Survey shows: Poorest continue to endure poverty of aspiration

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78% of teenagers from affluent backgrounds aspire to go to university in comparison to their deprived counterparts where only 55% of them, live with this dream.
These are the results of the British Market Research Bureau which characterizes the failure of the multi million pound projects which were introduced to abridge the gap between the many proportions of society, mainly the class divide.

Not only that, but there are visible regional and gender differences as well. 71% of Londoners want to go university in comparison to a meagre 57% from East Anglia along with a 6% variance between girls and boys.

However, it is notable that in general the percentage of teenagers who would like to go to university has increased from 53% in 2000 to 62% in 2008.

These research results raise many issues such as:
Does the higher aspiration level necessarily signify that affluent children are more ambitious than deprived children? ....or have London teenagers really realized the importance of higher education? ....or, are the ideas such as “Glass ceiling” still in place for girls of which these statistics are a representation of?

But, what I find extremely intriguing here is the magnitude of this stubborn class -based educational divide in a developed nation such as ours. This phenomena exists worldwide, particularly in under developed nations where opportunities are scarce but when the government provides a loan to manage all expenses especially to low income earning families AND you don’t have to pay the loan back after you start earning over £15,000 per annum then why should there be a reason for so much poverty of aspiration among the working class youth?

There are many projects such as the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for students studying after 16, at colleges, and bursaries and scholarships at universities which are unavailable to the major population of the world. But despite such schemes, many individuals still choose to opt out and leave their potential untapped.

These circumstances leave us all with the responsibility, that we must highlight the importance of education to those unaware and oblivious to the demands of the world.