INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

SEMESTER 1 YEAR 2022/2023

PEMBANGUNAN DALAM INDIVIDU DAN

MASYARAKAT (PT10503)

TITLE: ETHNIC INEQUALITIES IN EDUCATION

NAME: NURFAIZAH BINTI SOFIAN

MATRIX NO: BP22160523

PHONE NO: 0138913456

SECTION: 1

LECTURER: DR. HABIBIE HAJI IBRAHIM

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This review is for individual assignment in the subject Development in Individuals and Society
(PT10703) for semester 1, 2022/2023. For this individual assignment, I have used an article
titled Ethnic Inequalities in Education written by Kristinina Liindemann and Ellu Saar. This article
is derived from the book The Russian Second Generation in Tallinn and Kohtla-Järve, which can
be seen on page 59 until 92 and published in 2011 by Amsterdam University Press.

2.0 ARTICLE SUMMARIES

Based on the article, the authors’ purpose in fabricating this article is to dig in deeper on the
issue of ethnic inequalities that occur in the Estonian education system. The authors came up
with four questions relating to the issue which are firstly, does the second generation’s
educational changes can relate to disparities in education and social background. Secondly, the
correlation of social context in giving distinct impact on different ethnicities. Thirdly, the authors
also resurface a question on the parental proficiency in the Estonian language and citizenship in
affecting the second generation’s educational transition. Meanwhile, the fourth question is
whether there are any long-term patterns towards convergence or divergence in the academic
achievement of ethnic groups. Authors of the article showed their sympathy and concern
towards the education inequalities faced by immigrants, in this context, Russian in the education
system of Estonia.

The questions included have given readers a heads up on what they should be expecting in
the result section afterwards. In the article, the authors have taken a brilliant attempt in carrying
out the research by making use of systematic methodology which is the dissimilarity index to
identify trends of convergence or divergence and to compare the educational structure of the
parental generation and the second generation. Other than that, authors have utilized the usage
of logistic regression analysis as one of the methods in their research. If looked closely, the
quantitative research method is also applied in this article as there exists the combination of two
types of quantitative design which are correlational research and causal-comparative research.
Not to forget, the presence of numerical data in the results which can be seen in the graphs and
tables provided in the article. The usage of a variety of research methods not only allow results
to be more accurate, but also make authors’ journey in collecting data more intensive and
interesting.

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 Last but not least, the authors then manage to find out that in some aspects, Russians have
more advantages compared to Estonians in some certain periods of time and Estonians too
have their advantages on certain timeline which can be proven in the calculations made. One
example that can be taken is, the first generation of Russians have better educational
composition compared to the second generation. But then, the second generation of Estonian
remarks higher educational composition compared to the first generation. This result can fit
together with the conclusion made by the authors which stated that a variety of environmental
and historical factors influence whether various ethnic groups' tendency are to converge or
diverge.

3.0 Critical Review

In this part, I will analyze and review the article Ethnic Inequalities in Education thoroughly by
giving my opinions, thoughts and relate on the ideas that the authors have contributed with
situations that are happening in Malaysia. Through this review, I will also include my stands and
arguments on the reason why I go along with the authors’ sense or vice versa. The main issue
proposed by the author is social injustice occurring in the education system which is
experienced by the Russians living in Estonian. This happened due to multiple reasons that can
be simplified into a few points which are parental influence, human capital externalities, and
institutional conditions. These challenges have clearly impacted the second generation of
immigrants in their way to success in education.

When speaking of parental influence in children’s education progress, few factors can be
considered such as family financial condition, parental support, parent’s education level and
also parent’s fluency in comprehending the language of the native population (Liindemann &
Saar, 2011). An article by Li & Qiu (2018) also mentions a similar matter occurring in China on
how great parent's role in influencing their children’s education attainment. Meanwhile, in
Malaysia, one example that we can observe regarding parent’s role in their children's education
attainment is through one of triumphs achieved by one Malaysian child, Maryam Muzamir.
Maryam who bagged three international awards for her sustainable livestock feed invention
which was made out of seafood leftovers (Rynnaas, 2022) is said to be the daughter of a
professor in Malaysia Pahang University (UMP). Her accessibility to knowledge which most of
her peers can only dream of shows how great parental involvement in children’s education is. It

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is true that there are many children out there whose parents are in a high profile ranking and still
unable to be successful like Maryam, but, let us put this context in the competition that she
joined. Among all participants, I believe not all of them are from families with good backgrounds
and resources, thus, there exists a partial inequality that came from different parental
backgrounds.

Secondly, externalities of human capital. According to Amadeo (2022), human capital can be
defined as the value placed on labor's skills and characteristics that affect productivity, such as
education. Human capital and education are related because education significantly enhances
both the idea of people as capital and their economic and productive output (Ejim ,2022). From
my personal standpoint, this issue is fascinating and worthwhile because for a moment, I can
shift my point of view to the crisis faced by people in other countries which then I can relate with
the situation in Malaysia. In Malaysia, there exists such a huge education gap between
indigenous students and non-indigenous students which happens due to access to high-quality
education being unevenly distributed between states and districts due to state-level governance
of schools and assistance. According to Menon (2020), indigenous students’ dropout rates
above 17% from 2016 to 2018.This will then lead to higher unemployment rate among
indigenous people in the future, which is similar to the content that the authors centralize in the
article. Simply said, there is a correlation that can be seen in externalities of human capital and
education which could be agreed on.

Thirdly, institutional conditions. Authors mentioned that the second generation of Russian living
in Estonia who have insufficient proficiency in Estonian have to invest much more money in
order to pursue their studies shows how inequalities in education handout among students from
different ethnicities although they are studying in the same country. This circumstance can be
related to the one happening in Malaysia. The public is aware of the privileges that native
Malaysian students receive such as university for native Malaysian, which is UiTM and also
scholarships that can only be applied by native Malaysian students, MARA. Though it is true
that there is a special provision for the privileges in the Malaysian constitution, it shows how
education inequalities are still happening no matter in which country you are residing. Chinese
and Indians students studying in Malaysia have to find other unsubsidized universities in order
to be able to pursue their education to a higher level. If they are lucky enough, a local university
is the best option that they got. If it happens to be vice versa, they have no option but to pay
private university fees which most likely will cost them their arms and legs.

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 In addition, I find this issue interesting and relevant because I believe the uneven distribution
of life chances among ethnicities will not only affect the discriminated against, but will also affect
other ethnicities that initially do not get affected by the inequality. One example is, the incident of
13th May 1969 that occurred because of racial division in Malaysia that led to numerous
fatalities and injuries. One of the factors that contributed to the tragedy is the segregation of
education among the three main races in Malaysia which are Malay, India and Chinese. The
segregation can be seen through different education syllabus implemented in vernacular school
and Malay school during colonial era. We should take note and learn from history where we as a
society should not condone the authorities’ act of injustice to be prolonged, be it in education,
economy, politics, or any other aspects. Thus why, I am confident to say that I agree with the
content that the authors try to get across.

4.0 Conclusion

In this conclusion, I will include a suggestion for the authors in improving their content and I will
also list down a few benefits that I gained from this article as a whole.Though in the previous
paragraph I did mention how I strongly agree with the article, there are certain aspects in the
article that I would like to propose for the authors in improving their content. Firstly, the authors
could try to broaden their research target to younger generations. Though the data collected is
sufficient and satisfying enough for the reader to be able to digest, it will be interesting to read
the outcome of the third and younger generations in facing ethnic inequalities, especially in this
modern era, where the usage of electronic devices has become a crucial medium in learning.

Moving on, this article has improved my mental outlook when it comes to education attainment
and to be more empathetic towards people who are not able to meet the education benchmark.
It is common for humans to have different perspectives on certain subject matter. Sometimes,
our ways of thinking have been implanted and trained since childhood by many factors which
might include influences from parents, peers, school and even the society. This will then lead to
a unified way of thinking in the community that we are living in such as family or group of
friends, though sometimes it is not a positive way of thinking. When it comes to education, we
often see failure as an indicator that an individual is not trying their best to succeed, and we too
think that those who succeed academically are solely because of their hard work.

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 It is unfair to simply generalize people’s effort just by their final result, especially when there
are external and internal factors that may affect the individual's performance. At times, we are
too obsessed with chasing perfection to a point that we unconsciously apply that way of thinking
to other individuals. Though the phrase “the sky is the limit” exists, we must not forget we are
human beings with limitations and it is perfectly fine to fail sometimes because that is what
makes us humans. It is never wrong to set the bar in achieving what we want in this life, but we
have to remind ourselves to do everything within our means. In the context of education
inequalities between ethnic, we should not generalize certain

Then, it made me realize that social injustice will never be resolved if only small parts of the
community take part in voicing out the injustice that is happening. We are social animals which
rely on communication on a daily basis in order to function on the optimum level. That is why
everyone should make use of their freedom of speech in centralizing important issues such as
ethnic inequalities in education towards the officials who are responsible in handling this matter.
Some efforts in expanding our knowledge in this issue can be attempted by joining seminars
and programmes or can be done by simply reading academic research in related matters. In
order to make significant changes, efforts have to be poured which takes time and energy.
One’s patience and resilience will most likely be tested in the journey of paving the way to
improvements, thus, a reliable support system is highly needed along the way. It is clear that
everyone should take part and goes hand in hand so that everyone can enjoy equalities, no
matter what ethnicities or generations they are,

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5.0 References

Amadeo, K. (2022). What is Human Capital?. The Balance.

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/human-capital-definition-examples-impact-4173516

Ejim, E. (2022). What Is The Relationship Between Human Capital and Education?. Smart
Capital Mind.
https://www.smartcapitalmind.com/what-is-the-relationship-between-human-capital-and-
education.htm

Lindeman, K., Saar, E. (2011). Ethnic Inequalities In Education. Vetik, R., Helemäe, J (Eds.),
The Russian Second Generation in Tallinn and Kohtla-Järve: The TIES Study In Estonia
(pp.55-92). Amsterdam University Press.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mzdc.8#metadata_info_tab_contents

Li, Z., Qiu, Z. How does family background affect children’s educational achievement?
Evidence from Contemporary China. The Journal of Chinese Sociology. 5, 13 (2018).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40711-018-0083-

Menon, S. (2020). Bridging the Educational Gap. The Star: Education.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2020/10/25/bridging-the-educational-gap

Rynnaas. A. (2022). Meet Maryam Muzamir, the 11-year-old Inventor Who Made International
Headlines. Sinar Daily.
https://www.sinardaily.my/article/171386/lifestyle/personality/meet-maryam-muzamir-the-
11-year-old-inventor-who-made-international-headlines