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‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’ (Nelson Mandela, 1997). Education can certainly determine the quality and power it can hold within an individual’s life. Education improves the knowledge, skills, and attitude which can automatically affect the chances of employment. However, on the other hand, some unfortunate children suffer from major crises of poverty. Poverty originates into two forms: Absolute and Relative. The government publishes a ‘household below average income’ (HBAI), which shows many statistics on individuals who live in low-income households. This survey is able to set the poverty line which measures a low income of at least 60% below the annual median income which can also be known as relative poverty. Absolute poverty is a condition where a certain household is under the standard amount to uphold shelter or clothing. This essay argues how schools should be responsible for issues of poverty and expands on to what extent and the limitations the schools should go through to help maintain a child’s well-being, but they need to consider the different types of barriers they could face.
Schools can be responsible for adapting new rules and relegations on addressing the issues of poverty. Children who suffer from poverty experience trauma which can affect their educational achievement and physical development. According to the National Education Union, Child Poverty – the Facts 2021, they received reports from different schools that demonstrated how children in poverty expose moments of tiredness or exhaustion which can lead to a lack of concentration and focus on their lessons. This displays how poverty can have a huge impact on a child’s learning as they would constantly be stressed over their everyday recourses such as free school meals, shelter, or clothing. They would find it difficult to live up to the expectations set by the teachers and would often exclude themselves from the class and pupils. Schools are able to help overcome this by allowing the children to have access to equal academic opportunities where they are able to increase their intellectual development from a younger age. This would benefit their self-esteem and confidence because they would feel included within their group and be aware of what is happening around them.
Child poverty is linked with a wide range of health problems and negative educational outcomes which has affected around half of the children within and schooling. According to Poverty and child health 2016, they believe that a child’s education can be negatively affected due to poverty because of their standards of living. Children would be exposed to diseases such as coronary heart disease, asthma, and lung cancer. This can affect a child’s intellectual development and would leave them falling behind a year from where they should be expected at. Goodman A (2010), suggests how a child who suffers from poverty can be linked with structural differences in several areas of brain development which can be held accountable for the differences in academic achievements. Schools within are able to help benefit themselves and the children by allowing children to take part in the Eleven Plus exam which was created as part of the 1944 Butler education act. This system was introduced to test the development of the children and to understand which type of school children would need to attend.
Another effective way schools can help to reduce any issues of poverty is by providing access to free school meals to young children which would help benefit their families. Those who are entitled to Free School Meals are if their parents receive some sort of income support or child tax credit etc. Free School Meals are important because according to ‘Article 27’ – the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child suggests how children should be able to live a life that ensures their physical and mental state is remaining positive and not affected by the lack of no adequate food or housing. The National Education Union, believe children who have access to free school meals are more likely to leave school with a high grade in their GCSEs than other children. This is because, on average, low-income families eat less vegetables and basic nutrition which children should mainly intake but would consume more fast food and processed meats. Studies have shown how Free School Meals have been helpful for families and children because, by them providing healthy meals, schools can improve their educational outcomes which would support the closure of the attainment gap between students from disadvantaged families and the wealthier families. Free school meals are not seen as equivalent to poverty because according to the Government website, they state how a child may be able to receive free school if they have any of the following: income support, working tax credit, universal credit, or all children in reception, years 1 and 2 at state school.
Jensen (2009) explains how children living in poverty spend less time caring about anything happening in the world. He states, ‘their households are more crowded, noisy and physically deteriorated and they contain a greater amount of safety hazards’. This indicates how underprivileged children suffer from social exclusion because, by them attending school, is a form of escape from the chaos they go through at home. They may exclude themselves from their peers as they might be afraid of getting bullied or feeling different than the rest. This can have an impact on the child’s emotions and affect their education because they are unable to concentrate. To prevent this from occurring or increasing, schools could raise their standards on what they could expect from the children. They should consider what the child would prefer rather than forcing them to a certain task that they themselves are aware they are unable to complete.
Poverty can be identified in many ways; it is complex and can be strongly influenced but parents and their socioeconomic positions. Children’s attitudes towards the poor have a special meaning to children growing up in economic austerity, because their perceptions of the reasons for poverty may have an effect on how they treat the vulnerable
Bullock (1999) and Hakovirta and Kallio (2016). Examples that can be used to justify this would be children from poorer families do not have the money to buy new clothes regardless of if they are torn or dirty. However, the children who are considered well-off are provided with new clothes and the latest technology. Relating this back to the question, schools are able to help take responsibility for reducing the chances of poverty minimizing the days of non-uniform through the years because they can suffer from peer pressure and low self-esteem. Prescribing uniforms to children is a dress code that extracts the burden and pressure of appearance and can introduce a form of equality within the school. This can help minimize the chances of the children getting bullied or frowned upon by others as they would automatically be classed into a category which would lead to decreasing their self-esteem and mindset of attending school.
In the 18th century, the elementary education act was introduced in order to make education compulsory for children aged between 5 to 13. The act known as ‘The Forster Act’ was able to allow local education boards to inspect the schools to ensure they were up to the expected standards; the parents must pay for the children’s education unless those who are unable to afford it, would get funded by the government and that the schools should be publicly funded. Booth (1902) explains how poverty has been caused by the feudal society where the class of people with only their labor has the power to sell. Booth and Rowntree (2018) both conducted research on the poverty line where they believe ‘the poor include anyone living below the line’. This may include the argument of Novak (1995) as he also believes that poverty has been stuck in an empiricist paradigm. This all shifts to relative poverty which is poverty for those who experience social exclusion and not the lack of basic living. He argues how the voices and the needs of poor children are being ignored.
Education is seen as a way for individuals to get away from poverty. Schools are able to help reproduce the social conditions within the wider society because it is evident how children from poorer backgrounds experience their social conditions in school. Social reproduction can be linked to education with the process of middle-class children who are more likely to succeed in education and go further in receiving well-paid jobs and the same for working-class children. According to Bourdieu (2015), his studies show that a child is able to present themselves on account of their social background through their academic content. He developed the concept of habitus which can be referred to as the lifestyle or the expectations of being a part of particular groups. ‘individuals’ dispositions are a reflection of their lived trajectories and justify their approaches to practice’ (Bourdieu, 2000, page 138). This suggests how individuals would react in a certain way depending on the terms of the behavior.
Poverty is not restricted to one dimension, e.g., income, but it manifests itself in all domains of life, such as housing, education, and health. (Deleeck et al. 1992, 3). According to Francis Devine (2022), the statistics show that 8.8 million people suffer from absolute poverty and 2,2 out of that percentage are children. This highlights that children who suffer from absolute poverty experience a lack of basic needs to be able to survive. For example, they do not have the appropriate food, shelter, or the right education. Due to their background, children are unable to receive the stimulation and the capability to learn social skills for their future. Schools are able to help tackle child poverty by creating a positive atmosphere. This would allow the children to feel more respectful and considerate towards one another without having to judge. However, Busby (2019), in her article, states how children are avoiding the fear of being bullied in schools due to their worn-out clothes or lack of equipment. This can lead to children not attending school or any occasions such as their own clothes day as they would feel like they would receive unkind comments which would decrease their self-esteem and confidence.
Individuals who grow up being surrounded by poverty can put their future lifestyle at risk. Schools have recently been made aware of children avoiding taking letters home about trips or any missed payments for their parents as they are aware of the stress their parents go through. A recent article written by Westwater (2022) shows that the costs of schools are becoming a worry and causing mental health issues for parents because some have reported that they had to borrow money to help fulfill the wishes of their children and to prevent them from feeling embarrassed. Schools are able to help tackle this issue However, a disadvantage for schools to help break poverty is that if they accept many children from deprived areas, they will need to accept the problems and issues that come with it such as poor lifestyle, poor health and daily nutrition’s which could eventually end up increasing the costs of the schools to help deal with it.
A concept that would help to reduce the issues of poverty within schools is the increase in quality teaching. Hnard and Roseveare (2012), describe quality teaching as the use of learning new techniques in order to come out with positive and outstanding outcomes for students. Schools in disadvantaged areas would require more importance on attracting teachers to come and guide students. Relating this back to Sutton Trust Report in 2014, they believe that effective teaching leads to improved student achievements. If a child is constantly being provided with knowledgeable teachings, this would improve a disadvantaged child’s performance because they would be gaining knowledge on skills they would require for their future. If this policy or concept was not put into place within the school environment, the children would become deprived of gaining basic knowledge and behind in their development. This would mainly begin in the children’s homes from the age of 19 months because their development starts from the knowledge they would inherit from their parents.
To conclude, it is vital that we consider the idea of how schools should be responsible and find ways how to help tackle poverty within schools. The pinnacle issue explained throughout this essay argues how education improved the knowledge, skills, and attitude toward children. This essay also established how the downside of education, can affect unfortunate children, that suffer from poverty and could be treated differently than those not affected by poverty. One of the main examples to this point was school trips and the funding they would receive. The children who suffer from absolute poverty is the deprivation of the basic needs an individual would desire to live a healthy lifestyle. However, some children could suffer from relative poverty, in which their families would have an amount of money but still are unable to afford anything above the basic needs such as the latest technology or latest clothing. Schools are able to provide the children with the basic needs because they understand their income situation with their parents struggling to help provide for their children. After analyzing all of the above, schools would need to consider their limitations on how far they can go to help underprivileged children.
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