How Fair British Education for All

HOW FAIR BRITISH EDUCATION FOR ALL This essay will break how tuition dust helps to maintain physical body inequality in coeval Britain. In Britain, a good quality of public education operate has been promised for every(prenominal) children regard slight of ethnicity, race or income. Unfortunately, School League give in and recent surveys show opposite. In 1944, the government passed Education Act which solelyowed all children to receive secondary education.Children would be selected by skill for several(predicate) types of nurture through an IQ test called the 11+ (in Scotland, the qualifying exam). Between 1964 and 1974, all secondaries re-organised into comprehensive schools instead of IQ test selection. In todays Britain, in that location are state (92%) and insular (8%) schools with level of primary, secondary and tertiary. vocational or non-vocational curriculum is being used and leaving school date is 16 since 1972.Universities cover to grow and now 40% of 18 course olds go onto university whereas in 1960s it was 5% of school leavers. Although the vast majority (80%) of private school pupils go into the university, almost 40% of state school pupils go into the further education. This shows that consort inequality exists in British education system. All sociologists accept that education is important in society as people receive 15000 hours of compulsory education. However, they deplete different opinions about the reference of education in society.The originator of the functionalist ideology, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) argued that education is an agent of secondary culture which transmits norms, measure outs and roles (value consensus) and acts as a bridge between family and the whole kind system. He claims pupils should command themselves as fragment of a nation by l arrive ating of certain subjects which can establish a common policy-making identity for social solidarity, i. e. history, so pupils can see similarities between themselves and the quondam(prenominal) society.American sociologist, Talcott Parsons (1903-1979) developed Durkheims ideas. He argues that everybody has the same chance to succeed, and so pupils who are most successful in schools due to their effort and ability and different talents are fitted into appropriate jobs. This is known as meritocracy. People also learn skills required by modern industrial society in order to keep nation efficient and allow people earn a living. These skills may be general skills much(prenominal) as literacy and numeracy or specific skills required by particular occupations.The weakness of functionalism is no comment for how all schools, including religious and fee-paying schools, can transmit a common value system while there are many individuals with different values. They excise the education system establish fair standards for everyone so pupils can pass their status in society. This meritocratic approach cannot be true if private and grammar s chools are considered as private schools have advantage to state schools. 40% gap of entering higher education between midsection tell and work class children shows the reality.The other loaded ideology is Marxism. The founder, Karl Marx (1818-1883), assumes that education is part of society that is vital for the ruling class (bourgeoisie) to exploit the on the job(p) class (proletariat). French Marxist philosopher, Louis Pierre Althusser (1918-1990) argues that education system tells people what to recollect and how to achieve it which creates false consciousness known as Ideological subject Apparatus (ISA). The system also legitimates inequality. Meritocracy and hidden curriculum makes people debate that individual differences are the reasons for success and failure.In addition, Bowles & Gintis suggest that education system produces a workforce with the skills and attitudes required by employers, thus ensuring that profits continue to be made for the ruling class. They als o insist there is a pattern of success or failure related to social factors such as class, ethnicity and selection does not occur on basis of ability. Although Marxism provides strong ideas, it has some weak points such as not telling how teachers are tools of the system and showing pupils as passive. It does not explain how the bourgeoisie curb the system for their own benefits.Functionalists defined cultural deprivation to explain working class underachievement. It means children who leave out the basic cultural norms, values, language and skills that commonly shared by most other members of society. As Basil Bernstein states that working class families speak in restricted figure which means small vocabulary, less adjectives and adverbs, information is short with no details or excess explanations, while middle class families speak in elaborated code, with to a greater extent effective communication.Therefore working class pupils have limit skills required by education such a s describing, analysing and comparing whereas middle class pupils have enough mental stimulation which is crucial as teachers use elaborated code. Hart & Risley supported this thesis by dictum a professionals child knows more words than a working class familys child and likely to be more successful in school. However, it fails to consider material deprivation and structural inequalities, the disposal of school and teachers expectations.Nell Keddie states that working class culture is different not deficient. Blackstone and Mortimore (1994) argue that working class families have no less interest in their childrens education. Paul Willis tries to answer criticism of Marxism and shows that there is no meritocracy in a capitalist society in his sketch called Learning to Labour. The lads (12 pupils) had their own counter-school culture which was opposed to the values espoused by the school. The lads felt superior both to the teacher and to conformist pupils.They can see through the id eological smokescreen which means they are aware of private-enterprise(prenominal) society is not meritocratic and they will end up having low-paid jobs so there is no need to gain qualifications. Although they believe workplace is a sense of adulthood/manhood, they still have the same attitude the lack of respect for authority and having a laff. Therefore education can have unintended consequences on pupils which may not be completely full to capitalism.Despite the significant findings, this study has a small-scale view as it includes only 12 boys and is gender biased so it is difficult to extrapolate the findings. Functionalists and Marxists try to address the problem differently, but none of them have delightful explanations. Functionalists see the education system as providing a positive educational experience which benefits the children and society. They blame working class families or culture for the woeful results of working class children. Whereas, Marxists claim that th e system oppresses and harms people, and that it only benefits the powerful.Both of them fail gender, ethnicity and labelling (Stephen Ball) which develops self-fulfilling prophecy (Rosenthal & Jacobson) means when people treat you as if you had certain attributes, you dismount acting that way. All these studies and recent surveys show that there is a class inequality in Britain and education system maintains it. The Sutton Trust suggests a effect secondary schools should be more balanced and disadvantaged youngsters should be succeed in order to be in better position. Tevhide Turkmen