By Shelly Baisla
EDF4611
WORD COUNT- 3945 (INCLUDING ABSTRACT)
ABSTRACT:
| My education issue | Causes of education inequality in India |
| Background/problem statement | Inequality on the basis of caste, gender, region, and income level of parents in India. |
| My investigation question | What are the factors causing education inequality in India? |
| Rationale/significance of my investigation | With the help of this investigation required changes can be made to narrow down gap between regional inequalities in the field of education.
Due importance is given to gender inequality in education in India is to be provided. Inequality caused due to beliefs ofdifferent social groups is solved with the help of policies. Students with calibre to achieve more but are restricted due to parent’s income are provided with scholarships. |
| Core Concept(s) | Understanding the factors causing education inequality in India. |
| Main arguments and an outline of key findings | In this essay I am arguing about, how factors such as region, gender, caste, social groups and parental income affects education sector in India.
Following is the outline of key findings: · Regional inequality · Gender based inequality · Caste and social groups · Parental income and occupation |
| Implications of my investigation for research and/or policy and/or practice | 1. For government to plan according to the factors of educational inequality.
2. For policy makers to form policies in field of education with the motive of narrowing down the various gaps that are causing restrictions for students. 3. For socio-cultural groups in India to understand the seriousness of the issue of inequality and to motivate students belonging to these groups to gain knowledge and skills, hence contribute to overall growth of the groups as well as country. |
| Conclusions of my investigation | In a nutshell, whole essay is focusing on the problem of inequality in education based on four key factors including region, caste, social-groups and parental income. Among these regional inequality and caste system require more focus as compared with the other two factors. |
INTRODUCTION:
India is a developing country there are various issues that India had to deal with in the process of leading towards growth. One of the importantIngredient in the process of development is Education. Education has a major role to play when it comes to improvement in overallcondition of a developing country. When we talk about role that education had to play in India’s progress over the years, there are various factors that comes in the picture. Regional differences (Tilak, 1979; Lolayekar& Mukhopadhyay, 2017; Singh, Kendall, Jain & Chander, 2015; Bhattacharya & Springerlink, 2015; Kalra& Thakur, 2015; Roy, 2014), gender ( Devi, 2001; Rammohan& Vu, 2018; Javed& Mughal, 2019), caste(Deb, 2018; Froerer, 2011; Kaushik &Ramani, 2011), parental income and occupation(Schneider, Hastings &LaBriola, 2018; Jurmani& Birthal,2015) are few of the factors that causeinequality.
Afters researching about educational issues and causes of uneven distribution of educational opportunitities, I choose to investigate, what are the factors causing educational inequality in India? With this question my research led me to above mentioned four factors on which my research is based. In this essay I am arguing about how factors such as region, gender caste or parental income affects education sector in India. Therefore, when we go further in the discussion on the improvement of level of education in India.Government, policy makers, educational institutions and social groups existing in India are the most affected and have an important role to play.
Education Inequality is the term which is very common in India irrespective of years of policy making to bring change. No significant steps are taken with respect to inequality. This is high time that Indian government and policy makers in the field of education understand the seriousness of the issues (Kaushik & Ramani, 2011). To achieve efficiency in Education it is important to understand the root cause of inefficiency. In this essay I have structured my research in four main factors starting from regional inequality (Barooah,2017) which is related to inequality on the basis of, geographical location and uneven distribution of education opportunities among different regions. Gender inequality is the next important factor causing issues, as in India education for boys in most households is considered, to be important.
For girls, situation is entirely different, if girls having interest in education field they had to fight with the society and with their families, their path to gain higher education is not at all easy (Tilak, 1983). Next in line is uneven distribution of opportunities, based on caste and social groups, in this role of caste and importance of social beliefs in the life of all the individuals in India is explained. Caste can play major role in decision making in terms of education of children. There are various socially disadvantage groups that require some attention from government at the time of framing new policies (Deb, 2018). Parental income and occupation are the last one in the line, as student’s education is directly related to that income of their parents.
The amount invented in student’s education is provided by their parents, if they are able or not is the cause of inequality. Families with lower income level can’t afford high quality of education in leading educational institutions that guarantee success. There has to be some ways for students who are interested and capable of achieving more with the education they desire, with restriction from family income level (Schneider, Hastings &LaBriola, 2018).All these factors are discussed in this essay with all the causes of inequality and uneven distribution of educational opportunities, the motive behind addressing problems is to bring them in front of policy makers so that they required changes are made by them.
Intentions behind the structure is to clearly mentioning all the issues that are restricting motto of education for all in India. Even after so many years of independence India is still lacking behind when it comes to literacy level of people of India. With the increasing level of competition around the world in terms of education, it is important for Indian economy to make required improvement to increase rate of literacy to compete with economy of developed countries.
REGIONAL INEQUALITY:
To begin with regional inequality referred to as the inequality faced by students and educators,based on geographical conditions (Roy,2014; Agrawal, 2014). The difference between status of development among urban and rural areas in India is the root cause of regional inequality. In India all major development projects take place in cities, which lead to construction of new and well-equipped educational institutions in urban areas (Barooah, 2017).The infrastructure of educational institutions in urban areas include better classroom with quality furniture, smart classroom, playgrounds, availability of clean water, medical facilities, qualified teachers, counselling, greater career opportunities and lot more. Institutions in rural areas not only lack all these facilities, also they do not even provide basic hygiene and sanitation facilities.
Many government schools in India do not even have proper space in classroom, no arrangements for proper lighting in the schools or even clean water all are lacking and hance increasing inequality.Therefore, students from rural area have no choice but to leave their houses and move to urban areas for better quality of education (Barooah,2017). Also, not every student is able to go out of their household in search for quality education as they have family restriction for instance, some students are only child in the family and their parents do not want them to leave their house even in search of better education, also some students had to support their families thus can’t go out of their region.
Which result increation of barriers for willing students in order to achieve greater educational opportunities (Barooah,2017). Economic growth is another tool for measuring regional inequality, in India not all regions are equally developed. The growth rate ofdifferent regions in different from each other and this is another cause of inequality. As regions with fast growth rate have better educational opportunities as compared to the regions with slow economic growth (Lolayekar& Mukhopadhyay, 2017).Latest technological advancement in the field of education are invested in big institutions in the cities with huge infrastructure and well-known brand names.
Whereas,Educational institutions in rural areas lack all these factors thus are not considered in the race of adapting to latest technological skills. Even if some technical instruments are introduced in institutes situated in rural areas, staff employed there are not skilled enough to understand and operate it properly. As well qualified teacher are not willing to work in rural areas, after getting qualifies they focus on getting jobs in urban sector and not in rural areas (Agrawal, 2014).Another issue is related to globalization, with the introduction of globalisation in India many aspects related to education got affected (Kalra& Thakur, 2015). New policies were formed with introduction of new economic policies, and every region got something new to offer. Some were good with industries, some for agricultural production and some for education sector (Kalra& Thakur, 2015).
However, with some changes in education policies situation can expect to improve. In order to achieve balance in educational sector in all the regions in India policies had to improve. Growth and development of all the regions matter equally in order to bring positive change (Bhattacharya &Springerlink, 2015).Education for all, proper and easy means of transport to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and facilitate quality education in institutes situated in rural or under developed regions are few suggested option to bring significant change in current scenario.
INEAQUALITY ON THE BASIS OF SEX:
Gender inequality is a very common term used in India. As it is a cause of many problems, one of them is gap in education qualification between both genders. In India women are considered to work for, or under men’s supervision, but this pattern is changing with time. Even after many efforts of government, society is still not ready to accept women as incharge and in positions traditionally allotted to men (Devi, 2001). Men in India are meant to dominated women, and women are expected to assist them. It is sad that women in India had to work twice as hard as men to get at position equal to men. Women education in India is not encouraged enough as education for men, because women are meant do focus on household chores rather than education (Tilak, 1893).
The root cause of this issue is related to that thought process of the parents as they are not willing to invent much in the education of their daughters as comparedto their sons. Sons are expected to have more returns on the amount invented on their education. On the other hand, amount invested on education of daughters has less ROI (Return on Investment) from parent’s point of view. Daughters are expected to get married and go to the place belong to their partner and thus, amount earned by them belong to their in-laws and not their maternal parents (Rammohan& Vu, 2018).In some social groups it is their belief that if daughters are educated more than class 5, they become more educated than required and are not considered as eligible for marriage. Boys on the other hand are motivated by the society to study more, gain respect in the society.
The burden of learning skills and become eligible for earning money, or we can say become self sufficient in or male section of the society. They are expected to earn and feed their family, and females are required to learn household skills for their husband’s family (Froerer, 2011).Therefore, situation like this is very common in country like India and which leads to causing gender inequality in the field of education.
However, with change in time gender gap is also diminishing in many ways. Government is also encouraging women to get educated and in order to do so, new policies related to providing employment opportunities to educated women, better working conditions, wages equal to man and many more in order to promote women education (Devi, 2001).With all these policies not only women education is benefited, overall literacy rate in India will also increase.
As per Rammohan and Vu (2018) demographic advancement can be achieved by focusing on education of young women in India.If women in India are provided with equal level of motivation as men, then it can lead to increase in level of literacy rate. As educated women can promoted education of their children and it can lean to high degree of educated children in each household, thus overall level of educated people in the society will tent to increase.
INEQUALITY ON THE BASIS OF CASTE AND SOCIAL GROUPS:
In India caste system is one of the major issues for many problems in the process of development. India as a country is divided among varioussocial groups, each group have their own beliefs and values. They work according to them and anything beyond there cultural beliefs is not acceptable to them. This rigid behaviour of different socio-cultural groups is causing issues in educational sector as well (Tilak, 1979). Social background of students matters a lot, in terms of level of learning they are going to approach.
Therefore, there are several examples of students from disadvantaged social backgrounds suffering from unequal educational participation (Deb, 2018). Indian culture promotes decision making based onsocial beliefs. Marriage is consider to be an essential factor when decisions regarding children education takes place in India households.It is different for both girls and boys. As for some social groups, girls getting higher education is not promoted as they are considered to be over educated in that situation.
On the other hand, boys are motivated to grab more knowledge and skills in the field of education in order to gain respect and to become eligible to get married (Froerer,2011). According to Froerer (2011), class 5 is marked as level of education which is, considered to be acquired by all the children of the society, both the genders. Anything below class 5 is mentioned as not educated and not eligible for marriage in the society.
Above, the level of class 5 are group of students aiming to get employmentopportunities in order to earn well and bring improvement on their lifestyle. India being an agriculture-oriented country is another reason of uneven educational opportunities. Social groups engaged in agricultural activated are quite restricted to the thought of educating their children. Over the years they are channelled to think that working in the fields is the only skill that is going to help them to feed their families and their children are also forced to learn the same (Froerer, 2011). Another cause of education inequality is caste system, which is divide among, schedule caste (SC), schedule tribe (ST), other backward class (OBC) and general category.
Students who belong to disadvantage social groups (SC, ST and OBC) do not have fair chance or equal amount of opportunities in the field of education in order to perform to their highest level of capability. Therefore, all these causes related to caste and social groups are reviewed by government and policy makers (Deb, 2018). Over the years many plans are made in order to narrow the gap between different social groups. But whatever has been done is clearly not enough to bring improvement in current state of difference.
In order to provide fair chance to disadvantaged social groups, government institutions and even some private educational institutions have some fixed percentage of seats, allotted to these groups (Kaushik & Ramani,2011). With the help of such initiatives disadvantage groups are provided with a push to start their learning process and be able achieve their dreams and learn whatever skills are required for them to improve their living conditions.
To achieve equal level of opportunities for all social groups in the field of education it become essential for authorities to make some significant changes in the policies (Tilak, 1979). Policies should be formed to narrow down the differences in socio economic origins, to expect direct influence on the problem. Furthermore, with change family conditions of socially disadvantaged groups with their educated children are expected to rise, better job opportunities are provided, higher level of education can be achieved. As higher level of education is approached more by stable (in terms of economy) groups in the society, government should promote higher education for all the groups irrespective of student’s caste and religion.
INEQUALITY ON THE BASIS OF PARENTAL INCOME AND OCCUPATION:
Next factor that comes into picture after discussing region, gender and caste-based groups is parental income. Parents financial position is directly related to the student’s growth in education sector. In developing country like India, majority of population falls under middle level of income groups. Not every individual is earning enough to afford all the necessary amenities for example, food, shelter and clothing. In this situation to afford educational expenses of children become an issue, causing inequality in the field of education (Tilak,1979).
Therefore, families with high amount of annual income can afford high level of education for their children without any restrictions. Whereas, families with lower level of income have limited opportunities, even if their children are capable of high level of education their income to do allow them to attain that level of quality education. Not only monetary investment is required is expected from the parents, parents who investappropriate amount of time with their children, their education path become quite clear with parent’s support. It helps them to feel more motivated and secure with support shown by their parents in their area of interest (Schneider, Hastings &LaBriola, 2015).
Another important factor affected my parental income is the child health. Health child I expected to attaint knowledge in the classroom, if the child I not health their studies will be adversely affected. Parents with lower level of income are not able to provide their child adequate amount of food and nutrition, leading to health issues in the growth of child (Jurmani&Brithal, 2015; Fernald, Karger, Hidroba& Gertler, 2012). Lack of proper sanitation, clean water, quality food all are important sources in child’s overall growth and are directly dependent of parent’s income.
Moreover, parent’s education level descried their economic position and that describe the amount parents can affront on their child education, also how open minded they are in order to support their child’s dreams (Fernald, Karger, Hidroba& Gertler, 2012).Parents belonging to different social groups also have a special role to play with respect to their income and occupation. Parents belong to SC & ST groups lack various opportunities to provide their children with better facilities. They are considered as under-employed and insecure in economic terms.
However, if government is willing to promote equal opportunities to all effective steps are suggested to be taken in order to improve condition of families with lower level of Income.Easy availability of public transport, improved sanitation facilities, providing clear water and surroundings, special consideration in educational institutions are few suggested options to bring positive change and improve condition of families with lower level of Income (Joshi,1979).
Inequality in education is caused when income level of parent’s differ, higher level of income provide them with various opportunities fir their children in the field od education. Whereas, income disadvantage do not allow parents to invest much in their child’s education leading to uneven participation.
IMPLICATION :
Implication of this study are for government and policy makers of India to provide focus on causes of education inequality at the time of process of planning. As current scenario on education in India is suffering but situation can be better if proper planning is done by policy maker in education sector. With right amount of planning and accurate implementation of policies for improving condition of education sector, things can fall into place and gap can be filled. Additionally, some positive changes can be expected from socio-cultural groups.
As these groups are very rigid when it comes to their beliefs, with the help of this investigation they can understand the seriousness of the problem, that students belong to them has to face in order to fulfil their educational dreams. And better future for those students who have ability to acquire lot of skills and knowledge but are restricted due to above mentioned factors causing education inequality, can be expected.
CONCLUSION:
Level of education in India is lacking behind due to various inequalities. The factors discussed in this essay are regional, related to geographical location of students and educational institutions which can create difficulty for some students to reach out of their comfort zone in search of quality education. Gender inequality caused by treated both genders (boys and girls) differently even after having equal capability to study and learn. Differences on the basis ofdifferent caste and social groups, because every social group is restricted with set of beliefs on which they are formed. This create uneven participation of students in process of gaining knowledge as restricted by the group they belong to.
Finally, parental income and occupation is the last factor that is discussed in this essay. Students interest in field of education depend on their origin, their parents. Children having educated parents working at high level occupation tend to make efforts in attaining higher level of education as their parents.Whereas, children belonging to families with low income level and from disadvantaged social groups are restricted in their choices for further education.Following factors, are considered important when inequality in the field of education is being discussed.
After discussing all these factors,it is being observed that inequality based on region and caste are greater issues as compared with gender and parental income. As now India is changing swiftly, lot has been done to narrow down the gap between male and female section of the societies. Now women are standing equal and above men in field of education. Also, parental income is not that much of and issue in new India with availability of enormous scholarship opportunities for students with sharp minds.
If students are capable of achieving more,with respect to their educational goals, parental or household income can no longer be an issue. However, regional difference is still a major issue that require lot of concentration from government and policy makers to bring necessary changes in current situation where gap between rural and urban regions is huge in terms of growth and development.
To improve situation of inequality because of Caste system and social-groups government introduced various policies to provide aids in form of fixed seats in schools and universities. In order to pull socially disadvantages groups (ST, SC & OBC) to the level of general categories. But this technique used by government did not work well, as people started to exploit the benefits and leading to other problems. With the help of my research investigation government can focus on issues that can help in improving condition of education sector in India. Policy makers are already working on forming policies to remove the various gaps casing inequality, but nothing significant has been achieved so far.
Point mentioned in my research regarding forming policies of providing opportunity in the form of scholarships to the students who has the ability but lack resources from their families, can help them and helps in removing educational inequalities. Finally, social groups existing in Indian economy can be aware of inequality they are causing in order to provide students belong to them and with this awareness positive change to some extent can be expected. Overall, education inequality is a major issue but there’s so much that can be done and with understanding the root cause properly things surely can becomeclear for respective authorities to work on these issues.
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