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Questioning the paradox of equity in education
I have been worried for some time about the concept of equity and how it is usually understood in relation to schooling. It seems to me to be very strange that family income, as one indicator, can determine how children think. Coming from a low-income family, I reject this assertion and cultural arrogance entirely.
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Hi Neil,
I wonder if you watched last nights Don’t stop the music episode on ABC TV. I think it goes some way to explaining exactly how income does affect the way children learn. It is not about assessment alone, but about inequity that begins long before they commence school.
Would be delighted to know your comments on this project, it appears to have potential to be a game changer
Roma
I’m not so sure there’s a paradox: the system is intentionally designed as an advantage-copier, not a merit-identifier. It’s designed to select and reward those already advantaged and to perpetuate disadvantage.
That may seem like a cynical perspective, but looking at the features of the system tends to offer supporting evidence.
Radical changes are needed. Abandoning standardised testing, on the basis that it is not a valid measure of anything real, would be a first step. Moving to true needs-based funding would be a second. Genuinely investing in education as a public, not private, good would be a third.
I’m not one of those who seeks the wholesale closure of private schools, but proper needs-based funding of public schools must be the priority of governments at all levels.
I too am a bright kid from a working-class background, but I’d much rather have started school when I did in the 70s than now, because the systematic construction of the educational system as an advantage-copier was a less advanced technology then.