Presently parents throughout the world are leaning towards the residential educational institutions. The wide spread of this idea have a number of good logics and also innumerous example of expected results. In some cases the results are something more than the expectation level. So these inspires the others to follow this. Let’s have a look at the statistics, presently in the public universities 40% are in th on-campus and in the private universities 64% are living residentially. Rest are living with their parents. This can give a minimum idea about the number of students living on-campus. Before going through the reasons and the results let’s have a slight idea on the history of the journey of the residential institutions.

The term residential schools means to a study system set up by the Canadian government and directed by churches that had the nominal objective of educating Indigenous children but also the more damaging and equally explicit intention of indoctrinating them into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living and maintaining them into general white Canadian society. The residential school system officially operated since the 1880s into the very end decades of the 20th century. The system forcibly separated children from their parents for extended periods of time and prohibited them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. Children were severely punished if these, among other, strict rules were not maintained. Previous students of residential schools have spoken of terrific abuse at the hands of residential school staff: physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological. Residential schools provided Indigenous students with inappropriate education, often only up to lower grades, that focused mainly on prayer and manual labour in agriculture, industry etc.

Residential schools systematically undermined Indigenous, First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures across Canada and disrupted families for generations, destroying the ties through which Indigenous culture is taught, and contributing to a general loss of culture. Because they were separated from their families, many students grew up without the upbringing of a family life and without the knowledge and skills to maintain their own families. The dangerous effects of the residential schools are far-reaching and continue to have a horrific impact on Indigenous communities. The residential school system is widely considered a form of genocide because of the reasonal attempt from the government and church to eradicate all aspects of Indigenous cultures and lifeworlds.

Since 1990s, the government and the churches involved—Anglican, Presbyterian, United, and Roman Catholic—began to acknowledge their responsibility for an education scheme that was specifically designed to “kill the Indian in the child.” On June 11, 2008, the Canadian government issued a formal apology in Parliament for the damage done by the residential school system. In spite of this and other apologies, however, the effects remain.

This is the actual history of the starting of residential education throughout the world which is now taken very positively. However I’m not presenting this system as negatively because one history cannot make anything as harmful if the it is edited eradicating all the negative impacts. 

Now let’s come to the living standards at these institutions. Before I concentrate on the present system I want to give you a glimpse of that prevailed in the early days.

In that time the reason of the residential schools was to remove all aspects of Indigenous culture. Students had their hair cut short, they were dressed in uniforms, they were often given numbers, and their days were strictly directed by timetables. Boys and girls were kept distinct, and even siblings rarely restricted, further destruction of family ties. Chief Bobby Joseph of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society recalls that he had no idea how to interact with girls and never even got to know his own sister beyond a mere sight in the dining room. In addition, students were strictly prohibited to speak their languages—even though many children knew no other—or to practice Indigenous traditions. Violations of these rules were vehemently punished.

Residential school students did not receive the same education as the general population in the public school system, and the schools were sorely underfunded. Teachings focused primarily on practical skills. Girls were primed for domestic service and taught to do laundry, sew, cook, and clean. Boys were taught carpentry, tinsmithing, and farming. Many students attended class part-time and worked for the school the rest of the time: girls did the housekeeping; boys, general maintenance and agriculture. This work, which was involuntary and unpaid, was presented as practical training for the students, but many of the residential schools could not run without it. With so little time spent in class, most students had only reached grade five by the time they were 18. At this point, students were sent away. Many were discouraged from pursuing further education.

The extent to which the Department of Indian Affairs and church officials knew of these abuses has been debated by some. However, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) and John Milloy, among others, concluded that church and state officials were fully aware of the abuses and tragedies at the schools. Some inspectors and officials at the time expressed alarm at the terrific death rates, yet those who told out and called for change were generally met with silence and lack of extending hands.  The Department of Indian Affairs would promise to improve the schools, but these conditions persisted.

So we can have an idea about the terrific situations prevailed that time .However this was the result of a reasonable deeds of the Canadian Authorities and the Church Fathers. Now as these are introduced all over the world and forgetting all the history these started going in a fresh and fare education. Presently these institutions are having their own ideology ,rulings ,traditions and restrictions according to the situations and demands of upbringing. Also these rulings are widely affected by the country cultures ,history or in case of religious institutions these are followed by the respective religious rulings and ideologies.

However going back to the parents leaning towards this system present days, we’ll find number of reasons. Let’s have a look to the common reasons:

·        To get relief from the big pressure of upbringing:

Need to say that this is side effect of the industrialization and the widespread of technologies which made us quite feelingless. That’s why staying and ensuring all the necessities of the offspring is a burden for many of the parents in the western and also many developed Asian countries despite being economically sufficient. And this led them to send their “beloved” child to the residential institutions.

·        To introduce their child with the outside world and realities:

This is one of the legit point depending on which many of the parents throughout the world follow the doors of the residential institutions. They think that staying at the home they won’t be able to mix up with the society which will affect badly in their future and eventually they send them to the residential institutions.

·        To be self-dependent:

When any child starts to live alone without the direct supervision of their parents, when any problem will be faced by them ,they need to solve them by their own conscious . Sometimes thay may fail to solve the problem or they can afford a horrific result but in the long run they themselves will be benifited as they will get the commonsense of resolving the life problems. This is the another reason for which parents take this tough decisions .

·        To grow up with the master for being like him:

In case of any parents aimed to make their child professional in a particular subject they send their child to live with the master of the respective topic which can make them more proficient than that would be happened living in the home. That’s why they send their child in the residential institutions.

·        Influence of the society:

This is presently the most effective way of spreading of this culture. Some of the parents having a good result provoke others to follow so. And this makes many of the parnets to send them in the residential institutions.

We have undergone about the reasons of sending ones child in the residential institutions. Now let’s go through about what can be the results and what many a time happens and upon which facts you need to rely on.

§  The  Changes:

One thing is to be understood that when you are sending your child to the residential areas you are throwing them out of your control. They are going a new arena, a place with new ideology ,culture ,tradition and what not. And these can be contradictory with your one. Also there can be people of multiple ideologies. So you are throwing them into the ocean of all these they can accept one and throw out the one learning from you since their childhood. Again they can be stick to the one learning from the childhood. And also the changes they are having can be good one or the bad one, can delight you or can depress you.

So you need to be mentally prepared that after this time period you can get your new face of the child. And if you want your child will be like you and have your ideology than I will forbid you to send them elsewhere.

Last but not the least, at the time of sending or after some days of living in the arena you need to be ensured about the fact that if they were capable to cope with the environment or not. A large number of children  throughout the world commit suicide just for being forcibly in the residential areas. So be very careful about that.

At the end I hope for the well upbringing of all the children and of a family everywhere.