“I want to go abroad and study; I am taking IELTS coaching now”, came the answer from a 12th standard girl, daughter of a man who committed suicide due to the burden of debt when we asked “what do you want to do after this”. Her ambition took me by surprise. That was the last answer I expected out of that pale and frail-looking young girl in that small house with just a very old grandmother to look after her and a younger brother. This was in Khiala Kalan village of Mansa district of Punjab where 13 of us from St Stephens College had come to study the plight of suicide victim families.
However, the element of surprise disappeared after a few days in Punjab, getting to know the IELTS craze in Punjab among the youth to emigrate to Canada. In fact, in just about two days, one realizes that coaching for the IELTS exam had become a roaring industry in the state. According to a Tribune news report, at least six lakh students from Chandigarh and Punjab are expected to appear for International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test this year. The number of institutes offering IELTS coaching has grown five fold in the past five years, making it a Rs 1,100-crore industry. For one who has visited Punajb at least once this won’t be news for there is a bill board flashing IELTS coaching about every 500 metres, even in the villages which are now trying to catch up with their urban counterparts.
We even came across a few families which were sending the girls for costly IELTS coaching which they could hardly afford simply to marry them off to a Punabi ‘munda’ in Canada. By now it was clear, the children, at least in these suicide victim families couldn’t dream beyond a limit- either farming or IELTS or may be military. Yes, there were exceptions like the girl who wanted to become a fasion designer, the boy who wanted to be a pilot and another who wanted to join the air force. Nevertheless, these remain dreams and there too exceptions.
Hence, one of the clear observations that came out of our survey-based-research in a few villages in the Mansa district of Punjab was the failure of education and employment in the region. It further failed the children, whose future looked bleak from where they were. In spite of the high fees, parents preferred to send their wards to private schools and colleges due to loss of faith in the quality of government schools. A majority of them wanted their children to take up a career other than farming. However, given the plight of education and dearth of career opportunities, that dream too, is likely to remain one. It is a sad state of affairs. The government has a long way to go in improving the state of public education in the region, so that children could have access to affordable and good quality education to dream beyond the farms and the tractors, and aspire to enter a well-paid government or corporate job, to having ambitions about changing the world.
By,
Juhy Reji Mathew
Comments