Education and Inequality: In India, we have been fed by our leaders from the Freedom struggle days that we will create a democracy and there will be equality of opportunities for all. In modern industrial society education has become the main agency for socializing new born into law abiding citizens and productive members of the society. Formal education has become almost indispensable because to participate in economic production one needs to learn specialized skills which cannot be acquired through family or any other agency. Due to the indispensability of formal education in advanced industrial societies education is provided by the state as a matter of right for all its citizens. Formal institutions-schools, colleges and universities are organized for this purpose. A linked challenge is one of equity. Participation rates in Education are poor largely because students from disadvantaged groups continue to find it difficult to pursue it. Even when they manage to participate, students suffering from disadvantages of gender, socio-economic status, physical disability, etc. tend to have access to education of considerably lower quality than the others, while the education system needs to provide them access to the best possible education so that they are able to catch up with the rest.
In most societies today legislations exist guaranteeing equality of the right of education. In fact to realize this ideal of equality of educational opportunities special efforts are made by the welfare states in industrial societies to provide compulsory education to the socially deprived. In developing countries like India state has assumed the responsibility to provide universal free education at the school level. Special policy measures have been developed to spread modern scientific secular education to rural areas and policy of protective discriminating has been adopted to encourage the traditionally deprived section like SC and ST to take to modern education. However, in spite of the creation of a legal framework in most societies to ensure quality of educational opportunity such an ideal continues to be elusive in reality even in the industrially advanced societies.
Primary Schools: Out of the existing educational institutions in the country, 70% are primary schools, either Government–aided or privately aided. The Government-aided schools are woefully inadequate with a lack of infrastructural facilities. A large population of children from lower-income group go to Government and municipal schools. However, only a few reach the college and professional institutions. Public schools which are expensive are largely confined to higher-income group children. It is these children who gain access to higher education in prestigious institutions. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the Government or municipal primary schools the Government launched its scheme of ‘Navodaya Vidyalaya’ or model schools. The objective was to provide good quality modern education to the talented children predominantly from rural area, without regard to their family’s socio-economic condition. These schools were aimed to serve, in each district, as focal points for improvement in quality of school education in general through sharing of experiences and facilities. However, research indicates that these schools are widening the rural divide by catering to the powerful landed elite. Thus educational institutions reinforces existing inequalities and create new ones.
Private Schools: Within the educational institutions there exist stark inequalities. Students with private school background and fluency in English language generally gain access to well-known universities of the country. In urban areas where better educational fascilities are available there are private schools. People of middle and higher classes send their children to private school.
Education and Inequality: In India, we have been fed by our leaders from the Freedom struggle days that we will create a democracy and there will be equality of opportunities for all. In modern industrial society education has become the main agency for socializing new born into law abiding citizens and productive members of the society. Formal education has become almost indispensable because to participate in economic production one needs to learn specialized skills which cannot be acquired through family or any other agency. Due to the indispensability of formal education in advanced industrial societies education is provided by the state as a matter of right for all its citizens. Formal institutions-schools, colleges and universities are organized for this purpose. A linked challenge is one of equity. Participation rates in Education are poor largely because students from disadvantaged groups continue to find it difficult to pursue it. Even when they manage to participate, students suffering from disadvantages of gender, socio-economic status, physical disability, etc. tend to have access to education of considerably lower quality than the others, while the education system needs to provide them access to the best possible education so that they are able to catch up with the rest.
In most societies today legislations exist guaranteeing equality of the right of education. In fact to realize this ideal of equality of educational opportunities special efforts are made by the welfare states in industrial societies to provide compulsory education to the socially deprived. In developing countries like India state has assumed the responsibility to provide universal free education at the school level. Special policy measures have been developed to spread modern scientific secular education to rural areas and policy of protective discriminating has been adopted to encourage the traditionally deprived section like SC and ST to take to modern education. However, in spite of the creation of a legal framework in most societies to ensure quality of educational opportunity such an ideal continues to be elusive in reality even in the industrially advanced societies.
Primary Schools: Out of the existing educational institutions in the country, 70% are primary schools, either Government–aided or privately aided. The Government-aided schools are woefully inadequate with a lack of infrastructural facilities. A large population of children from lower-income group go to Government and municipal schools. However, only a few reach the college and professional institutions. Public schools which are expensive are largely confined to higher-income group children. It is these children who gain access to higher education in prestigious institutions. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the Government or municipal primary schools the Government launched its scheme of ‘Navodaya Vidyalaya’ or model schools. The objective was to provide good quality modern education to the talented children predominantly from rural area, without regard to their family’s socio-economic condition. These schools were aimed to serve, in each district, as focal points for improvement in quality of school education in general through sharing of experiences and facilities. However, research indicates that these schools are widening the rural divide by catering to the powerful landed elite. Thus educational institutions reinforces existing inequalities and create new ones.
Private Schools: Within the educational institutions there exist stark inequalities. Students with private school background and fluency in English language generally gain access to well-known universities of the country. In urban areas where better educational fascilities are available there are private schools. People of middle and higher classes send their children to private school.