unbelievably tight, Ghosh added. The last National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) study on employment was done in 2011-2012 while the survey results for 2017 are yet to be announced, Ghosh said.
EDUCATION VS EMPLOYMENT
When school began in April this year, Kshetrapal Singh kept up a punishing schedule of working all night as a security guard — sleeping in the morning, and attending school in the afternoon.
By late September, he was completely exhausted and burned out.
“I missed one of my mid-term exams because I didn’t wake up on time,” he said, “I just couldn’t get out of bed.”
Speaking to Hindustan Times in May 2017, Kshetrapal had maintained that his aim was to finish school and get a Bache- lor’s degree from Delhi University.
Now, on the eve of his pre-board examinations, he seemed less sure of his future.
“I’ll still go to college, but I think I’ll do a correspondence degree. I can’t waste another three years going to class every day,” he said.
“I need to start working full time.” Ghosh, the economist, concedes that the Kshetrapal’s decision — and of others like him — reflects a grim pragmatism. Public sector jobs are declining, she said, and private sectors jobs are mainly in the services sector.
“But for that sector, a candidate requires soft skills like spoken English. This places people who come from privileged background at an advantage,” Ghosh said. “Chances are these kids may end up falling back on self-employment because the curriculum is not equipping them with soft skills.”
If I leave work, I will get the time to study but I won’t have money for tuitions that I want to take up. If I work, I won’t have enough time to study... I cannot leave my work permanently till I have another source of income. I missed one of my midterm exams because I didn’t wake up on time. I just couldn’t get out of bed... I’ll still go to college, but I think I’ll do a correspondence degree. I can’t waste another three years going to class. KSHETRAPAL SINGH , Class 12, Pahadi School
(*Name changed because he is a minor)
JOURNEY SO FAR
How our education system is shaping lives. Go to link below: