Educational Inequalities in Britain

PRIMARY/SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITIES

THE IMPACT OF THE SOCIAL CLASS ON EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES

class inequalities are determinant at identifying students achievement level. Achievement level of the students is related to their social class inequality from the beginning. Students low academic achievement due their class position is a barrier to further their education and develop their human capital; and hence to achieve social upward mobility.

Social

Poverty is at the center to gain a deeper understanding on the concerning problem.Because

parental income, education and occupation have a strong impact on students achievement level. Families with limited income are unable to invest in their childrens education. While wealthy families prefer to send their children to private schools for a qualified education, poor families even sometimes cannot create resources for indirect costs of education.

Child poverty and unequal educational opportunities are inextricably linked. Childrens educational prospects reflect the disadvantages of their families. Those who are poor, whose parents have low qualifications and no or low-status jobs, who live in inadequate housing and in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, are less likely to gain good qualifications themselves at school. (Vleminckx and Smeeding 2001 : 75).

The poverty gap and progress at school

In education, the relationship between schools and social inequality is often explored by looking at the test and examination scores achieved by different groups of children and young people, and other monitoring data. poverty as indicated by eligibility for free school meals is strongly associated with low attainment, Children from poor homes are nearly a year behind before they start school and two years behind by age14. (Rowntree Foundation, 2007) By the 1950s and 1960s educational success was rare for working class students; they were relatively unlikely to pass the 11+; if they did pass they were relatively likely to be consigned to the lower sets in Grammar schools and therefore relatively unlikely to be especially successful in GCE Ordinary Level examinations and likely, as a result, to leave school at age 16. Between the early 80s and the late 90s, the proportion of poorer children who graduate from university has risen by only 3%, compared to 26% from wealthier families. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/12/social-mobility-disadvantage) In 2008, only 35% of pupils eligible for free school meals obtained five or more A* to C GCSE grades, compared with 63% of pupils from wealthier backgrounds.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS AND GCSE

GCSEs: More than half (55%) of secondary schools in the most deprived parts of England did not achieve the benchmark of 30% of children getting five good GCSEs, compared with just 3% in the least deprived areas.The students whoqualified for free school meals in 2006-07, 47% 33,909 childrendid not attain any GCSE grades higher than a D.

Science and maths: In 2002, the gap in science knowledge between students aged between seven and 11 on free school meals and the rest of their classmates was 10 percentage points; last year it stood at 15. In maths, the gap has widened to 20 percentage points in maths - up from 16 points in 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/dec/15/ gcse-statistics-free-school-meals-race-local-authoritiespoverty

To Explaining That Particular Dimension of Inequality

Pierre Bourdieu and the Concept of Cultural Capital

The analysis of Bourdieu, arguing that working class families have a lack of cultural and human capital; because schools are middle class institutions, working class inadequate social capital reproduces the existing inequalities. He argues that there are cultural differences between the social classes but that one cannot state objectively that upper and middle class cultures are superior to working class culture nor that working class students and their families are culturally deprived. The upper and middle classes are said to possess much more cultural capital than the working class and it is these differences in cultural capital which, according to Bourdieu are the main factor explaining social class differences in educational achievement. He argues that because the upper class dominate society in terms of wealth and power, they are able to impose their culture as the dominant culture upon the rest of society and to ensure that educational ability is assessed mainly in terms of the possession or non- possession of this dominant culture. This dominant culture represents Cultural Capital for those who possess it because it can be used within the education system to transmit class privilege across the generations from parents to children so as to reproduce class advantage across generations (Bourdieu, P 1986 : 241-256).

Stephen Ball : Class Strategies and The Education Market

Stephen Ball argues that upper and middle class children are likely to be more successful in education because upper and middle class parents can deploy economic capital, cultural capital and social capital to ensure that their children have educational advantages not available even to relatively affluent working class families and certainly not available to the poor. Economic Capital : Upper and middle class parents can afford to purchase relatively expensive houses in the catchment areas of successful state schools thus helping to ensure that their children will be able to attend such schools while working class children are more likely to attend less successful schools. Cultural Capital : Upper and middle class parents are often relatively well educated and will almost certainly be able to help their children with homework if this proves to be necessary. Social Capital : Upper and middle class parents may be in social contact with other upper and middle class parents who can help them to evaluate the relative effectiveness of different schools prior to school choice (Stephen J. Ball 2003:48)

To Equal Opportunities and Education in the United Kingdom

The 1944 Education Act made significant changes in the structure of the education system

in an attempt to redress some of its inequalities. The basic aim of the 1944 Education Act was to give every pupil an equal chance to develop his or her talents and abilities to the fall within a free system of State Education. The structure of education in England and Wales was reorganised into three stages: Primary-up to the age of 11. This was subdivided into nursery, infant and junior stages. Secondary-from the age of 11 until 15 (from 1973,16). Further/higher-education beyond the school leaving age; education by choice.
Most of the major changes were in the secondary sector. The aim was to provide equality of educational opportunity to all children from the age of 11. Theories based on the idea that there were different types of pupils with differing aptitudes and abilities were the basis of the 1944 Act. A national test for 11 year olds-the 11 + test-was introduced as a way of allocating children to one of three types of secondary school. (www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter05.html )

The Tripartite System :

CONCLUSION

Childrens academic performance cannot be divorced from ... what happens to them

outside school in their families, communities and neighbourhoods.

If quality of education is not provided more for all people, the opportunity to

strengthen the economy as a result of the demographic transition will be lost, and young people who do not receive similar quality and level of education will face problems such as low quality of life and intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Difficulty in adaptation to the knowledge economy The gap between economic development and human development may be

aggravated.

Education might be devalued more than before.

The relationship between education and social mobility will be weakened or the role

of education in poverty reduction will be weakened.

REFERENCES

Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education : New York, Greenwood Shepherd , J guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 January 2009 Stephen J. Ball (2003) Class strategies and the education market: The Middle Classes and Social Advantage : Oxon, RoudledgeFalmer United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), (1998). The State of the Worlds Children 1998, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Vleminckx, K. and Smeeding, T.M. (eds.) (2001). Child Well-being, Child Poverty and Child Policy in Modern Nations: What Do We Know? Bristol: The Policy Press. www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter05.html www.jrf.org.uk accessed on 28/10/2011 http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/ accessed on 28/10/2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/12/social-mobility-disadvantage http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000900/index.shtml http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/dec/15/gcse-statistics-free-school-mealsrace-local-authorities-poverty http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/30/contents