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The importance of helping disadvantaged children and bringing the education inequality gap in Singapore
"It takes a village to raise a child."
As this African proverb states, a child relies on their community to provide for and interact positively with them in order to mature in a healthy environment.
Unfortunately, the reality is that our children grow up with unequal opportunities in our community.
Children from wealthier families have greater access to resources, while parents with lower incomes are forced to spend less on education, thus affecting the opportunities that their child might get.
According to an article by CNA, children from the bottom 20 percent have less access to financial and social resources than their peers of other socio-economic status, from birth.
In Singapore, education is often claimed to be the key route for social mobility and additionally, a key element in a family’s ability to break out of the poverty cycle they are in.
Ironically, while many regard education as a way of getting out of the poverty cycle, underprivileged students often face the greatest hurdles to achieve academic success. They face an uphill battle to get where they should be, in order to change their situation for the better.
Disadvantaged students unfortunately have less opportunities to do well in life and often, education may be the only way for them to break free from their poverty cycle. Many of them are struggling with even more obstacles to academic success as compared to their other peers.
Many underprivileged families struggle to pay for basic necessities and cannot afford to spend more on education for their child, especially with the rising costs of education in Singapore. Due to this, disadvantaged children may never realise their full potential and might continue to be trapped in the poverty cycle.
When basic essentials like food, money or a proper night’s sleep go unmet over a long period of time, education falls off the priority ladder for these children and their families.
More than just lagging behind in their studies, these children might also struggle to fit in and have poor self-esteem, resulting in withdrawal tendencies. From this, the downward spiral can be difficult to overcome.
The pandemic has made everything all the more difficult - especially for our children. It exposed and highlighted the fault lines between the have and have-nots, and this is evident when it came to implementing the Home-Based Learning (HBL) exercise amidst constantly changing restrictions.
The moral obligation falls on everyone to alleviate their hardship - it is within our power to extend help and support to a child.
Here at Global Ehsan Relief, we believe in helping underprivileged children to ease their path in obtaining academic success.
Join us in our efforts to provide the access to education that these children need by contributing to our Back to School campaign. We want to ensure that every child is given an equal opportunity in getting quality education and to eradicate inequality in our society.
Imagine the impact we would be able to make as a society if every one of us committed to the welfare of one disadvantaged child. Find out how you can help here!