Windows to the world

Education in my village

Not many years ago, people in my village had very little idea of what it really meant to be literate. Many of my village elders recall how they went about begging for authorities to pardon their children being enrolled for schooling. They would bribe the officials with oxen, pigs, chicken and the like so that they drop their children from needing to go to school and study. Back then children were meant to stay at home and help their parents in daily works. If anyone ever went to school, they would brand him as useless. This was some forty years ago. The notion gradually changed. The village folks began to realize that the only way for a better life is through education.

I was fortunate enough to have born at a time when the dreaded notion was already changing. By the time I went to school, there were hundreds of children in my school from my village. Many of them dropped out due to some reason or the other. Some of us continued to manage till high school. And a very few of us secured to get a place in a university for graduation. I feel sorry for my friends who dropped out mid way from their schooling. Hope they would not let their children repeat the same mistake.

Till today, the greatest gratitude for my parents is the fact that they worked hard to send me to school. They sacrificed their hard earned meager amount of money to buy me books, shoes, bags, uniforms and the list is endless. Their act of sending me to school has indeed changed my life. It saved me from having to live a life of ignorance and delusion. It opened thousand doors of opportunities. It opened my eyes to the world. It changed the way I perceive the world and people.

I give utmost importance to education. I am happy to see that today every single child is enrolled in school in my village. This is a sign of a long and fulfilling journey. From bribing officials to exempt the child from schooling to achieving 100% primary enrolment voluntarily, it is truly a remarkable improvement.  One habit that I want my village school children to inculcate is that of reading books. Reading is by far the most educative and enlightening exercise. Whenever I meet a young friend, I would like to gift him a book so that he can read and develop reading into a hobby.

While the primary school in my village celebrated its silver jubilee in 2012, I pray that fellow kids from my village to continue going to school with zeal. Only then they will be able to see the world in real sense. Only then they will be able to make a difference to themselves and their society. Only then they will be accepted as a member of the twenty first century human race.