Educational inequality

Introductory: Educational inequality is a broad term that consists of dimensions, including class,
gender, race and ethnicity. It starts from access to education and continues to the transition to labor
market. The pursuit of higher education is often viewed as an accessible and practical avenue for
obtaining upward mobility. In a society that strongly promotes an individualistic ethos of success
and failure, Education is seen as an opportunity for the talented and motivated individual to move
up the social ladder.
This is not to deny that higher education tents to result in better life opportunities. Highly educated
people are employed in well paid jobs with relatively high degrees of authority and autonomy. The
chances of attaining higher education that will result in substantial labor market returns is
significantly affected by one’s class race and ethnicity, age and gender.
The historical period in which we live also shapes our chances of higher education. For example,
in 1996, approximately 12% of Canadian population had less than grade 9 education whereas in
1951 fifty percent of the population had less than Grade 9 education.
Pierre Bourdieu’s work on the concept of social and cultural capital helps to explain inequalities
reproduced in educational system. According to Bourdieu, parents with more educational
resources have reach cultural capital. Cultural capital reflects middle- and upper-class values
attitudes beliefs that people hold about various aspects of social life. If education and related
activities such as reading, discussing politics, learning about the world and music etc. are valued
in a family, high level of educational attainment are more likely. But working-class families tend
not to expose their children to these activities therefore these children are often less familiar with
the knowledge.
Social capital Refers to the information and social connection that are available to individuals. For
example, the knowledge about the working of education system is vital to successfully navigating
through the educational system.
Focusing on class:
The education achieved by our parents and the kind of work that they perform have an undeniable
influence on our early school experiences and on our level of educational attainment. Parents with
enough money can choose to send their children to elite private schools, here students are groomed
to attend the top universities. In Ontario, Children from lower and lower middle-class backgrounds
are found to be much more likely to end up in a special education in elementary school or in
vocational schools in secondary school. Students who attended these vocational schools are
predominantly of working class and ethnic or racial minority backgrounds. These students faced
fairly dismal job prospects as they were not eligible for university or most college programs.
Recent studies indicate that children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds continue to enjoy
significant advantage in elementary schools. Children from the highest social economic
backgrounds are also significantly more likely to be enrolled in some form of a gifted educational
program (9%) when compared with children from the lowest social economic backgrounds (5%).
Educational attainment: The class background of students, including parental education, income
and occupation, exerts a significant influence on their chances of obtaining a high school diploma
and for obtaining a post-secondary education. Students who dropped out of high school were much
less likely to have a parent with a university degree, 11%, than students who graduated from high
school 30%. Those students who dropped out of high school are also more likely to have parents
with less than a high school education. The fathers of dropouts are more likely to be employed in
trades and manufacturing occupations, while the fathers of graduates were more often in
management, finance and other activities. These findings suggest that it is not just family finances
and income that are affecting high school competition, but the mechanism of social and cultural
capital is having an influence.
University education is becoming more and more expensive and in Canada, it is becoming less
accessible to lower income groups. For instance, 18 to 21 years old, with parents in the highest
income quartile, were much more likely to pursue university education, 70%, than those in the
lowest income quartile, 56%.
Educational returns in the labor market:
The decision to attend University as a student have consequences for their future earning potential.
The achievement of higher levels of education tends to result in more authority and high paying
jobs. Those who enrolled in programs such as engineering, law and medicine reaped higher
earnings than the average BA graduate. Parental education has a significant effect on whether
students who achieve bachelor’s degree continue to graduate studies. A student whose parents had
a high school diploma or less are very much less likely to enroll in masters or doctoral programs.
Therefore, those students who come from more highly educated families maintain their advantage
throughout university and labor market.
Focusing on race and ethnicity:
Minority groups in Canada have historically faced barriers and educational obstacles based on
their perceived ethnic and racial background. Individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups
have historically experienced exclusion and racism in classrooms. A number of efforts have been
made to promote inclusive and anti-racist education, but substantial barriers remains.
Educational attainment:
Aboriginals in Canada have encountered numerous barriers in the educational system. Some of the
obstacles faced in the process of obtaining a post-secondary education are distrust of educational
institutions, lack of adequate secondary school preparation and perceived social discrimination.
Consequently, Aboriginal students have much lower levels of educational attainment than non-
Aboriginal population. According to 1996 statistics, Aboriginals were less likely to have
completed high school than non-Aboriginal population.
Educational returns in the labor market:
Higher education is no guarantee of occupational and social economic mobility. All educational
credential are not valued equally, and a number of studies have shown that visible minorities
encounter systematic devaluation of their educational credentials. Even among Canadian born
ethnic groups, those of British ancestry enjoyed significantly better market returns for their post-
secondary education than those from many other ethnic backgrounds.
Focusing on gender:
Historically, women have had to fight for their right to be educated and educational policies have
tended to emphasize women’s wifely and motherly rules in process of reproduction. Women
continue to be underrepresented in post-secondary technical mathematical and engineering
programs. But the educational level of women has surpassed men since mid-1980s. The National
Longitudinal survey of children and youth 1994 shows that compared to boys, girls are rated at the
top of the class, significantly more often in writing and reading. Furthermore, boys were perceived
to be more physically aggressive and more hyperactive, on the contrary, girls exhibited better work
habits.
Educational attainment:
Thiessen and Nickerson found that, in the teen years, girls showed stronger academic performance
than boys, although after age 16, boys do score higher on problem solving than girls.
Young men are significantly less likely than young women to complete high school. In 1999,
14.7% of young men dropped out of high school in comparison to 9.2% of young women. For
young women, pregnancy and child bearing was a contributing factor to living in school While
labor force participation was a more important factor for young men.
Educational returns in the labor market:
In spite of being more highly educated than men, women continue to earn fewer than men.
Thiessen and Nickerson found that Men with less than a grade 9 education earned more than all
groups of women, except those with university degrees. Although educational attainment usually
leads to greater control and autonomy in the workplace, women are found to be far less likely than
men to obtain significant amount of autonomy and authority in their workplace even with
education. Men are more than twice as likely as women to achieve a top managerial post. Among
male and female supervisors, men holds significantly more decision making power.
Focusing on age:
There are substantial differences in the educational attainment level of different age cohorts. For
example, in Kannada, younger Canadians tend to be more highly educated than older Canadians.
Adult education and the changing face of Education:
The imperatives of a changing labor market, along with credential inflation, have made that a
number of older adults are engaged in education and training programs. In 1997, nearly 28% of
Canadians are involved in some form of adult education and the rate is gradually increasing.
Although men and women have roughly similar participation rate in adult education, men are more
likely to have support and financing from their employer for their studies. The participation of
adult learners in higher number has resulted in a much more diverse student population,
particularly with regard to age. The average age of university students is also climbing.
Educational return in the labor market:
Some researchers have found that younger workers in Canada experienced a drop in real wages in
comparison to older age groups. Before 1960 university graduates with a bachelor’s degree could
expect much higher labour market treatments on their degree, then later in the century. The
educational requirements of the labor market will probably continue to increase, and education
continues to serve as an important control on access to monetary rewards and occupational
autonomy.
Agency and experience in education:
Although women are educated at a similar or somewhat higher levels than men, Judith Blackwell
points out that women enrolled in universities sometimes experience difficulties because of overt
sexism in classroom.
Racism runs rampant in Canadian educational institutions with racialized students being taunted
and ridiculed by students and discouraged by teachers.
Conclusions:
A serious obstacle to high level of education is social class; gender, race ethnicity seems to matter
less. Yet it is clear that much more research on educational attainment needs to be done to explore
how class, gender, ethnicity and race, simultaneously shape educational pathways. Consider a
middle-aged black mother who just lost her job after the factory she was working in close down
and went other areas. She needs to work to help support her family, but she has few marketable
skills. She would like to go to school to upgrade her skills. But School colleges are organized with
life courses of a 20-year-old in mind. This hypothetical case illustrates the complex relationship
among class, age, gender, ethnicity and race, as they pertain to education and potential barriers to
education. It also highlights the links between education, skill and labor market.
Sociological analysis of educational inequality in Bangladesh:
Parental educational attainment plays a significant role in the reproduction of the social inequality
through the education systems in Bangladesh, where children of educated parents are likely to have
better results compared to the children of lower educational qualification. The economic condition
also largely accounts for the reproduction of social inequality. Children from upper class families
tend to have better opportunities than the children from poor families.
In the context of Bangladesh, educational inequality is mostly discussed relating to social class in
terms of family income and gender. A few studies focus on the issue of ethnic disparity. There is
a strong but untested hypothesis that in Bangladesh, children from rich families tend to do well in
the school. They are likely to get a job easily because of their parent’s connections with other
business organization or being the owner of such business organization. Similarly, the children of
educated parents, particularly the teachers also do well in the school. However, children from poor
families with lower parental educational qualification are the most deprived groups that often lag
behind, they either drop out from the school or get poor grades in the examination.
Cultural reproduction theory: Cultural reproduction theory of Pierre Bourdieu considers all these
dimensions of social inequality, class, status and power, and explains how existing social
inequality is reproduced. In his conceptualization of cultural reproduction theory, Bourdieu
considered several concepts such as cultural capital, habitus, field and practice. Cultural capital
reflects middle- and upper-class values attitudes beliefs that people hold about various aspects of
social life. If education and related activities such as reading, discussing politics, learning about
the world and music etc. are valued in a family, high level of educational attainment are more
likely. In his essay, Forms of cultural capital, Bourdieu identifies 3 forms of cultural capital;
embodied cultural, objectified and institutionalized. That third form of cultural capital is related to
the educational credential. He argued that children whose parents are from a privileged class with
higher level of cultural capital might have the best opportunity to have better schooling. On the
other hand, the children from lower class families who are the majority number find little hope for
academic success.
Overview of the educational inequality in Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh, access to education is identified to depend on the class situation. Most of the
children of Bangladesh do not have the opportunity to receive formal education because of the
socio-economic condition of their family. On the other hand, people who have higher level of
income and status in a society are able to send their children to English medium schools, sometimes
they send their children abroad only for educational purpose. These unequal access to education
occurs in Bangladesh because of diverse reasons.
Researchers find that unequal access occurs primarily because of the class position. A common
picture in Bangladesh is that, at the primary level, students from the affluent class are most likely
to be capable to pay extrusion compared to their counterparts. As a result, students from poor
families become unwilling to be admitted to the school.
Das (2008) explains that in educational attainment, there are serious unevenness among the rich
and poor children. Poor children, regardless of sex, get less opportunity to stay in school. They
also face problem to continue their study until grade 12. He noted that, at the secondary level, less
than 10% of children from the poorest family enroll compared to 70% from the richest family.
Puerto is still a crucial determinant of access to education in Bangladesh 1/3 (31.5%) of the
population live under the poverty line. As a result, the poor in Bangladesh particularly those who
live in the rural areas cut off educational expenditure for their children to manage family
expenditure.
Family income and educational inequality in Bangladesh:
The economic condition of a family is identified as an important determinant of children’s access
to education is school attendance and educational attainment. Even though in Bangladesh, the
dropout rate has decreased in the recent years, but a considerable number of children from poor
families are not able to enter the education system until now. Poor families in Bangladesh seem to
be unable to maintain the educational expenses of their children regularly. On the other hand,
families with higher incomes seem to be able to maintain the educational expenditure of their
children, and they send their children to English medium schools, because they find that education
system is comparatively better. Lower income families are unlikely to spend money for private
tutoring for their children. On the contrary, the condition of these families is almost opposite. So
children from rich families therefore get double opportunities to succeed Whereas children from
poor families get poor grades in the exams, or drop out from school. So due to unequal family
income, children get unequal access to education.
Parental cultural capital and educational inequality in Bangladesh:
Cultural capital in terms of parents’ educational qualification could also be an influential factor of
educational inequality in Bangladesh. Parents who are educated could supervise the study of their
children, help them with their homework, communicate with school authority. However, parents
with lower or no educational qualification are unlikely to manage all these things. Their children
are largely deprived of this assistance. For uneducated or less educated parents, it becomes more
difficult, even to maintain communication with teachers.
In the context of Bangladesh, the parent child interaction is very good in such families where
parents are highly educated. As a result, children can hardly face any emotional problems. On the
contrary, children whose parents are not highly educated, commonly feel detached from their
parents as a result, they are likely to suffer from emotional problems that impede them from being
attentive.
Conclusion:
To explain the reproduction of social inequality through the educational system in Bangladesh,
cultural capital might not be the only determining factor. The economic capital of people could
also be an important factor to consider in this respect. More importantly, together both factors
could be more powerful in the case of the reproduction of inequality. Educational inequality,
unequal access to school, and unequal level of school participation can be seen in Bangladesh.
Class and gender are found to be powerful determinants in this respect. For example, poor children
are deprived of getting access to education. They fail to be regular in their classes, and they obtain
poor grades and also dropouts from school. In addition, these aspects are worse for female students
because of the socio economic and cultural aspects. Female students lag behind their male
counterparts. The economic condition in terms of family income and parental cultural capital are
also important factors of the reproduction of educational inequality. Children from these families
could afford private school fees, pools, children are less likely to afford it. Also educated parents
could supervise their children, help with their homework and maintain interaction with teachers.
On the contrary, uneducated, or less educated, parents fail to do these.