وان Sacrifices of a Contradiction; Children Who Do Not Go to School in the Month of Mehr / Aida Eyebrow’s Call
The month of Mehr and the beginning of the school year, the smell of books and notebooks and the excitement of children to go to school. It is a flip of a coin that is repeated over and over again in the mind. In the midst of this, the smell of Mehr month is a reminder for another group of children and their families of the repeated exclusions and eliminations. Eliminations based on discrimination and contradictions.
Children from low-income families become familiar with the concept of contradiction and exclusion from a very young age. Their dreams for the future fade away with each passing moment. Economic poverty forces children to live without dreams. The bitter truth is revealed when these children are deprived of their most basic right, which is education. Poverty is the main cause of this injustice, although poverty itself is a product of injustice.
One of the main reasons for children dropping out of school is class difference. Due to the increasing inflation in the country, working-class families face serious challenges in providing for their children’s education, including buying school supplies. These children are forced out of the education system and into the workforce. These families may not necessarily want their children to drop out of school, but poverty and the inability to support the family financially forces the child to do so. In Iran, the use of child labor is not a serious obstacle and is seen as a way for capitalists to make profit. These children enter the economic cycle at a young age and engage in jobs such as fortune telling, selling flowers, newspapers, shoe shining, cleaning car windows, selling plastic, balloons, gum, collecting dry bread and metal items from trash, selling prayers at busy intersections, markets, and crowded places, or working in workshops and brick kilns. Their lives are full of danger and insecurity.
According to Article 30 of the Constitution, the government is obligated to provide free education for all citizens until the end of secondary school and to expand higher education opportunities for the country to the extent of self-sufficiency. However, the increase in the number of children who are deprived of education due to economic and cultural problems is a sign of the improper implementation of this law in the country.
Sometimes government decisions and plans can indirectly affect the statistics of child dropouts. One of the consequences of programs that encourage women to stay at home and take away their employment opportunities is creating difficulties in meeting the economic needs of low-income families, especially families with female heads of household. As a result, this creates unfavorable conditions for the education of children in these families and leads them towards dropping out of school.
Similarly, the existence of co-ed schools in certain regions of the country, which are faced with a lack of educational facilities, is one of the reasons for families’ opposition to the presence of girls and sometimes even boys in schools. In this regard, cultural poverty, in addition to economic poverty, is one of the exacerbating factors of this exclusion.
One of the other factors that leads to students dropping out of school is the cultural biases of their families. These families do not allow their children to continue their education. Among them, girls are the first victims of these biases. Girls who are forced to drop out at a young age and are sometimes forced into marriage by their families, and never have the opportunity to return to school. These girls are deprived of their most basic rights from an early age due to cultural discrimination, and with the support of religious and government laws, they are often sent to the back of the classroom.
Is this deprivation from the educational field not considered violence? Is creating conditions for dropping out of school and depriving children of the opportunity to build a better future not a violation of human rights?
Perhaps the best and most practical solution for saving the academic life and future of these children is dependent on government support. These dreamless and hopeless children are waiting on the streets in the heat and cold, hoping to sell a bouquet of flowers or a fortune-telling leaf to make a living, and in their eyes, one can see the regret of missing out on the joy of recess and the sound of the school bell at the end of the day. Perhaps it is time for the government, with the support of child rights activists, to seek a practical solution and instead of creating obstacles for these activists, work alongside them to bring these children back from the streets and into their rightful place.
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Monthly magazine number 41