If there’s something we’ve learnt from the ever so long chronicles of human history, it’s that that we can’t set boundaries to the benefits of knowledge/ education. And how far humanity has come in light of this realization is irrefutable. In the UK, for example there are currently 32,418 schools; among which 3,714 are nurseries, 20,832 are primary schools, 19 are middle schools, 4,188 are secondary schools, 2,408 are independent schools and 1,257 are special schools. These schools accommodate about 10,320,811 full and part time students, with 8,819,765 in England, 468,838 in Wales, 693,251 in Scotland, 338,957 in Northern Ireland.
According to the Department for Education, in 2016/2017 the average primary school budget in the UK was reported to be £1,048,000. And the average secondary school budget was £4,617,000. This report also stated that the average primary school spends about £41,780 on school resources. And the average secondary school spends about £172,560 on resources.
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Considering the aforementioned, it’s quite fair to say that almost everyone in the UK has access to education, regardless of one’s social class. So the problem in question is not access to education but access to resources/ guidance required to increase a student’s educational achievements/ attainment.
As stated in the statistics the Department for Education published, there are only 2,408 independent schools and 1,257 are special schools in the UK which, compared to the remaining 28,753 public schools, is quite small. But the discrepancy between the educational achievements of students in public schools and private schools is evidently massive.
Diane Reay, a professor at University of Cambridge published a book ‘Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes', that shed light on this discrepancy and how the gap in social class is making an impact on widening the gap in students’ achievement level. In this book she writes about the research she conducted in two private schools; and after interviewing several students attending these schools and their parents, she came to a rather interesting conclusion.
“What was striking ...was the certainty and confidence with which these privileged parents approached their children’s schooling. There was neither the hyper-anxiety of many middle-class parents sending their children to state schools nor the doubts and lack of confidence of working-class parents. In their place was an almost unassailable belief that their children were, and would continue to be, educational successes. I was told that their children were ‘incredibly bright’, ‘destined for academic heights’, ‘bound for Oxbridge’ and ‘simply brilliant at sciences'.
There’s no denying the fact that one of the elements fueling the inequality in educational achievement/ attainment in the UK is the widening gap in social class. “The working classes have never had a fair chance in education... and they definitely do not have one in a 21st-century England that is scarred by growing inequalities” - Diane articulates her view. “The damage is now very different in appearance and texture to that suffered by my generation, but its scale and intensity has not diminished. The way class works in education has shifted and changed, but the gross inequalities that are generated through its workings do not change” - she added.
Multiple reports have been published on how disadvantaged pupils, or ones who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), have a different educational experience than those with better socio-economic status- those with parents who are able to use financial, social and cultural resources to boost their child’s school performance and life chances.
So why do the most advantaged pupils achieve the highest test scores while those living in the most disadvantaged conditions achieve the lowest?There are two elements playing a role in instigating and widening this gap - cognitive and non-cognitive factors. Scholars have stated that children feel their deprivation/disadvantage in their family and community at a very young age. Their physical environment, stress level in their family, material deprivation and so forth add up to affect a child’s psychological and physical health, ability to retain information and perform under pressure.
Epidemiological studies have also linked a child’s educational outcome to their mothers’ health before, during and after pregnancy. It’s stated that a mother’s stress level, which results from challenging economic conditions, during pregnancy, would lead to poor fetal and cognitive development. Furthermore, smoking during pregnancy, a consequence of higher levels of stress associated with economic hardship and lack of support and resources to assist them in quitting, would lead to preterm birth and low birth weight. Low birth weight infants are at increased risk of negative long-term cognitive outcomes, including behavioral problems. Breastfeeding has also been linked to cognitive development and a range of health benefits throughout childhood and later life. And scholars argue that a mother’s ability to breastfeed is leveled according to her environment and support she’s able to access. Surprisingly, data show that UK has the lowest global prevalence rate of breastfeeding.
There are also other factors such as gender, ethnicity, first language, special educational needs and disability (SEND) status, family history of disadvantage, geography, and education policy that are playing a part in determining a student’s educational experience and outcome.
One of the most notable impacts these factors have on attainment, is teachers’ assessments/ the unconscious bias they display in the classroom. According to the longitudinal survey conducted by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the University of London – The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) – attainment level in literacy and numeracy varied in accordance to ethnicity, family income, special educational needs, gender and language. The data shows that teachers tend to mark down black Caribbean and white British pupils in contrast to their Key Stage results, while marking up Chinese and Indian pupils after evaluating their characteristics and school effects.
Another factor determining a student’s educational experience is attainment grouping. According to the Education Endowment Fund, grouping, whether within classes, sets or streams, had an adverse effect on students in lower attainment groups and a positive effect on those in higher attainment groups.
Not only is the teaching quality and educational opportunities low for those in lower attainment groups, but it’s also discouraging, stigmatizing and damaging to one’s self – confidence. And this has a massive impact on students’ educational experience and outcome.
But why is narrowing the gap important? Why is increasing the number of pupils with high educational achievement/attainment level important
According to the research paper The Department for Business Innovation and Skills published ‘The Benefits of Higher Education Participation for Individuals and Society: key findings’ and reports ‘The Quadrants’, there are a plethora of benefits to have a society rife of individuals with high levels of educational achievements. The paper inspects the market and non-market benefits to society and individuals. In regards to the benefits to society on a non-market basis, the research notes outcomes such as reduced crime rates, increased social capital and mobility, political stability and above all increased social cohesion, trust and tolerance. Research has found that highly educated individuals are found to be more trusting and are more tolerant towards migrants than the poorly educated with consequent benefits to society as a whole. And on a market basis, the benefits to society are economic growth, increased tax revenues, reduced burden on public finances from better co-ordination with other social policy areas such as health and crime prevention and much besides. According to Holland, D., Liadze, I., Rienzo, C. & Wilkinson, D., around 20% of UK economic growth between 1982 and 2005 came as a direct result of increased graduate skills accumulation. Furthermore, the benefits for individuals on a market and non-market basis are even more extensive. The long term outcome of individuals with higher educational achievements is that they are less likely to commit crime, more engaged in society, have longer life expectancy, have greater life satisfaction, less likely to drink excessively, smoke or suffer from obesity and mental health. And from an economical standpoint, such individuals are noted to have higher earnings and increased entrepreneurial activity and productivity. Their employability is also quite high and it’s unlikely for them to be exposed to unemployment.
According to a research conducted by Walker & Zhu, BIS (2013) the lifetime premium for men and women is estimated as follows: men - £168,000, women - £252,000.
Considering the benefits of having a society with high educational achievements and the detriments of having the opposite, I believe that many would support the pursuit of narrowing this gap. But the question is, how can it be executed? Some believe that, considering the current rate, it might take 500 years to close the gap in the UK. And other scholars such as the leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, Paul Whiteman says 'Schools and colleges need an immediate multibillion-pound emergency investment', and Professor Diane Reay says “The convention in a book like this is to set out the problems and then to offer solutions. But our current situation defies any formulaic approach. What is needed is a sea-change in hearts and minds, not just better policy in education”.
Notable progress in closing this gap has been made and as long as scholars continue their research and push for educational policy reforms, there’s no doubt that this gap will continue to get narrower.
References
- Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes by Diane Reay.
- Education in England: Report 2018 by Whitney Crenna-Jennings https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/EPI-Annual-Report-2018-Lit-review.pdf
- 'The Quadrants by The Department for Business Innovation and Skills: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254101/bis-13-1268-benefits-of-higher-education-participation-the-quadrants.pdf
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