Guest blog by Emma Wilson
Increased aspirations for schooling are one of the most striking intergenerational changes among households in the Young Lives study. Across the four countries children and families view education as a route out of poverty towards a better life and improved social mobility. We have been looking at how the lives of children and their families are changing in response to the expansion of schooling and the implications for those young people who are unable to meet the expectations placed upon them.
Andahuaylas* is a Quechua community located in the southern highlands of Peru, with a population of 2,863 inhabitants. The community is mainly reliant on agriculture, predominantly potato and corn production. It is characterised by high levels of seasonal migration, particularly during the months of November and February. The community has grown in size in recent years, and is now considered a 'minor settlement' and entitled to elect a local mayor and council. It has three schools (kindergarten, primary and secondary level) and a he
Parents place a very high value on education. Their overriding desire is that children should escape farm work or the field (on the chacra, or smallholding), which they associate with suffering and hardship, and instead have the opportunity to pursue higher education and enter the labour market as professionals. Given the limited opportunities available in this small community, aspirations for work and education are inevitably underpinned by plans to migrate to urban centres.
Many caregivers are prepared to make huge sacrifices to enable their children to attend school. Marta's mother, for example, struggles to cover the indirect costs of her children's schooling, particularly transport and accommodation costs for her sons, who study away from home. She is forced to relinquish valuable assets when she is short of money:
"I worry when I don't have money, sometimes I can't make ends meet, and so I sell my cows... before I had enough money, I lived well, now I am short of money as my children are studying, that's why I'm short."
Fifteen-year-old Marta attends the local secondary school, while her brothers go to school in the provincial capital, where the quality of education is perceived to be better. Her mother explains that she does not have sufficient resources to send all her children to the same school. Marta hopes that she can pursue further studies and become a nurse. She tells her mother,
"We're not going to suffer like this in the mud ... it'ss better that I go and study."
Yet
Increased aspirations for education and work are increasingly reshaping relations between children and their caregivers. Most caregivers are keen that children finish school, and possibly higher studies, and that they delay getting married and having children. This contrasts sharply with their own life histories. Alvaro's mother married at 14 years of age and had her first child at 15. She is keen that her own son, who is 16, does not find a partner too early because "he wouldn't count [in life], with a wife and without studies".
Esmeralda, who is 17, hopes to go to university. She states,
"Young people are not like before ... they are studying .. .Before they didn't use to study, they would only work and get married and all that. Now many have entered [university]."
Her mother is also keen that she follows this path: "I tell her, 'Daughter, first finish studying... later there will be people for you to marry.'"
When children are unable to fulfil such high expectations, parents can be left disappointed, particularly if they have made considerable investments in their children's education. Atilio, for example, left school and migrated to Lima, where he works in the market selling food. His mother feels that he now has limited opportunities in life and will end up back in the community in the fields: "All his life, he will suffer in the fields". She had hoped that he would become a professional and now feels that her efforts to secure his education were wasted; "I placed him in a school in the provincial capital [but now it seems] I put him there just for the sake of it."
In these ways, children'ss engagement with school is pivotal in defining what it means to be a successful child, as well as shaping migration away from the village. There is considerable stigma attached to children who leave school early and work on the fields. As Esmeralda's mother explains, They don'tt know anything... if they don't finish [school], they are worthless."
*Note: we use pseudonyms for all the communities and children taking part in our research.
This is one of six community case studies included in a new Young Lives paper Changing Children's Lives, which explores how where children live and how their communities are changing are important factors in the opportunities open to children and the risks they face.
See also:
Patricia Ames (2013) "Constructing New Identities? The Role of Gender and Education in Rural Girls' Life Aspirations in Peru", Gender and Education 25.3: 267-83.
Jo Boyden (2013) ""We're not going to suffer like this in the mud": Educational Aspirations, Social Mobility and Independent Child Migration among Populations Living in Poverty', Compare 43(5): 580-600.
Gina Crivello (2011) "Becoming Somebody": Youth Transitions through Education and Migration in Peru', Journal of Youth Studies 14.4: 395-411.
Guest blog by Emma Wilson
Increased aspirations for schooling are one of the most striking intergenerational changes among households in the Young Lives study. Across the four countries children and families view education as a route out of poverty towards a better life and improved social mobility. We have been looking at how the lives of children and their families are changing in response to the expansion of schooling and the implications for those young people who are unable to meet the expectations placed upon them.
Andahuaylas* is a Quechua community located in the southern highlands of Peru, with a population of 2,863 inhabitants. The community is mainly reliant on agriculture, predominantly potato and corn production. It is characterised by high levels of seasonal migration, particularly during the months of November and February. The community has grown in size in recent years, and is now considered a 'minor settlement' and entitled to elect a local mayor and council. It has three schools (kindergarten, primary and secondary level) and a he
Parents place a very high value on education. Their overriding desire is that children should escape farm work or the field (on the chacra, or smallholding), which they associate with suffering and hardship, and instead have the opportunity to pursue higher education and enter the labour market as professionals. Given the limited opportunities available in this small community, aspirations for work and education are inevitably underpinned by plans to migrate to urban centres.
Many caregivers are prepared to make huge sacrifices to enable their children to attend school. Marta's mother, for example, struggles to cover the indirect costs of her children's schooling, particularly transport and accommodation costs for her sons, who study away from home. She is forced to relinquish valuable assets when she is short of money:
"I worry when I don't have money, sometimes I can't make ends meet, and so I sell my cows... before I had enough money, I lived well, now I am short of money as my children are studying, that's why I'm short."
Fifteen-year-old Marta attends the local secondary school, while her brothers go to school in the provincial capital, where the quality of education is perceived to be better. Her mother explains that she does not have sufficient resources to send all her children to the same school. Marta hopes that she can pursue further studies and become a nurse. She tells her mother,
"We're not going to suffer like this in the mud ... it'ss better that I go and study."
Yet
Increased aspirations for education and work are increasingly reshaping relations between children and their caregivers. Most caregivers are keen that children finish school, and possibly higher studies, and that they delay getting married and having children. This contrasts sharply with their own life histories. Alvaro's mother married at 14 years of age and had her first child at 15. She is keen that her own son, who is 16, does not find a partner too early because "he wouldn't count [in life], with a wife and without studies".
Esmeralda, who is 17, hopes to go to university. She states,
"Young people are not like before ... they are studying .. .Before they didn't use to study, they would only work and get married and all that. Now many have entered [university]."
Her mother is also keen that she follows this path: "I tell her, 'Daughter, first finish studying... later there will be people for you to marry.'"
When children are unable to fulfil such high expectations, parents can be left disappointed, particularly if they have made considerable investments in their children's education. Atilio, for example, left school and migrated to Lima, where he works in the market selling food. His mother feels that he now has limited opportunities in life and will end up back in the community in the fields: "All his life, he will suffer in the fields". She had hoped that he would become a professional and now feels that her efforts to secure his education were wasted; "I placed him in a school in the provincial capital [but now it seems] I put him there just for the sake of it."
In these ways, children'ss engagement with school is pivotal in defining what it means to be a successful child, as well as shaping migration away from the village. There is considerable stigma attached to children who leave school early and work on the fields. As Esmeralda's mother explains, They don'tt know anything... if they don't finish [school], they are worthless."
*Note: we use pseudonyms for all the communities and children taking part in our research.
This is one of six community case studies included in a new Young Lives paper Changing Children's Lives, which explores how where children live and how their communities are changing are important factors in the opportunities open to children and the risks they face.
See also:
Patricia Ames (2013) "Constructing New Identities? The Role of Gender and Education in Rural Girls' Life Aspirations in Peru", Gender and Education 25.3: 267-83.
Jo Boyden (2013) ""We're not going to suffer like this in the mud": Educational Aspirations, Social Mobility and Independent Child Migration among Populations Living in Poverty', Compare 43(5): 580-600.
Gina Crivello (2011) "Becoming Somebody": Youth Transitions through Education and Migration in Peru', Journal of Youth Studies 14.4: 395-411.