The Children can't wait

An article in the Sunday Times tracked 3 girls from different social background who were featured 6 years ago about their learning development at age 5.  As expected the gap in their learning development opportunities has further widened. Whilst the girl from the well off parents excelled not only in academics and sports, the girl from a single parent family whose mother works as as a dishwasher takes Mathematics and English at foundation level (meant for students weak in these subjects) and remains shy when answering questions.

What really affected me is when I read that her mother who earns $1000 per month has to spend some money to buy assessment books from the bookshop in the hope that her child can do better in her PSLE examination. $1000 for a family of 6 is not even enough to meet the basic needs and she has to spend part of it on assessment books? Have assessment books become basic needs? Something is very wrong with our education system don't you think?

The recommendation from the study is that kids lagging behind needs help much earlier because by the time they enter school the gap is far too wide. Do I not know this? At the Children's Home where I volunteer I am often taken aback by the limited English vocabulary of the primary school going children. Even when I play with them board games designed to help children express their emotions they are struggling with the words on the cards. Sometimes I have to consciously use simpler words to get a message across though this does not really help them to improve their language ability, but then again my main purpose there is to foster better psychological well being. I guess the volunteer tutors will take care of the academic part. It used to be that my play room was just next to the room where the children had their tuition. I could hear the tutors' exasperation because the kids also had very short attention span.   It tugs my heart when I see them struggling with simple calculation when role playing as cashiers counting the change. Other than promoting their emotional well being , all I could be of help for their future career is to affirm their creativity and organisational ability (example playing at running a cafe which they love) and to build their self esteem and confidence.

Sometimes  I would laugh at the wits and craftiness displayed by these kids and then wondered how much more they would have developed if family circumstances were better. If our society can organise itself to garner unutilised resources to meet the needs of these children the gap between the privileged and under privileged children will definitely diminish. Just thinking aloud I wonder if every physically fit retiree can mentor one lagging child that would certainly close the developmental gap. As it is now there are several programs run by some civic groups that help in giving a hand and I hope more will mushroom; the society can wait to mature but the children can't wait.