Poverty is the enemy of education

The Editor, Sir:

Being an ardent supporter of good-quality education, I have now come to the realisation that poverty and education are inextricably linked. Poor children who don't eat a nourishing breakfast will not be able to pay attention in class and so they may become restless and may disrupt the class, with the latter being the case in most of our schools these days.

Sadly, the effect of poverty on the educational success of poor children cuts deeper than merely supplying hungry children with a nourishing meal. Poverty can lead to low self-esteem. Children from poverty-stricken homes are well aware of their peers who dress better and most times become embarrassed by what they have to wear. This leads to them becoming withdrawn in class, which creates a bad learning environment.

There are other factors that exacerbate the effects of poverty on a poor child's education. The majority of our children grow up in poor families and are, more likely than not, exposed to an environment that is unsafe at best and not beneficial to learning. The lives of these children are often on the line and the evidence of this is staring Jamaica in the face. We need to make the lives of our children safer. Poverty, whether absolute or relative, permeates every aspect of an individual's life, including their access to education and their experience of the education process itself.

Chaos and mayhem

Additionally, these children live what they learn in theses communities: the chaos and mayhem around them cause them to become hardened and pretty soon they end up engaging in the illegal activities that this government is trying to correct. Our boys and girls are being robbed of their childhood; consequently, girls turn to prostitution and boys become gunslingers, 'weed head', gang members for local gangs. This 'movie' has been played all too much in our society and we are losing our young people to gangs and drugs.

Finally, this is an SOS to the government, Children's Advocate, Parent-Teacher Association, the private sector, the Church and all Jamaicans that, by examining the effects of poverty on learning, we can take the correct decisions to eradicate same, develop appropriate teaching strategies and be accountable and responsible to help our children and education on a whole.

Poverty is the enemy, and until we accept this we will continue to point the finger of blame.

I am, etc.,

RODWIN GREEN

rodwin@stu.ncu.edu.jm

Siloah PO

St Elizabeth