Life isnt Fair and neither are Schools

picture

a society

in which education

is at its finest

pupils are well nurtured and thrive

in their learning

people

from all backgrounds and all genders

across the globe

upper

middle and working class

have equal opportunities and a

fundamental right to an opportunity

enriched education

when we think of what goals we want to

achieve by 2050

combating climate change or ending world

hunger

are high on everyone’s wish lists

i believe

reducing the inequality gap within

education

to offer equal opportunities to all

young people

is equally important

after all

it’s education that enables individuals

and communities

to bring regeneration to every other

aspect of our lives

i have a confession

i’ve had a privileged education which

has opened endless doors for me

life

could have been very different for me

for example

more than 50 percent of young students

from 58 out of 133 countries

have not completed upper secondary

education

53 percent of 10 year olds from low and

middle income backgrounds

are unable to read or understand a short

age-appropriate text

the gaps in inequalities have grown

during the kovit-19 pandemic

it might shock you to know

that in the uk

a so-called developed nation

one in three students from low-income

backgrounds

are unable to read or write or solve a

basic math question by primary school

if you come from a low income background

you are three times more likely to be

permanently excluded from school

and 2.5 times less likely to be admitted

into a selective university

this is manifestly unfair

and by looking

and reading around

very little has been done

to tackle this issue

let’s take a look at some of the history

to see what we can learn

in 1944

the uk government introduced grammar

schools to solve this problem

they were non-fee paying but selective

schools that aimed to provide a better

education for intelligent children of

all

socioeconomic backgrounds

whilst grammar schools intended to

create more opportunity for children

from non-wealthy backgrounds

only 2.6

attending

were from working class families

the number of grammar schools has been

reduced

from

1298 in 1964

to a mere 163 in 2021

clearly

if we’ve gone down to almost 10 percent

of what we started with

cram scores was never an ideal solution

for social mobility

instead

grammar schools have become a refuge

for the elite

wealthy and highly educated parents

who equip their children with ready-made

social networks and expensive tutors

coming from an educated background

not only favors a child in entering a

grammar school

but favors them in every aspect of the

educational system which involves

learning for exams

the current method of examination

involves learning for tests

and having the time

and support available at home

this is because there are so many

factors that can influence how well a

child succeeds at education

your parents and their jobs

your background your environment your

financial situation to name a few

since grammar schools are so heavily

reliant on the type of background you’re

born in it becomes increasingly harder

to challenge this social mobility

let me suggest

a few ideas to level up the inequality

gap

one suggestion as a country

would be to increase the investment in

secondary state schools

specifically those with disadvantaged

students

england have the second largest gdp in

europe which is a measure of the size

and wealth of the country’s economy

yet to be ranked 17th

in the social mobility index which is

significantly low

for a developed country

england are not investing enough money

into primary schools

with the current spending nearly 6

five hundred pounds per year per child

which is nine percent lower than a

decade ago

we need to bring back funding

to a level that equates

if not better as that of the 2010s

and go one step further

by ensuring more money is invested in

schools with high percentages of

students from low income backgrounds

or have english as an additional

language

let’s compare the uk

to a near neighbor

take finland

a middle-ranking country a decade ago

to third in the social mobility index

finland invest an average of nine

thousand pounds

per year per child

using money to ensure schools have basic

resources

such as libraries and textbooks

as well as extra teaching assistants to

help with struggling students

in finland

it takes an average of two generations

to approach from a low income family to

the mean income

compared with five generations in the uk

let’s take a look at another example

in germany the average class size is 12

students per teacher

compared with england’s 21 students per

teacher in primary school and 30 in a

state school

the government has talked about

levelling up the education system

yet we have lost 90 million pounds this

year due to underfunding

mostly affecting disadvantaged students

it is becoming increasingly harder to

challenge this social mobility

a second approach

would be to accelerate the rollout of t

levels

which is a new vocational qualification

aimed to teach practical skills with

first-hand experience

with only one in four working-class

children attending university

a vocational qualification would

accelerate social mobility for some

students

t levels are typically studied between

ages 16 to 18.

they will enable students to progress

onto university which will then enable

social mobility

and finally

a third approach in reducing the

inequality gap within education

would be to introduce more classes

during the summer holidays

for example

it’s no coincidence that the crime rate

during the summer

shoots up by 35 percent

let’s take a look

across the pond

in america the baltimore study

followed a sample of 790 children

from ages 6

to 22.

the data concluded that by ninth grade

almost two-thirds of the achievement gap

between higher and low-income students

was explained by unequal access to

summer learning opportunities

moreover

why stop during the summer

why not give added support during term

time

staggeringly there is no research that

suggests adding homework clubs will

improve performance

yet my friends and i have all been

helped at various points in our lives

with our homework and it seems obvious

that if a child doesn’t have the support

at home

it can be difficult to cope alone

2021

is a difficult year for the education

system

with the recovery from covid and the 90

million pound funding cut mostly

affecting disadvantaged students it is

becoming increasingly harder to

challenge the social

mobility the government

has not made enough change

through the underfunding of schools

and the lack

of reform

so

what do we do

well this is a call to all young people

we need to do more to make the

government listen

greta thundberg was 15

when she was protesting outside the

swedish parliament to promote climate

change

thousands of pupils went on strike and

followed her

teenagers have clearly got the options

these days

with social media and demonstrations to

get hurt

therefore why don’t we use our voices to

enact change

we want to

re-generate our educational system

to offer equal opportunities to all

young people

no matter your background no matter your

class no matter your gender

in the same way

people mobilize themselves for climate

change

they can mobilize themselves

to re-generate

our educational system

schools

aren’t fair

let’s do something about that

you