The Sikh Family's Education Struggle: An Essay On India.

Childhood Days

Write about the Educational Autobiography for Nation and Seldom.

My name is A. I am belonged to Sikh religion. Punjab is my homeland when I was born and brought up. We are three siblings. Actually I have a brother and an older sister. I have lost my father at the age of eight during the battle of Kargil War of 1999. At that time he was posted in Jammu and fought against the Pakistani trespassers. As a matter of fact, a year before that my grandfather was passed away and as a result of that the whole family became devastated. My father never stayed in home because of his service to the nation and seldom came home once or twice a year. Therefore, my grandfather was supposed to hold entire responsibility of the family. My sister who is two years older than me seemed too close to me at that time. My mother had to deal with both the household and the agriculture. In this context, I forget to mention about the agricultural practice of my family that is our ancestral tradition. We have six acres of land that is designated to yield sugar canes. Therefore, all these entire agricultural tasks were performed by my grandfather in the absence of my father. However, in course of time, he got a heart problem and all the responsibilities were burdened upon my mother. She was twenty eight years old at that time and had to take care of the new member of our family. My brother took birth in the year 1997. After his birth the responsibility of my mother had been escalated immensely that she had to deal with the domestic household and at the same time took care of us and dealing with our harvest lands. It can be stated that due to her dynamic acts in married life our education was spread in an unequal way.

My elder sister got her fundamental learning in the local primary school and at the same time she had to help my mother in cooking and other household staff. My grandmother had passed away very long ago while suffering with age old diseases. It was my grandfather who always motivated us to continue our study as long as we could. Despite of his motivation, my mother did not like the way of my sister’s education. This was primarily because of the immense pressure on her to cope of both the domestic and outside situations. Moreover, some social and economic underpinnings were also there that influence the decision of my mother. If I take the 1999 as a culmination point, it can be sated that at that time the situation was quite upside down for the entire family. I did continue my education further but for my sister it was halted permanently. The social and economic condition of the country was also put impetus in the context of the education of my sister. In the capital and urban sectors women education was very much appreciated and the families were literally sent their girl child to schools with lots of enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, the situation was quite different in case of the rural portions of the country. Lack of educational infrastructure in terms of schools, curriculum and the motivation to educate everyone was spread all over the region. In fact, people were so sceptical about women education. The patriarchal society did not give their women the right to enlightened by the educational manifestation. Therefore, resembling the same vision my mother did not support the practice of school going of my sister. Besides this, there was another factor that resembled with the situation. It was based on the financial condition of my family. After the death of my grandfather we suffered with grave financial crisis and as a result of that my mother was unable to give finance in my sister’s education. Naturally, it can be presumed that the culture of education was absent in my family and people had no idea about the importance and significance of education. In fact, at that young age I too had zero idea about it. As a matter of fact, often in the name of going school I bunked and went with my friends for doing nuisance. Obviously, it hampered my initial learning and as a result of that I failed to get admission in high school later.

Education in Rural India

During my high school phase I had witnessed a sharp change in my orientation towards education and my interest towards the school curriculum gradually developed. As a result of that my results in the high schools was seemingly better from the early days. I confess that I was and am not a brilliant student.

Despite of that, in my school days I performed quite well. The reason behind my gradually better performance were the teaching process, set of curriculum and the healthy communication between teacher and students. Later I come to know about the inclusive excellence model in education which was existed at that time in my curriculum. According to this framework, the teachers and the students both are considered to be a pivotal factor to create an efficient framework for the institutional organisation. It can be asserted that the education system in my school was not purely based on this model but had a close affinity with it. In return, it helped me a lot to build my responsible as a team member and made my personality on a sound basis that was proved beneficial in my later phase of education.

The influence of my school drove me to take Education as a subject of my preference for bachelor degree. My early experience about the importance of education led me to do something better so that it could render equal opportunities for boys and girls to get education. As a matter of fact, I felt pity for my elder sister that she might have a brilliant future that was ended by the social prejudices related to education. As a result of that, in my college days I had conducted a number of social campaigns for spreading education among every child in the country. Someone told that charity begins at home. Based on this idea I also started to organise campaign in my locality at first. The local students irrespective of their genders and their parents as well were very moved with my campaigns and decided to send their girl child also in school. It developed a sense of awareness among the people as well.

In course of my college life I had come to meet with a number of people who gave me motivation and inspiration in different ways. Especially my teachers and professors helped me a lot to carry forward my mission of education for all. My college curriculums were also played a pivotal part in this regards. It can be argued that as a student came from a rural side there was lack of understanding in me to get a clear picture of the situation in education. As a matter of fact, it can be stated that my curriculum reflected some instances of global practice in education where the students can have learn and fun irrespective of their gender. Therefore, the readings helped me to set a plan that would be beneficial for me in future understanding.

Higher Education in New Zealand

In the year 2013 I planned to make a visit to a University in New Zealand to pursue my higher education. The study would be helping me to gather knowledge on Educational practices and he manner in which the educational systems can be made more effective. The aim was to bring in changes in the educational and economic conditions in my family and the society where the women are not provided with the privileged to acquire secondary educations. The course that I undertook in the university was aimed at helping e to identify the social and the political issues that restricts free education to the people living I the society. In New Zealand, the educational culture is seemed to be quite different and it provides an opportunity for both boys and girls to get educated in the same manner. There is no obligation or boundary that can differentiate male and female students.

I found myself in the middle of a culture, which provided a wide scope of education to the interested candidates. It has helped in maintaining the different levels of changes in the education systems. On the other hand, I faced several issues while coping up with the cultures that are presented. The transition in the cultures affected my cognitive abilities at the beginning of my session. However, the scope that was offered to me during the course has helped me to identify the different issues that were faced by the people of the village and the privileges that were offered in New Zealand. The identification of the norms of the society and the application of the social norms helps to bring in reforms in the social structure and the functioning of the educational systems.  The identification of the issues that are faced by the people and the manner in which they could be mitigated helps in enhancing the performance of the educational institutions as per the needs of the people living in the society.

The course helped me in identifying the position of the women in the society and the manner in which the women empowerment of the women in the processes is facilitated through the higher educational levels. The course helped me in the identification of the social issues and the manner in which the application of the psychological sciences will be helping me to ring in reforms in the society. The differences in the systems of the education have helped me to bring in changes in the systems of the same in the market. On the other hand, the delineation of the issues helped me when I returned to my place at the end of my course. The changes that brought around the prevalent educational systems related to the inclusion of the primary and secondary education made compulsory and the empowerment of the girl child has helped me to enhance the scopes for the communities. The aim of the transition that I undertook was to bring in changes in the situations that were faced by my sister, as she could not receive the secondary education. On the other hand, making the education more feasible to the communities helped me to provide greater scope for the people relating to the changes in the systems.