Nine-year-old Noor stood at the entrance to his Class 3 classroom, holding his grade report with shaking hands. Highest rank. Another time. His educator beamed with happiness. His classmates clapped. For a momentary, beautiful moment, the 9-year-old boy imagined his ambitions of turning into a soldier—of serving Education his country, of rendering his parents proud—were within reach.
That was several months back.
Currently, Noor doesn't attend school. He works with his father in the carpentry workshop, studying to sand furniture rather than learning mathematics. His uniform hangs in the wardrobe, pristine but idle. His schoolbooks sit piled in the corner, their sheets no longer turning.
Noor passed everything. His family did everything right. And yet, it wasn't enough.
This is the narrative of how being poor doesn't just limit opportunity—it removes it entirely, even for the most talented children who do all that's required and more.
Despite Top Results Is Not Adequate
Noor Rehman's dad toils as a craftsman in Laliyani village, a compact town in Kasur district, Punjab, Pakistan. He's proficient. He's dedicated. He exits home before sunrise and arrives home after dark, his hands rough from years of shaping wood into items, doorframes, and ornamental items.
On good months, he brings in around 20,000 rupees—about seventy US dollars. On difficult months, much less.
From that salary, his family of six members must manage:
- Rent for their small home
- Meals for four children
- Bills (electricity, water supply, fuel)
- Medicine when kids become unwell
- Travel
- Garments
- All other needs
The mathematics of being poor are simple and brutal. There's always a shortage. Every rupee is earmarked prior to receiving it. Every decision is a choice between requirements, not once between essential items and extras.
When Noor's tuition needed payment—plus costs for his siblings' education—his father confronted an unworkable equation. The numbers couldn't add up. They not ever do.
Some expense had to be eliminated. Someone had to sacrifice.
Noor, as the oldest, realized first. He's responsible. He remains sensible exceeding his years. He knew what his parents could not say aloud: his education was the expense they could not any longer afford.
He did not cry. He didn't complain. He only put away his uniform, set aside his textbooks, and asked his father to teach him the trade.
As that's what children in poor circumstances learn initially—how to relinquish their hopes silently, without troubling parents who are presently shouldering greater weight than they can handle.