Aspirations of Scheduled Caste Children and Parent’s Expectations in Educational Development: A Study from Indian Perspective

Dr. Sanjoy Roy^1* & Amit Kumar²

¹Associate Professor & Director, Field Work & Placement, Delhi School of Social Work, University of Delhi, Delhi
²Research Scholar, Delhi School of Social Work, University of Delhi, Delhi

*Correspondence to: Dr. Sanjoy Roy, Associate Professor & Director, Field Work & Placement, Delhi School of Social Work, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Copyright © 2018 Dr. Sanjoy Roy, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Introduction
Educational aspirations reflect a state of mind that motivates to strive for academic success. Early applications treated educational aspirations as a cognitive state shaped by the expectations of significant others, notably, parents, teachers, and peers. Aspirations are influenced by significant others who convey their expectations directly to youth and also indirectly through role modelling. Aspiration starts when children getting proper guidance at the right time. Through seeing others and consider others to be like them is also an influence factor to aspire for. Family as a basic unit of society is the primary agent of socialization. Parents serve as a major inspiration to a child who transmits their own preconceived ideas of aspirations. The gendered behavior learns by the child through the parent’s activity. The overall developments of a child in depending upon factors like the family composition, literacy level of parents, their occupational status, socio-economic conditions, pattern of socialization etc. The socio-economic background has an impact on the values, opinion, attitudes, do’s and don’ts, social interactions, bonds of attachment, aspirations and patterns of disciplining within the family [1]. Parental influences on aspirations are crucial because parents control both financial and psychological resources and are key actors in socialization. Aspirations can also be shaped through the social milieu of school settings, although such effects are difficult to establish empirically [2,3].

The learning starts from the womb when parents play the music or reading the book in the hope that it will influence the child and its behavior. Educational aspirations have been studied intensively by different disciplines to explain educational disparities, including psychological, social- psychological, sociological and economic perspectives. Yet, despite the frequent use of the term ‘educational aspirations’ which is used to refer to the educational students set for them. Zachariah (1970) highlights that at Senior Secondary level the school children develops the thinking ability to perform better and starts initial goals to achieve through education. The most important goal is the preparation of students for University entrance but the students stuck within the school syllabus and at last these children gets nothing in the name of employment and work. According to (ASER) Annual Status of Educational Repot (2017) Professional aspirations are clearly gendered; males usually want to joint army, police or becoming engineers and female showing preference for teaching or nursing careers. Almost a third of the youth who were currently not enrolled in an educational institution did not have specific occupation that they aspired to.

It is true that the condition after implementation is increase at very impressive level but after crossing high school there is drastically change has seen in dropping out the students due to various reasons. According to ASER (2017), only 54% within these are enrolled in standard 10^th and 25% are either in 11^th or 12^th and only 6% are enrolled in undergraduate and other degree or diploma courses [4]. There are hardly any differences between boys and girls at the enrolment age at 14 but at age 18, 32% females are not enrolled as compared to 28% males. Gender gap seen everywhere in the country except some of the states but within Schedule Caste it is still huge and very gradually improving. Around 40% youth did not have any role models for the profession they aspired and to become like. The substantial proportions of youth in the 14-18 age groups are working (42%). Of those who work, 79% work in agriculture almost all on their own family’s farm; also more than 3 quarters of all youth do household work daily 77% of males and 89% of females.

What does all this empirical evidence point to? At the time of secondary and senior secondary the student completed 10^th and 12^th standard the student undecided to what further course he or she should peruse. As a developing nation we need to be ready for a new generation of young people. Every year India will be “graduating” cohort of close to 25 million young and hopeful boys and girls from elementary school. They can’t enter the work force at least in the organized sector until they are 18. For many families these children are the first from their families ever to get this far in school. On the one hand aspirations run high parents and children expect that such “graduates” from school will go on to high school and college. Hardly anyone wants to go back to agriculture or their paternal work where their parents many have spent their entire working like (ASER, 2017). The time from 8^th to 12^th grade has generally been considered an important transitional period for adolescents, because of their desire for autonomy and independence and their gradual detachment from their families [5]. These important developmental changes in adolescents may make observing consistent findings about the effect of parental involvement on students’ academic outcomes more difficult. There is still time to think on the side of provision; there are ongoing moves to universalize secondary schooling. There are serious efforts to expand skilling opportunities. But as a Nation we need to know not only prepare this generation for learning and knowledge but also what the young people are aspiring to do and aligning abilities and achievements with aspirations. Forging promising alternative new pathways forward is critical not only for youth but for the country as well. In present article the researcher includes the analysis of responses and feedback of parents and students in developing and achieving desired aspirations.

Review of Literature

Educational Aspirations
According to Frank (1941) He highlights that the “Aspiration” is to undertake future performance for a particular task to keep aside the past performance and to reach that goal for which the individual aspire for [6]. He also said that an individual arranges his aspiration towards his possible attainments in a hierarchy of difficulties that he is likely to face. In absolute achievement the aspiration takes most important place to desire for something. When an individual think about how far his journey will go or what he or she will do in next five years, the answer seems difficult because these children do not create or develop aspiration in life.

Educational and occupational aspirations are no longer possible to predict school achievement on the grounds of aspirations or vice versa. There are many students from different ethnic, racial and socio- economic backgrounds are likely to develop aspirations that are unrelated to their present or future school performance. In Indian context the education is remains secondary priority when the indicator fails to meet the actual need of the family. Some recent previous studies on aspirations and school achievement have primarily focused on the questions whether or not aspirations can be used as a vehicle to increase school achievement.

The outcome of these studies is that the evident to link raising aspirations with improving school achievement is either study have pointed out that some students tend to hold high aspirations even beyond that the labour market can support. There are studies which suggest that the aspirations achievement paradox can be somehow understood by looking at expectation as well. The expectations are more likely to be associated with the socio-economic circumstances, and as such a better predictor for school achievement. The author argues that students’ aspirations and expectations cannot be used as predictors for future educational behavior in isolation from each other, or indeed from the student’s own school achievement. Aspirations can arguable help students improve their achievement, but they will be much more influential if they are accompanied with high expectations as well [7].

The aspiration situation is usually a threat to an individual’s self-esteem in that he must not only exhibit his aspirations. According to him the aspiration is not only to exhibit but to achieve a certain goal without fear. Aspirations must be loving desire to get something you love [8]. The level of aspirations of an individual can be illustrated as the point in the positive region of his utility scale of an achievement [8].

It became very important to plan for something to achieve in life. We see our parents to engage in work and learn from them about everything socially, culturally, and emotion moments. But career is the most important part of one’s life to be set or plan. One who does on time he/she will succeed without wasting much time. It is tough to say the exact age of engaging in something to achieve but there are several studies which says that the schooling age around 10^th and 12^th is perfect time to plan for future.

Zachariah (1970) highlights that at Senior Secondary level the schools develops the thinking ability to do better and children started setting up some goals to achieve but there are some inequality persisting in the society which also described that major characteristics of academic Secondary education are that its most important goal is the preparation of students for University entrance but the students stuck within the school syllabus and at last these children gets nothing adequately [3]. The higher drop-out rate in case of children from Scheduled Caste is quite alarming, therefore; the lack seems to be unachieved of the aspiration of their choices or they are unable to perform in education.

Educational aspirations have been studied intensively by different disciplines to explain educational disparities, including psychological, social-psychological, sociological and economic perspectives Domina et al., (2011) & Rojewski, (2005) [9]. Yet, despite the frequent use of the term ‘educational aspirations’ which is used to refer to the educationally target setting by the students. There is no single and universally accepted definition or common agreement of the term educational aspirations whereas the term says a lot to fulfil the desired goal through education [10].

Strand & Wilson (2008) in a study of Poland he found that the educational aspirations are equally spaced in the society, however, the groups with lower education and lower income, supports for education is slightly lower [11]. The aspirations develop through the family itself and depend on the family and social support. They argue that the desire for graduation for their children is 86%, and almost nobody wants their children to dropout from the schools. There is also a strand in the literature that the type of job and the main income source of a family may influence the educational aspirations.

Parent’s Expectation and Involvement
Jamur’s (1963) study revealed that “achievement and background factors” has revealed that achievement has positive relationship with such background factors as father occupation, hobbies, future education and vocational plans of students [12]. It has inverse relationship with such factors as age, membership of organizations outside and inside school and interest in music. The study also revealed that educational achievement is directly linked with future education and vocational plans. The present study too showed that students who secured higher percentage of marks neither aspire either to enter into a profession nor want to sit for competitive examinations like Indian Administrative Services etc.

According to Archana Arora (1978), Former PhD scholar from department of social work, University of Delhi, provide a deep understanding behind the schooling and aspirations and tells about influencing factor relating to achievement of goals [13]. The major findings were in her thesis: -Both schooling and socioeconomic status of the people affect the educational achievement of the students. She concludes that both the primary institution i.e. family and school influence the aspirations of a child which effect the education most.

The involvement of parents defined operationally defined as the parent’s aspirations for their children academic achievement, parents’ communication with their children about education and school matters, parents’ participation in school activities, parents’ communication with teachers about their children, and parental supervision at home. The aspirations for a child develop through the parental involvement and along with these four steps the researchers also take into consideration and proceed [14].

Epstein (1987) he also highlights four types of parental involvement which are (a) basic obligations, (b) school-to-home communications, (c) parent involvement at school, and (d) parent involvement in learning activities at home [15]. Later he researched Epstein (1992, 1994) expanded the typology and defined six types of school related opportunities for parental involvement: (a) assisting parents in child rearing skills, (b) school-parent communication, (c) involving parents in school volunteer opportunities, (d) involving parents in home-based learning, (e) involving parents in school decision making, and (f) involving parents in school-community collaborations [16].

Hoover-Dempsey and Sandier (1995) gave three types of parental involvement (a) why parents become involved in their children’s education, (b) how parents choose specific types of involvement, and (c) why parental involvement has a positive influence on students’ education outcomes [17].

Fan, (2001) find out that those students whose parents had reported higher expectations for their children’s educational attainment performed better initially and accelerated faster in their academic growth during the period from the 8th to 12th grade [18]. The children of those parents who reported more contact with school had somewhat lower initial academic performance. The negative impact on the slope of the growth, however, was negligible except for math. The findings were puzzling, but a closer look at the items suggested an explanation. The three contact items were contacted school (a) about academic performance, (b) about academic programs, and (c) about behavior. More parental contact with school about these issues may be triggered when students are not doing well in school to begin with. Thus, contact with School tends to be associated with more problematic students. If that is the case, the findings about this parental involvement dimension are understandable. The same ration ale might exist for the negative, but small, effect of Supervision.

Educational Aspirations of the Students
At the age of 14 to 18 there has been a phase comes in student’s life when he/she starts developing small type of goal and wishes such as to pass board exams, taking elective subjects or choosing streams to pursue. These types of small goals start developing the educational desire into their spare of environment. But at the same time there are number of student who left out education due to various reasons such as financial crisis, lack of interest. The situation was quite similar with the previous finding that the female students mostly want to join as teacher in future and rest did not know whether they will be allowed to study or not. None of the female student talked about the different profession other than teacher. For male students, most of them answered to go with the flow which means did not plan for future, even the 12th standard students after choosing specific stream did not have the answer of future planning.

Professional aspirations play very important role in motivating and guiding student to choose their profession according to their interest. If the parents are not in the position to guide a child, then the teacher can play to role of counselor or a mentor to a child. In this research the students and parents asked their aspirations and the information was collected to find the question related to their aspirations and the effort to attain those aspirations.

As a child grows physically and educationally his/her timing to look at the goals changes dictates the planning which they form in the mind. The background social and economic condition forced them to aspire accordingly. Timing is a very important aspect of differentiation, as Turner showed when he characterized the old British system of early-age selection as ‘sponsored mobility’ [18].

It is possible to see a connection where within boxes where a certain standard (Class) changes in educational aspirations. The first pattern dictate that (Figure 1, pattern A) is one where differentiation arises before school education starts. The stage considered the initial stage where a child has blank page mind. In such cases, schools are thought to merely maintain those pre-existing apparitional differences. Aspiration differentiation may occur within school education. This would generate pattern B, where there is little difference in aspirations at the elementary school level, but differentiation proceeds gradually and has made substantial progress by the time students approach High-School. Pattern C shows apparitional differentiation developing in the school system, school environment, teacher’s behavior etc but this time, rather than gradual differentiation; we see a sudden sharp change at the time of a particular event, such as the senior high school entrance examinations. We may expect the situation government school of any part of the country with well-developed entrance exam systems to fall somewhere between patterns B and C. Finally, we can imagine pattern D, in which there is relatively little differentiation of educational aspirations in primary and secondary education [19].

Types of Aspirations
There are mainly two types of aspirations (1) Idealistic aspirations and (2) Realistic aspirations.

However, the expectation and aspirations are different term to work for or to engage in several tasks. The expectation may the assumed performance resulted by someone while aspiration is to desire for work to plan a goal to achieve it realistically. There are authors like Kerckhoff (1976) who highlights the expectations, according to him the expectations are based on knowledge of the real world [20]. Although everyone may want to succeed, people in different strata have different expectations of their chances of success. For youth in more disadvantaged social positions, these expectations may start out high, but tend to be lowered over times as the youths observe the successes and failures of others like themselves. Besides the use of subjective data to predict later attainment outcomes, student aspirations are frequently assessed to provide information on their belief- formation and decision making processes, which cannot be investigated by means of the analysis of objective transition data. There are some previously research had shown that boy’s educational aspirations and expectations exceed then of girls and that there is a greater consistence between the aspirations (hopes) and expatiations of young men than of young women [11].

Research Methodology
The qualitative and quantitative i.e. Mix method used to get an overview of the existing problem. Hence, the study would adhere to apply descriptive research design. The researcher took a sample of 20 students and their parents from Scheduled Caste category on systematic method from the secondary and senior secondary standard. The researcher has taken five school principle, four case studies, and 5 Focus Group Discussion and 4 government officials and Ngo’s working on related issue to provide a holistic view on the education field. The students were selected from five schools in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The proportion of gender was remained equivalent in nature i.e. 10-10 for the students.

Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the research was to study the educational aspirations of students from the Scheduled Caste background.

1. To study the socio-economic and educational status of the students from the Scheduled Caste background.
2. To study the educational aspirations among the students from the Scheduled Caste background.
3. To understand various factors that affect educational aspirations among the students from this category.

Major Findings and Discussions
The major findings are incorporated from the study are discussed below from various perspectives.

Education of the Parents and Family Members: How Parent’s Education Play an Important Role in Attaining Aspirations
Education is the most important part to grow with knowledge and live with dignity to ensure the employability. The education of the parents effects the growth and development of a child to grow. It has seen from the study that if a child’s father or mother has good academic background the child acquires good counseling and guidance at home. The child has advantage to have those parents to guide their path and support timely. The child who has government job parents has freedom to choose profession and develops their aspirations to see them regularly. Whereas the child who has daily wage background found unable to set his/her goals and the support from the family was the nil. More than 60% mothers found illiterate and rested was largely who completed their primary education. The mother is not able to guide the child educationally, the knowledge level of the family was very less. The researcher asked to the parents and students about the help provided in academic or not? There were 0% contribution from the mother side and only 10% contribution from the father at the time of examination. Most of the parents assumes that this responsibility of school only. They said that why the school is opening when they could not able to work hard with children? Why they taking fees and why they able to tackle this problem of bad performance?

Parent’s Expectations for Their Children
When a child grows and takes admission in nursery standard it is obvious that he/she had should not have any idea of education, its importance, its significance in future or about its effects in life. Parents also have different expectation from girl and boys with regard to their wishes and behavior. Girls are expected to excel in art of cooking, singing, dancing, craft work and take up subjects such as social sciences and home sciences so that she can apply for teaching, nursing and secretarial type of soft jobs etc. whereas boys are encouraged to take up such activities like mathematics, engineering, professional courses to generate money for their adulthood. But at the stage when child get admitted he comes through all the stages what his/her child going to cover in next 10-20 years. But here in government schools the parents do not discussed to their child what are their expectations and in which field you interested in?

About 60% of parents did not ask ever to their child about interest, while there were some of the concerned parents have their own expectation and curious for achieving concerned aspirations along with their child’s effort. They arrange the guidance stakeholders if they are not capable of guiding their child and this happened if the family condition was better than those who could not think for these assumptions. As the data collection indicated while interviewing, there were number of children who did not get any academic help ever from their parents. There are number of efforts made by government to enroll in the education and at some extant we achieve this but what about the obstacle related to employment, opportunities to engage in work. About 80% of the parents did not help the child in academic ever. The parents do not sit with the child to discuss about their future. There are various reasons for these behaviors from parents that the education is not considered the prime focuses of living needs. The students were totally depended on teachers and school management for academic development. Some of the parents said they complete all their homework in school itself so they need not us for educating or keep eye on them.

Role of parental involvement in students learning has long captivated the attention of society in general and educational researcher in particular. Parent’s educational aspirations for their children stands out for its positive effect on student’s academic growth and development and it became most obvious’. One reason for the effect is that parents’ educational aspirations for their children may be much more than expectations.

The increasing demand of English forces many families to shift the school from Hindi medium to English medium for better quality education. The researcher keeps this factor in mind and asked the parents about shifting the school. Majority of parents said that they did not have any problem in shifting the school to English medium. But in this costly time and huge family we have to restrict our expenses. Most of the parents did not aware about their children’s school friends. They only stick to the neighborhood friend. The response of the parents was that it is not that important to know all these. The development of a child very much influence with the peer group engagement. The researcher has asked a question about what would you do when you find your child struggling in academics and the answer was they did not tell us about these type of problems. It is not known to us and we are not also motivated about the usefulness of tuitions. If they told us to take tuitions, we however manage to join his/her tuitions. The researcher asked to the parents about how you help the child to attaining his aspirations? The answer was that “we can give them money to invest in their future only other than that we did not have any support to give”. The parents said that they are ready to do anything “but” in their budget. From where the extra effort would come to meet the desired aspirations of a child one of the parents said. The relationships make a man perfect. Husband-wife together thinks about their future betterment. And for a developing mind demands a peaceful environment within family. The researcher asked to the parents about how is your marriage going or is there any difficulties within that, the majority said it is okay, do bartan hote hai to khadakte hai hi, (where two utensils live together, noise will come definitely).

Guidance and Counseling
At the stage of 10^th and 12^th standard the proper guidance about the subjects with futuristic planning is very much needed to youth. The researcher through the in-depth interview with parent and students and observation come to the conclusion that there were 65% students do not have anyone to guide within family and outside. The awareness level was very low in these types of students. The students who do not have anyone to guide found uninterested in participating in school’s extracurricular activities. There were some of the students who provided guide to the elder sister or brother; the awareness level of children was very low in terms of programmes and policies related to education. 70% students did not read newspaper ever and those who read newspaper only looks at the sports, regional page and entertainment page in Hindi. There was 80% house where the family did not subscribe any newspaper.

There were 25% students who do not study at home at all. They study at the time of examination only. Other student said that they study daily when the examination going to be held. There were 75% students who study at home in which 35% studies for 1 to 2 hours. The parents did not encourage studying at home especially the mother who look out children after father. Our mother did not tell us to study ever and my father did not know what phase coming next in whole year, one of the students said.

Coping with Stress
Lots of expectations from the family and students have been to pass the examination with good marks. At the time of examination, the level of stress increases in normal human being because the phobia of marking tough imbibes in nature. The researcher asked about the stress for examination to the respondents and the found that 80% of the respondent facing stress of board examination. The stress level was found less in 12^th standard student because they experienced this at the time of 10^th standard.

Most of the respondents (70%) said that they feel helpless sometime. The feeling reflects when the child has very less resources in the limited area.

Peer Groups’ Influence and Aspirations
The respondent told about other caste students did not abuse them or tease them directly but they make evil from behind. Sometime (Rajesh) name changed gets hint from the other students that they were teasing on back and commenting on clothes he wore. (Prashant) name changed, said that the other caste students did not know his caste so that’s why other students behave in same manner as they behave with other caste student. Most of the students have friends within their caste. There was no one who teases them in classroom or school.

Peer group did not help them to meet with their aspirations because they are the other side of the same coin. The general caste student did not share the information regarding future planning to the student form Scheduled Caste background, one of the respondent said. Peer pressure of running away in the middle of school hours made habit for some of the Scheduled Caste boys. The girls were regular if they came in school. If they have emergency work, they get off for that day. The school administration has very casual approach in attendance and running in middle hours. The response of the principle was that we punish them for these behavior but they do not want to improve and habitual to engage in these activities. Sometime the choice would become same to study further or choosing streams within children. Majority of the students said that they choose this stream because his friend chose it. The tuition priority becomes same within friend circle.

Generational Efforts to Attain Aspirations
There were many of the parents were first generational achiever who completed primary education, secondary education and senior secondary education. Their parents were farmer or traditional worker such as shoe maker, agricultural worker, or daily wage worker. The grandparents of student did not make such efforts as their parents allowing them to go to schools according to Mukul, a respondent (Name changed). Most of the parents change their generational work and engaging in different type of work such as Raj Mistri (construction workers), private jobs, and own small business. Father mostly busy with their parents, they do not have concept of holiday in working hours. 80% did not communicate their expectation to child and do not make effort to think about future. Some of them said that they will prefer the child wish in terms of course. We will support the child if the chooses course would come under our budget. We do not have money to send them outside the nearby city because we do not have strong financial condition to arrange all those aspired things for child.

Role of Parents

• To teach specific cognitive skills such as reading, writing in initial phase of a child.
• To ensure their school activity such as school homework, participation in extracurricular activity etc.
• Regular contact with the class teacher and school visits to engage with child within environment of school.
• To control the child and know his/her peer group within the school environment and neighborhood areas.
• To provide proper guidance and if not possible to provide by the school the school should refer to the concerned person.
• To provide an atmosphere that would conducive to study at home peacefully.
• To give proper time to the child and plan together what could be the better option for career.
• The parent should not pressurize the child to earn at early age.
• The parent should aware about the available programme and policies of the government related to education especially for Scheduled Caste students for better development.

The researcher has made an attempt to analyze information related to children with Scheduled Caste. The researcher has explored the parent’s opinion and situation towards the attainment of aspirations of a child in family. Firstly, the level of awareness about educational future of a child within limited resources, explore the biases and stereotypes. Secondly, the service and resources provided by the family and schools to attain the desired goals for a Scheduled Caste student. The education system denies the existence of conflict of class interests, class relations with the world and deviates comfortably from the rhythm of reality. In India the increasing demand of privatization of schools and decline in the public funds on one hand and rapid speed of universalization of education on the other through various programs nowhere reflect the importance of quality education or needful education. There are such areas where the unavailability of school became social issue or poor quality of schools within there at schools. There are many children who can’t even read and write after completing 8th class. There is the provision of not failing the student till 9th standard seems diverting the interest for further development of a child. And this notion in the eyes of teachers was found very wrong and they added that this provision leads to causality towards education. The backwardness reasons of students from Scheduled Caste background reviewed by various authors also matching with the researcher’s findings.

Conclusions
Most of the student did not decided yet about what they want to pursue after 10^th and 12^th. The pressure was on boys seems more than girls. Most of the male respondents were planning to get into the local college situated nearby for desired course according to their stream. Whereas girl’s aspirations did not go beyond teacher and nurse. Because boys know that they do not have any other way than that. But at the same time the proper guidance was lacking from the parents and environment. The contribution in family only from the male side; not a single mother was engage in earning activity apart from agriculture work and brick factory work. Educational career of a girl student did not decide her career the character does. Most of the families just want to complete higher secondary school. The parents did not discuss with the student what he/she want to study further and plan. Many of the parents said that it was on the child what they want to do; the support from the family will be available only within budget. Most of the parents did not know about what are the future of stream what their child studying in. The previous generation did not force them to perform a particular job or task. An educational aspiration is not only regulated by external influences but it is also extensively motivated by self-influent. While aspirations may be concrete or vogue, the essence of the idea is that desired future events will direct and motivate effort in the present and thereby increase student’s chances to succeed in the educational system. The parents should be the priority to come forward and provide a base to their child but there are many obstacles through which they are unable to perform the desired task for their children. Hence the parental involvement need in active mode.

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