Children from materially poor families are deprived at the very beginning of their lives. They often do not even have the opportunity to enroll in kindergarten, which would enable them to better prepare for elementary school. Their parents are mostly unemployed, and kindergartens accept the children of those employed. When poorer children enter primary school, they immediately have to face some things that differentiate them from their better-off schoolmates.
And the real and probably decisive difference is felt only in high school. The period between the ages of 14 and 18 is where people define themselves to a large extent as individuals. It most often plays a decisive role in which direction we will take in life. High school students who live in well-to-do families and those who are hungry during class because their parents don't even have a few euros to buy a sandwich are not in the same position, nor do they have an equal chance. A large number of such children end up in one of the vocational schools in order to get a job as soon as possible and thus get a job and earn a living. But even after enrolling in a vocational school, the problems do not end, because some ask that families provide some of the equipment needed for schooling. When they finish vocational schools, their education usually ends here. A very small part of them continues their education at colleges.
An absolutely perfect society in which everyone has an equal chance, regardless of their financial situation and relationships within their family, does not exist, nor will it ever exist. But it is still possible to bring those chances as close as possible. So that the one who was born in a poor or dysfunctional family is not immediately at the beginning of his life nailed to the bottom from which it is difficult or impossible to rise. The state, that is, its education system, has a key role in this process of equalizing opportunities for everyone. Of course, as much as possible.
That would then be a true meritocratic society. The one in which the better and more valuable ones progress, and the worse ones fall behind. And of course, the whole society would benefit greatly from the relations established in this way. But of course, there is one catch that must not be ignored. And that is that everyone in the education system should start from, if not exactly identical, then at least from a similar position.
Of course, apart from these material problems, there are often those that appear in dysfunctional families. These problems often overlap because problematic families are often also materially deprived. It is about a constant turning in a circle where the curse of poverty and disturbed family relations is passed from grandfather, through son, to grandson.
Croatia is not a rich country and cannot afford its citizens everything they would have if they lived in Sweden or Norway. Or at least in Slovenia. It cannot provide its needy people with material, psychological, or any other help that those living in Stockholm or Oslo can count on. In addition, all these economic crises and earthquakes that have hit us in recent years, from the global financial crisis, to the corona virus, to the war in Ukraine, have further shaken the power of the state to deal more seriously with the issue of social inequality in schools. And by alleviating the situation of unequal opportunities for all students.
Something is moving though. Free school meals have been introduced for all elementary school students in Croatia. The state also provided free transportation to school for all students. So something can still be done. And as we see, it is being done. Even for a country like Croatia, it was not such a large sum of money that it could not be removed from the budget. In addition, numerous local self-government units have not done anything in this direction for years, or rather decades.
Instead of school kitchens, money was spent on other things, some of which were completely pointless, and some of which could have waited until this basic one was solved. Those that separate cruel states uninterested in the welfare of their citizens and those that are their opposite.
Croatia has taken steps to be among the latter. It should continue like that.
Money is often spent on frivolous and unnecessary things. And besides, it's not really all about the money here. There is also something in the basic human feeling of solidarity.
Bonus video:
