"I can live without education"

Many people have always faced challenges in acquiring education and the major challenge has always been poverty and lack of support from other authorities that should be looking into achieving educational needs as important. So just how do you advice a young and energetic person who insists that education is not any solution to his or her problems?
I thought these words were just some people's way of explaining that education should not be a reason for one to succeed, but listen to this.
A very young, motivated and energetic boy of school age wakes up in the morning, takes a bath and after his breakfast, he walks to a nearby construction site to wait for his turn to be picked by a contractor to go and work as a 'fundi boy' and waits to be paid kshs 150 (2 dollars) in a day which he uses to survive. His major reason is that his friend who went through high school is back at home in the farm after failing to get a grade that can be accepted in the higher education institutions. Oh no!
After a hard and involving work under a scouching sun, the boy walks back home tired and overworked and all in his mind is how his pay of the day is going to be spent on several things he needs for a living.
 I got a chance to speak to him about this whole issue and was mainly concerned on why he left going to school in form two.
    'I can live without education', and that is his main word. I try asking why  but all he can confidently answer is that whether educated or not, he sees nothing interesting in somebody who has an office but still earning the same amount he earns in a month and to make it more worse for him, those in the offices spend a lot of their money.
'So you do not wish to live like those big people who drive big cars and live in posh houses?' I try to ask. but his answer is still straight as he claims that those people with big cars are not genuine workers. According to him, they only are either corrupt or blessed.
He further explains to me that even those who went to school are still working in the same level as he does and that motivates him to work with them. And so i ask him if he has any ambitions or goals he plans to achieve but in surprise, he only need to see another day to thank God for.
I later came to realize that many people go through such life and their major drive is not all my friend shared with me, neither is it about background. The major cause is the kind of socialization children go through when they are still young. You need to follow your child and always encourage him or her on the benefits of education. Some will never realize that there is any importance of waking every morning ad running to school to learn if they see no benefit in that.
Children need to be guided and let aware of why they should work hard in school and bring home good results.

This article is as a result of a field study i personally did in Kenya's largest slum, Kibera in which i found out that some learners are not even aware of the reasons why they go to school. When they see their parents going through hard times to provide for them, they are even demoralized to work hard and they end up losing it all.
Let us encourage the young school going children to take education as a very important tool in their life that can bring change to their states of life. They need a lot of counseling.



Share more of your educational stories and let us help build a world for some people who have not yet known education to be important.
Evans.