It is believed that education is the key to a better future. This may be true, but only to the few who are advantaged at quickly accessing the said education within their means and as supported by social and economic paradigms (Vadivel et al., 2023). It is easier to say that education is accessible to all kids than to prove if that is the case in many societies where there are different types of groups, with some being the majority and minority groups. For example, the negro group in the USA have for long faced many types of discrimination which cut through their economic and social wellbeing, and this has a massive impact on their overall living standards and access to education and even employment. Commonly, people go to school to acquire knowledge to help them get their dream professions and jobs for a better tomorrow (Vadivel et al., 2023). However, socioeconomic factors significantly impact the ability of members of minority groups within any society to access education and jobs. Therefore, the narrative herein is to bring out how social and economic factors impact education and how, in my case, it has influenced by the ability to access the required education both at home country and in the current place of study within the context of access to education and resource supporting success in education.
My Schooling in Baghdad
My home country is Baghdad, so it is empirical to begin from there. As it is known, Baghdad is a city in Iraq, and unlike the big cities in the USA where I am currently studying, it still needs to be fully developed. The city is struggling with many issues related to socioeconomic wellbeing because of the state of my country. Access to education has been a big issue for us in the country, impacting the level of education (Ghazi et al., 2014). The lack of necessary resources to support the required education system and outcomes has crippled the education system of our country. Many kinds of challenges are faced by the school-going children in this area of Iraq. These challenges are tied to the economic and social challenges in the country, which have affected the country through limited access to the necessary tools and resources for the success of the education system in the area. This can be understood through the challenges I will highlight in this section, which I faced while starting school in Iraq before we relocated with my family to the USA, where I am currently pursuing my education.
The first part is on school infrastructure access, where I will talk about the number of remaining schools, the resources available, and access to the schools. In my country, there have been many wars from within and some from neighboring countries (Ghazi et al., 2014). These wars have destroyed many schools, leaving few, and several schools cannot thatort the remaining population. The remaining number of schools has reduced education access and quality efficiency. For better education, children should have access to education centers, which should be in large numbers to support the available population. This is different in my country, where war has destroyed many education centers, leading to slow education development.
Far from the destruction of schools, the remaining schools are also situated far from the location of many children. The distance between where most of us live in Baghdad and the school location is some kilometers (Vadivel et al., 2023). Thus, we take time to reach school, and some kids find it difficult even to get that money to commute to school due to their family’s economic status. Not everyone can afford the bus fare to school. Thus, some of us are used to walking to school daily. This creates hardship in acquiring education, as many children sometimes get tired and drop out of school. After they have dropped out of school, they resort to joining the military groups who are at war and lose their lives in the end. I can remember some of my friends whom we started with school while in the country left, and later they joined the fighting groups, and since then, I have never seen them again.
Lastly, financial constraints are also causing massive problems in the access to education in Iraq. Many faced financial and educational challenges while attending school in Baghdad (Ghazi et al., 2014). Some of us used to trek to school, while those who could afford bus fare could use the bus. Some could take the bus to school in the morning and return on foot later in the evening because of their families’ limited financial resources. I used to do the same, and on the good days, I could afford the bus fare for both morning and evening hours. The four-hour daily commute was not affordable for many families, leading to many nonattendance and school dropouts (TEDx Talks, 2016). Many students could not manage the fare bus fare and could not walk to school as they came from far areas of school option but to get out because of the many nonattendances they recorded.
There needs to be a higher quality of education for those who studied in Baghdad because of the socioeconomic factors affecting the education system. The learning experience needed to be improved for those who attended school in the area (TEDx Talks, 2016). This is because of the learning hours, which were shortened. Some students received only a few ha hours daily for many reasons, including war and resources. On the other hand, teachers used fewer teaching materials as they needed access to the required number of teaching materials, such as books and other necessary materials.
In some cases, some teachers created to get extra cash for and help the kids keep up with the syllabus. Even though the government has tried and is trying to reconstruct the schools, education requires investment in teachers, too, about training and access to training centers. This is founded on the long years of war, which impacts economic development and is a necessary tool for uplifting economic growth. The lifting of economic growth allows the government to get enough financial resources to support education in all sectors to improve the country’s educational outcomes.
Finally, Iraq faces many challenges in reconstructing its education system and boosting the outcomes. Ensuring a quality education for the children in Iraq takes work. Thus, it requires, first of all, looking at the economic driving factors of the country and supporting them to achieve economic growth, which is a focal point in liberating the country from the poor results of its education system (SAAVEDRA & SEDMIK, 2023). The many schools that closed because of war should be opened, whereby the government should try to sort out the many conflicts in the area to increase security, which is necessary for effective learning in schools. It should also invest in the education infrastructure, which is critical in changing the face of the country’s education. Better learning is vital to boosting the country’s economic development through the increased skilled labor, which will be created when education is booming in Iraq. Iraq will be great and able to manage the socioeconomic factors impacting its education and development by taking the relevant steps to unite its people and end the wars which is the dividing power in the country.
My Schooling in the USA
I am from Iraq, and therefore, I may not talk much about the many social, economic inequalities impacting the Negro people in the USA. However, as someone from another foreign land pursuing education in this new land, I have faced several inequalities in the area and my schooling (One Mic HIstory, 2021). The first challenge I have seen while studying in the USA is keeping up with the cultural shift. Moving into a new country with mixed values and customs is not easy for those who are coming from another country where the customs and cultural practices are different. The background of my country is that the common culture is Islam in Iraq because we are members of the Arab world. When I came to the USA with groups and cultures, merging fully into the entire area and learning environment was challenging. The shift experience sometimes causes a feeling of loneliness and isolation, especially if one cannot find a friend with a common cultural background or understanding of cultural diversity and differences (Thomson, 2018). In my early days of coming to study in the USA, I experienced homesickness. These social challenges impacted my education outcomes the first time in school, but later, when I made friends who were also international students, we were able to avert the challenge.
The language barrier is a significant challenge for international students in the USA. For example, most of us who come from Iraq to learn in the USA find it difficult to fully connect with students who are native speakers of the USA English (Kranz et al., 2022). Many of us from the Arab world do not speak English fluently, as well as those from the English world. It is not easy at first to fully connect with the students and teachers during the learning hours. I have struggled with English proficiency, but with time, I have been able to avert the challenge, and this is through the help of local learners. They take time to help me sharpen my language skills in this area to help me fully merge in the area and understand their culture (Kranz et al., 2022). However, I am careful not to forsake my culture, for it is taboo to go back home corrupted by the Western culture. Language inefficiency generally affects my socializing capabilities in this area as it makes it easier to make friends except when I encounter people from my home country who may easily understand me and my broken English. This language incapacitation has a massive effect on the learning outcomes of many students from other places outside America.
Financial constraints are also significant challenges to better education outcomes in this area. Though my parents are supportive, there are still some aspects of racism in the area when it comes to their access to job opportunities in this area (Vadivel et al., 2023). Since my parents are not from this area, they almost face the same kind of racism faced by other people outside America. Many of the parents of international students in the USA face a cultural knowledge gap, which impacts their ability to fully relate to the intricacies of the US education laws and system, and this may bring many challenges when it comes to complying with the necessary rules and regulations of conduct of their children in school (Storage, 2021). They may need help understanding the school assignments and choices, which is essential when helping the children with homework. Thus, the lack of cultural knowledge may hinder optimal decision-making for their children’s overall education in the US.
Neighborhood segregation also impacts the education outcomes of international students in America. Even though the government has made some crucial adjustments to the policies governing the protection of minority groups and other races in the USA, there are still some traces of racism, such as segregation (Storage, 2021). Some races, like Asians and those from the Middle East like me, will often find themselves pushed to some lower-quality segregated schools. This is due to neighborhood segregation in some parts of America. The quality of education in these areas differs from that in other higher-quality separated schools. The higher quality schools are occupied mainly by the members of the majority race and some of the high economic status family members in the country. Thus, the long-term effects of such segregation are on the health and education of these students.
Conclusion
In Summary, socioeconomic challenges have a massive impact on the education outcomes of every child. The existing social and economic inequalities in every country mostly facilitate them. My education journey exhibits many challenges students face while pursuing their education. Some of them are evident in my home country, Iraq. In Iraq, access to sufficient education is not easy because many factors limit success in education, such as poor education infrastructure, lack of proper transportation system to connect the kids to school, fewer education resources, high school dropouts, and many more. In the USA, there are also some of the socioeconomic challenges faced by international students like me while pursuing our education. These challenges include neighborhood segregation, a cultural knowledge gap for the parents mostly, a language barrier, and some form of racism. All the above-mentioned challenges have impacted my education journey in both countries and to survive, I have to manage them in order to fulfill my education goals.
References
Ghazi, H. F., Isa, Z. Md., Shah, S. A., Abdal Qader, M. A., Hasan, T. N., & AL-abed, A. A. (2014). The relationship between the neighborhood safety and nutritional status of children in Baghdad City, Iraq. Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2014, pp. 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/686934
Kranz, J., Baur, A., & Möller, A. (2022). Learners’ challenges in understanding and performing experiments: A systematic literature review. Studies in Science Education, 59(2), 321–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2022.2138151
One Mic HIstory. (2021, December 17). The first sociological study of the Black Community (the Philadelphia negro) #onemichistory. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WN7–ADIAA&ab_channel=OneMicHistory
SAAVEDRA, J., & SEDMIK, E. (2023, August 1). Iraq: New schools and improved learning bring hope to the poorest children, but more is needed. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/iraq-new-schools-and-improved-learning-bring-hope-poorest-children-more-needed
Storage, D. (2021, April 28). Stereotypes vs. prejudice vs. discrimination. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hr2XpBc_B4&ab_channel=DanielStorage
TEDx Talks. (2016, March 21). Let us get to the root of racial injustice | Megan Ming Francis | TEDxRainier. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCn72iXO9s&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
Thomson, S. (2018). Achievement at school and socioeconomic background—an educational perspective. Npj Science of Learning, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0022-0
Vadivel, B., Alam, S., Nikpoo, I., & Ajanil, B. (2023a). The impact of low socioeconomic background on a child’s educational achievements. Education Research International, 2023, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/6565088
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