Thesis statement: providing equality in education doesn’t involve giving a common curriculum or simply providing equality of access to education but entails the provision of equality of means to access the education and equality according to individual needs and differences.
Introduction
The meaning of equality and democracy
Summary on how democracy and equality can be achieved in a society through education.
Ways of achieving equality through education
Equality through common curriculum
Common curriculum cannot lead to equality
All children can learn but what and when is the main concern
Curriculum should be set out to allow individual talent to flourish
Equality through degrees and diplomas
Equality in access to college degrees and diplomas don’t guarantee equality
Some college graduate earn more than others depending on field
A detailed high school curriculum only magnifies the differences but doesn’t bring equality
All students should be allowed to graduate to to minimize on the drop out level.
Equality and anti-intellectualism
Schools emphasize on intellectual excellence
Not all student are equal in the ability to read, figure, write and spell
More emphasis should be on talents identification and development
Schools should also allow students to develop intellectually
Confusion on the meaning of intellectual
No subject is more intellectual than the other.
Anything that uses the mind is intellectual.
Vocations should be taught to incooperate intellectualism and not mere training only
Schools should encourage learners to develop intellectually as well as vocationally.
Equality of opportunity
Equality of opportunity doesn’t enhance democracy
Giving equality of access to all by voucher method may lead to public underperforming schools to close down; students in such schools may be destabilized.
Public schools should be helped to solve their performance problems and not forced out of business
Menial, dirty and mindless chores are demeaning and shuld not be left to a few people, they should be shared so that each person experiences a test of the chores.
iv. References
REFLECTION
Equality in education is not about giving access to all people to attain education but by providing an opportunity for all to do and achieve what they are best at. Nobody should ever be forced to do what they are not good at whether by design or default. By design, the opportunities may be limited in such a way that the student can only choose from a selected few options. most probably his/her choice may not be among the provided choice. By default, the state or school may not be aware of the learners’ diverse educational needs and thus may not provide enough resources for the opportunity to be availed. This forces the learner to content with what is available and not what he/she wants. This may lead to poor performance in future since the student may simply believe that he/she is good at nothing and whatever he/se is doing is simply because there is nothing else he/she could do well. Feeling may lead to people living unsatisfied lives and in most cases such people’s potentials end up unexploited (Noddings, 2013).
There is a clear and defined difference between equality and equity. Whereas equality demands equal opportunities to all disregard of gender, tribe, race or political affiliation, equity is about providing access to opportunities depending on the individual’s specific needs and aspirations. With equality a common curriculum is justified since it leads to all students to get the same education and have the same grading system. But with equity the student should be provided with knowledge tailor made to take care of his/her individual abilities and aspirations. Ideally, not all students are intellectuals. Some of the students may do better under vocational training than they would do under college training. Thus, providing equality of access to college education to all students disadvantages the one with vocational abilities. The state should thus dedicate resources to set up and equip vocational facilities to take care of the abilities of such students (Noddings, 2013).
There should also be an emphasis on talents. Development of talents should be part and parcel of the school curriculum. Schools should endeavor to identify the talents that each learner possesses so that its development may be incorporated in the curriculum. Diversification of the curriculum is thus an important development in the education sector. This will, however, come with extra costs and thus the school community has to invest time and resources in bettering education for the good of the learners and the society by extension (Noddings, 2013).
Remuneration of work done should be standardized at all levels. This is supposed to curb inequality in the job sector where people with the same educational qualification earn different salaries. In this way, students will not be attracted to certain courses which are considered to be lucrative but will rather be driven by interest (Noddings, 2013).
Questions
How can equity be enhanced in a school set up?
How does equity of access to education contribute to democracy in a society?
References
