educate the educated

I came across this little boy in class 4 of a rural school who had come to school after being absent for a whole month. The reason, there was no soap at home to wash clothes so his mother hadn't washed his uniform and he could not face the prospect of wearing a dirty uniform to school. Faced with the demand for money for the soap the father had remarked that he should earn his own money if he wanted such luxuries as soap. The child has taken this seriously and has gone to work for three days at a neighbouring house and made a princely sum of Rs.50 with which the soap was bought and he could come to school that day. I asked the child who in his family had studied the most and the shocking reply was, 'my father'. This father is apparently a B.Sc. graduate and he is an agricultural wage labourer. I wonder, what it must take for the father to be able to see a future better than his own for his son as a result of what must seem a totally futile exercise, namely education. And how long before the household runs out of soap or something else due to which the young boy will miss school or worse? It is true in many senses that education is a great enabler, but for this little boy tottering on the edge of his great divide it must not be very clear what the fuss is all about. You don't need a college degree to spray a paddy field, do you?....MEERA