The Attainment Gap in Education - Coursework Example

The Attainment Gap in Education Education is important because it acts as a powerful mediator in shaping the identities of children all over the world. Children from poor families usually end up in schools with significantly low levels of educational attainment. The extent to which one has pursued education determines a great deal the level of income and opportunities in later life, such achievements create a major contributing factor to the patterns of social mobility (Chowdry, Crawford and Goodman 2009). The opportunities for children growing up in poor families have been improved by positive political interference across the spectrum. Educational attainment can be influenced in many ways but this report will focus mostly on the attitudes, aspirations and behavioural factors. These include parental influences and aspirations across childhood including primary school years. Studies for example the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and The Longitudinal Study of Young and People in England have observed children from early childhood to late adolescence and explained the effects in educational attainment. Migration and the extent of globalisation make the national population to be more diverse therefore educationists need to understand and work with the differences productively. For example, in Australia more than a quarter of all the school students have other languages as their first other than English yet the population teaching is mostly Anglo-Australian. Most of the teachers in the Australian universities have fairly restricted opportunities to interact with other people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds based on the above fact (Santoro, Kamler and Reid 2001). The minority population in the UK has grown quite fast partly due to population growth and influx of immigrants making Britain to have a very diverse population. Racism among individuals and within institutions disadvantages people because their ethnic origins manifest themselves in many aspects of their daily lives. Even though legislation was introduced in 2000 to address racism in public institutions, the progress has been quite slow. Public institutions therefore need to confront racism within their quarters. Equality of status in the United Kingdom is unequally offered and the struggles have often led to violence. Educational attainment in terms of school qualifications and achievement in the highest level of education for the black people and Asians is in most cases lower than the average nationally for most minority groups. Discrimination in the system of education starts at quite an early age despite the main ethnic groups achieving higher standards. The attainment gap between the rich and the poor children in the United Kingdom is narrowing but at a slow pace. Therefore, the chances of pupils that are on free school meals succeeding is less than 50% although the blacks have made progress at a faster rate. There are significant differences between the rich and the poor in attainment of level 2 and 3 by 19 year old children (Allard 2004). Pre-school Children from poor backgrounds have a lower cognitive development as compared to children from rich families and the gap widens from the age of 3 to 5. There are significant differences in the health of the mother and child, the learning environment at home and parenting styles and rules among the rich and poor (Hutchings et al., 2007). Primary School During the primary school years, the gap in attainment grows quite fast. By 11 years, 25% of the children from poor backgrounds do not attain the government’s expected level at key stage 2 as compared to 3% of children from rich families. The attitudes and aspirations of parents vary with socio-economic position leading to a lower education attainment at the age of 11. The degree to which children are socially graded affects their attitudes and behaviours making them to think that they are scholastically less able. Disadvantaged children have behavioural problems such as hyperactivity and antisocial behaviours which eventually lead to poorer educational results especially at the age of 8 to 10 (Hallam, Rhamie and Shaw 2006). Cognitive abilities of parents and childhood circumstances contribute significantly in explaining the difference in test scores between the poor and rich children. On the other hand, good social skills have minimum direct contribution to the gap in cognitive test scores as much as they are linked across generations. Observation of the differences between siblings of the same homestead can explain the effects of cognitive attainment. For example, the siblings whose parents have high expectations of them qualifying for university tend to have high test scores than children who have parents with low expectations. The attitudes and behaviours therefore play a crucial role in transmission between socio-economic disadvantage and children’s educational attainment. In secondary school years, the gap between the children from better-off backgrounds and the poor ones grows at a slower pace but is usually large by the time the children take their general certificates of secondary education. The differences in educational attainment tend to be attributed to the decisions and attitudes made earlier in the lives of these young people. When young children believe that educational performance is affected by their own actions and avoid risky behaviours such as drug abuse, they are likely to do well in GCSE. The differences in attainment between the rich and the poor families can be explained by a range of characteristics such as the attitude of the mother and the child. The gaps in attainment between the rich and poor can be explained by the differences in characteristics of the mother and child behaviours and attitudes, family characteristics and education level of parents. There is a diversity of maternal attitudes and behaviours but aspirations of the mother for the child to attend university are crucial. Mothers from rich families hope that their children will pass GCSE and proceed to university while those from poor backgrounds rarely have such hopes. Interactions between the mother and the child such as assisting in homework, drawing, painting and singing among others do not have a crucial educational inequality (Bywater 2009). In order to reduce and eliminate all unjustified inequalities, all institutions in society and the state should play a role in promoting social justice by constructing redistributive policies and improving process efficiency. Governments should not only focus in distributing goods and services to the poor but to the whole society. The huge differences between the rich and the poor in the United Kingdom and many other countries need to be addressed by a socially just agenda. John Rawls, a key modern protagonist for the concept of social justice argued that social justice means fairness in the distribution of fundamental rights and duties. Rawls also derived the principle that social and economic inequalities should be organised in such a way that everyone has an advantage and the positions are open to all. Therefore, there is a clear inter-relationship between the concept of inequality and social justice. Injustice comes when inequalities are simply distributed and that they do not benefit everyone. As much as inequality is unacceptable, in cases where it is likely to be beneficial, for example when people like doctors or lawyers have undergone long training are placed in risky situations, it is acceptable. Most politicians argue for equality of opportunity but those on the right advocate for equality of rules and processes with the role of the state being to ensure free market exchanges. The full citizens in the UK have equal status but the opportunities and access for the minority ethnic groups are not available. In order to achieve social justice, much more is needed a good example being when the minority ethnic children lag behind in attainment due to racism and other forms of discrimination (Craig 2003). The gap between the rich and poor in the UK has grown making equality of opportunities in the social and economic structures that are unequal to be a mirage (Paxton and Dixon 2004). For inequality to be justified everyone has to be given an equal opportunity for competition in spite of their status or class. The cumulative impacts of social class disadvantages make most positions not to be equally open. Social justice provides the political basis for distribution of the good and bad things within the society (Paxton and Dixon 2004). The key principles that link social justice concept are equality, what we deserve and what we need. A society that is arranged in such a way that people get the benefits they deserve is a just society. The principle should not be rigid but allows the concept of need to take place. For example, prisoners should not be starved to death because of the crimes they have committed. The validation of principle of need in a way that all relevant parties agree to is a political process that has excluded many parties due to lack of power. The minority ethnic groups in the UK are becoming resistant because they have been excluded from decision making and determining what they need (Pearce 2003). In order to attain social justice, all the citizens must be treated equally and public policies be directed toward meeting the needs of every member. Other key concepts such as rights and citizenship are therefore linked to the social justice concept. Social, political and civil rights are not regarded as equal by contemporary citizenship commentators like Melrose and Dean (1999). Social and political rights challenge inequality while civil rights affect how the market economy performs therefore posing a political question on the compatibility of social justice with the operation of the economy. Governments should thus confront inequalities of market systems so as to address the fundamental causes of injustice (Youdell, 2003). In conclusion, teachers should know the children that need most help and assist them where possible. Governments should also narrow the attainment gaps between the rich and the poor being a top priority so that everyone has equal opportunities to succeed irrespective of race, disability or family background. Policies that address narrowing of the attainment gap should be given priority and governments should collaborate with stakeholders to raise awareness of the issues. Due to the lack of equality of status and opportunities, a gradualist strategy of political and parliamentary representation should be pursued by the minority in UK. When one becomes a legal citizen, they are not guaranteed equality of status due the impact of racism which is a wider struggle that needs to be addressed to ensure social justice to everyone. 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