Republic of the Philippines

School of Graduate Studies

SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE
Bulan Campus
Bulan, Sorsogon

TOPICS: Education related to democracy and freedom

Equality of educational opportunity
DISCUSSANTS: Ryan G. Panesa, Arna De la Vega and Christine F. Gojo
SUBJECT: Philo Socio Psycho Foundation of Education
PROFESSOR: Engr. Noel Benavides, Ph.D.
TERM: Summer 2018
EDUCATION AS RELATED TO DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM

IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY
• The democratic form of government enables each citizen to grow and live the social interaction with his
environment with other citizens.
• Democracy provides an active participation for all.
• It is important in a democracy that education must encourage those habits of behavior that are consistent
with democratic living.
• The school must provide experiences or develop experiences which will enable the student to live a
happy life which is characterized by good health, vocational skills, worthy use of leisure and ability to
adjust with others, and to deal with social problems.
• The teachers in a democracy must bear in mind that learning is an individual matter.

EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRACY
• The curriculum of the school must be child and problem centered. Instruction must be individualized
through the use of units and projects based upon the experiences, needs and interests of the learners.
• The education in a democracy needs school which involves actions.
• The method of teaching in a school in a democracy is based upon individual problems which affect the
lives of the pupils in a democratic community.
• The purpose of education in a democracy is to develop the individual as a free man.
• The aim of education in a democracy is the welfare of the individual, yet it recognizes that a good life for
individual is to seek only the good in society and in the state.
• Education in a democracy must recognize the right of all to full and equal opportunity to share in the
cultural and educational, the artistic and intellectual life of the nation.
• Education in a democracy must be liberating education – liberating in the sense that it will free man from
ignorance, superstition, fear, prejudice, unnecessary physical handicaps, and the necessity of using force
in the solution of social and economic problems.
• Education in a democracy must put emphasis on values – expressed in terms of the acquisition and
refinement of standard values – physical, intellectual, emotional and moral.
• In a democracy there is no such thing as absolute freedom. It is only the freedom to do what is right, what
is just and what is good. It is the freedom to enjoy one’s right without trampling upon the rights of others.
• The following must be considered in regard to the function of education in a democracy.
1. Education in a democracy must have its main concern in the welfare of all people of the world.
2. Education in a democracy must serve each individual with justice, to provide equal educational
opportunity for all, regardless of intelligence, race, color, religion, social status, economic condition or
vocational plans.
3. Education in a democracy must be considered with the maintenance of the economic, political, and social
conditions which are necessary for the enjoyment of liberty.
4. Education in a democracy must use democratic methods, and observe democratic practices in
administration, supervision and in the guidance of pupils’ activities.
5. Education in a democracy must teach through experience that every privilege entails a corresponding
duty, every authority a responsibility, which responsibility is due to the group which granted the privilege
or authority.
6. Education in a democracy must seek to promote loyalty to democracy and keen, positive understanding
and appreciation of democratic ideals by summing youth to serve for a greater cause.
7. Education in a democracy must guarantee to the adult members of the community the right to share in
determining the purposes and policies of education.
8. Education in the democracy must develop citizens who are easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to
govern but impossible to enslave.
 9. Education in a democracy must transmit truths and values through tentative and experimental manner.
Critical thinking is also utilized in the process.
10. Education in a democracy has two major functions, to impart accumulated knowledge and traditions, and
to encourage the discovery of new truth.
• Primary objectives of the Filipino teacher in a democracy is to act as the agent of the government in
promoting, protecting and conserving our individual and national ideals and rights as free individuals in a
free and independent nation.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM
• It is generally agreed that academic freedom has the following characteristics:
A. The total freedom of the learner or teacher to the meaning of any idea.
B. Freedom to research to arrive at a solution to problems.
C. Freedom to express oneself in speech or in writing regarding his findings.
D. Freedom to express or write the results of his research or experiments.
E. Freedom to express or write the result of his studies or research as a citizen in a democracy
F. Freedom from reprisals as a result of the expression or in writing ideas.
• Academic freedom in the Philippines is a fundamental legal right which is a much entitled to judicial
protection as any other constitutional right.

THE ROLE OF TEACHER IN A DEMOCRACY

• The role of the Filipino teacher in a democracy was well expressed by VP Osmeña, then Secretary of
Public instruction when he said: … Inspired by his glorious record of the past, the Filipino teacher, will in
the future, be an indispensable agent of social order that will embody both our individual and our national
ideals, and of a government that will secure for our people and our prosperity, “the blessing of
independence under the regime of justice, liberty, and democracy.”
• It is the teacher’s duty, in a democratic nation, to produce and train free men, intelligent citizens who are
conscious of their rights wisely, and discharge their responsibility faithfully, the teacher must develop in
them moral quality above all, and their self-respect.
• Education in a democracy to be effective must be guided by the following principles:
1. The teacher must respect the personality of every child under his care and guidance.
2. The administrators and supervisors should give the teachers a greater share of responsibility in matters
concerning the welfare of the school.
3. The teacher should give pupils maximum degree of participation in the affairs of the school compatible
with their physical and mental maturity.
4. The teacher must be conscious that his primary duty is to teach our young people how to live in a
democracy.
5. The teacher must recognize the principle that democratic ideals cannot be accomplished until democracy
has been established in education.
6. The teacher in a democracy is committed to teach aims and objectives which are in harmony with
democratic principles.
7. The teacher in a democracy should treat his pupils individually, not in mass.
8. The teacher in a democracy must keep up with the recent trends in education.
9. The teacher in a democracy must bear in mind that his first loyalty as a free man is his loyalty to truth.
10. The teacher in a democracy as an enlightened citizen and public official, must exert effort to strengthen
the people’s faith in the basic democratic ideals.
EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY
AS AN INDEPENDENT CONCERN
• Education has both instrumental and intrinsic value for individuals and for societies as a whole.
• The instrumental goals of K-12 education for individuals include access to higher education and a
constellation of private benefits that follow college education such as access to interesting jobs with more
vacation time and better health care; greater personal and professional mobility, better decision-making
skills and more autonomy at work.
• Developing one’s skills and talents can be enjoyable or good in itself and a central component of a
flourishing life, regardless of the consequences this has for wealth or health.
• In addition to the instrumental and intrinsic value of education to an individual, education is also valuable
for society. All societies benefit from productive and knowledgeable workers who can generate social
surplus and respond to preferences. Furthermore, democratic societies need to create citizens who are
capable of participating in the project of shared governance.
 • Education is a highly valuable good to both individuals and to society, especially to democratic societies.
This makes questions about who has access to high-quality educational opportunities, and how
educational opportunities should be distributed, particularly important.

The Scarcity of High-Quality Educational Opportunity

• Questions about the just distribution of educational opportunity are especially vexing given the scarcity
of resources allocated to education. Although developed societies provide some education for free to
their citizens, funding for education is always in competition with the need to provide citizens with other
social goods.
• In view of the constellation of intrinsic and instrumental goods that flow from educational opportunity, and
in the context of relative scarcity, questions about how educational resources should be distributed are
especially pressing as a matter of social and economic justice.

The State Regulation of Education

• All developed societies have a legal requirement that children attend school for a certain number of years.
This means that, unlike other policy levers, education is typically under the control of state institutions
and has the potential to reach the vast majority of the nation’s children across racial, religious, class, and
gender-based divides. And given the myriad benefits that flow from education, it is arguably a state’s
most powerful mechanism for influencing the lives of its members. This makes education perhaps the
most important function of government.

THE MEANING OF AND DEBATES

• Debates about the meaning and value of equality of educational opportunity—and about whether equal
educational opportunity requires equality or adequacy—can be considered in the light of two questions.
• The first question is that given the diverse goals of education—preparing individuals for the job market,
for democratic citizenship, and to experience the intrinsic goods of education—is there only one justified
rubric for distributing educational resources?
• The second question we must consider is about the best interpretation of the ideal of equality of
educational opportunity. Is equality of opportunity achieved when everyone with similar talent gets the
same results? When per pupil expenditures are equalized? When those with the same natural talent
potential get the same opportunities?
• Educational opportunities are those opportunities that aim to enable individuals to acquire knowledge
and certain skills, and to cultivate certain capacities.

WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY?

Formal Equality of Educational Opportunity
• Formal equality of opportunity is the view that formal rules that make reference to personal or ascriptive
characteristics should not be obstacles to achieving certain goals. Such characteristics include race,
socio-economic class, gender, religion, and sexuality. It is essentially a concept of equality before the
law. It is often understood as an anti-discrimination principle.

Meritocratic Equality of Educational Opportunity

• Proponents of meritocratic equality of opportunity argue that no other obstacle besides merit should stand
in the way of achievement of the desired goals. This view requires that educational goods be distributed
solely in accordance with individual merit. In the context of education, merit is often measured by entrance
requirements, aptitude tests, or grades on exams. Of course, merit could be defined in some other way—
by how hard a student works, by how much a student improves, or by classroom participation, although
all of these indicators pose measurement challenges.
• Meritocratic equality of opportunity has well-known limitations, especially with respect to children. If
educational opportunities should be given to those who have the most merit in terms of the best scores
on entrance tests, we will overlook the fact that merit is endogenous to education, which is to say,
educational opportunity itself creates merit (Satz 2007). The more educational opportunities an individual
child has, the more “merit” that child may come to have. This might suggest that we should pay more
attention to individuals’ underlying potential rather than to their assessed merit. Yet few people believe
that we should give opportunities to those who have the most underlying but uncultivated ability at the
expense of those who have less underlying ability or who are less qualified but have worked hard (Miller
1996).

Fair Equality of Educational Opportunity

• FEO requires that social offices and positions be formally open to all, and that individuals who are similarly
talented and motivated should have a roughly equal chance to attain these positions, independent of their
social class background (Rawls 2001: 42–44). FEO holds that all citizens of a society count as the
relevant agents, the desired goal is offices and positions, and the obstacles people should not face
 includes their social class background. The obstacles people may legitimately face include having fewer
developed abilities or less willingness to use them.
• When applied to education, this principle may support educational measures that close the achievement
gap between the rich and the poor with the same high talent potentials, assuming that these children can
be identified.

Debates about Fair Equality of Educational Opportunity

• Debates about FEO have focused on the relative importance of the goods it regulates (i.e., access to
offices and positions) and the fact that it regards inequalities in inborn potentials as relevant obstacles
generally, and in the education arena.
• In terms of education, rather than ensuring that those with the same inborn talent potential and ambition
have the same level of educational achievement, Arneson would emphasize that educational
opportunities should aim at promoting the welfare of the least advantaged. This is more important, as he
sees it, than ensuring that future competitions for jobs are fairly structured.

Equality of Educational Opportunity for Flourishing

• One goal of education is to enable young people to grow into adults who have flourishing lives. What
would it mean to give children the equal opportunity for flourishing lives? Again, that depends on the view
one should have about the appropriate obstacles. At the most extreme, some have argued all people
should face only the obstacle of their own choices. The view makes sense of many of our intuitions. For
example, we tend to think that victims of bad luck, those born with disabilities, or those who are severely
harmed by natural disasters, are entitled to aid. Meanwhile, those who gamble and lose are not usually
viewed as having any case for compensation.

Equality of Educational Opportunity for the Labor Market

• Education for the labor market has significant benefits for the state (e.g., GDP growth) and for individuals
(e.g., remunerative and rewarding employment and all its associated benefits, including more
discretionary income, more leisure time, and in the US, better healthcare). This function of education is
critically important as a matter of justice. Education aimed at preparing individuals for employment has
become especially pressing in view of the income inequalities that leading economists have highlighted
(Piketty 2014; Saez & Zucman 2014). And since education for employment is a highly positional good
given a competitive labor market, it matters all the more how educational opportunity in this arena is
distributed.

Equality of Educational Opportunity for Citizenship

• Another important goal for providing educational opportunities is the development of students’ capacities
associated with being a good citizen and maintaining democratic institutions over time (Callan 1997;
Galston 2001; Gutmann 1999). It might be argued that just as equality of opportunity to become a
flourishing individual is a matter of justice, so too is equality of opportunity to develop civic skills, and to
participate effectively in political deliberations.

Equality and Adequacy in the Distribution of Educational Opportunities

• A longstanding debate in the literature juxtaposes the view that we should prioritize equality in the
distribution of educational opportunities with the view that an “adequacy” approach is the right one (on
this debate, see Reich 2013). Those who advocate the equality view may insist on equal outputs (i.e.,
educational outcomes, like the mastery of particular skills) or inputs (i.e., educational resources, like equal
per pupil funding or qualified teachers). The adequacy view, by contrast, is seen as holding that what
matters most is meeting a specified educational threshold.

EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY’S TENSIONS WITH OTHER VALUES

Family and Education
• Family background has long been recognized as a source of significant inequalities. Even before we
consider that children have quite different personalities and needs, inequality in family wealth and
differences in family priorities and wield influence over a child’s prospects in the labor market, in civic
participation, and in overall well-being. Although the number of parents who choose to pay tuition to have
their children educated in private schools may be relatively small, purchasing elite private schooling can
result in compounding advantages for some students (and thus relative disadvantages for others).

Disability
• In education, treating individuals with disabilities the same as those without does not always suffice to
treat all equally, for disabilities sometimes give rise to special needs and requirements and this raises
challenges for ‘inclusion’ (Warnock 2005). In order to avoid these challenges, it seems that we might
 need to endorse differential treatment, which can lead to stigma and division and has been associated
with educational segregation.

The Target of Equal Educational Opportunity: Individuals or Groups?

 Opportunities belong to agents. However, when we are concerned with equality of opportunity we may
be concerned that each individual has the same opportunities or that certain groups (classified by race,
gender, socio-economic class, sexuality or religion) have the same opportunities. In other words, our
concern may be that people’s opportunities are not affected by their membership of some disadvantaged
group rather than being concerned that each individual has equal opportunity within groups. Imagine two
societies.

REFERENCES:
 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equal-ed-opportunity/
 Gregorio, Herman C., et.al. “Philosophy of Education in Philippine Setting”. R.P. GARCIA Publishing
Company, 903 Quezon Avenue, Quezon City:1979, pp. 93 – 114.