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Educational Inequality in Indian Schools

Many children, due to widening inequality, have lost the possibility of upward mobility within India.  Often times the quality of living is directly related to the quality of education. Therefore, children living in impoverished areas do not learn on as high of a level as those in wealthy areas. In many cases, statistics focus on the rate of children who are attending school; however, this is not the only factor that should be taken into consideration. Although roughly 98% of children in India attend primary school, many tests have shown that, despite growing attendance, there are many basic skills which children are lacking. These schools in poorer areas have children in them but do not teach them at the proper level. Many children lack basic skills such as how to read a clock or the capital city. This has created a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor within the nation. This inequality is a major concern as it also can hurt the children’s motivation to attend school. With a widening gap of inequality, relative poverty discourages children from attempting to make their situation better. When the ladder from poverty to prosperity grows, the will to climb it shrinks.

This problem is not one that India faces alone. In many nations, the focus on getting children to school is so important that what is taught in the schools is forgotten.  I highly encourage you to focus on the questions at the end of the article, not only for India, but also on a global scale. Be sure to look into if your own country deals with educational inequality and if they have taken any measures to prevent it. As the article states “We’ve been so busy congratulating ourselves for herding these kids into school that we’ve forgotten to teach them anything.” When formulating solutions, be sure to keep in mind getting children to attend school is only half the battle!  

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 21, 2018 at 11:30 PM

    Hey everyone! My name is Natalie and i'll be representing the delegation of France during the conference. Looking forward to meeting you all! I definitely found this article to be thought provoking in more ways than one. I think that in many cases, policy makers, including those of the UN, consider the battle to be won once a child is enrolled in school, disregarding if the student is able to stay and succeed in their studies. Enrollment in education means next to nothing if the child isn't actually being educated. I think that while we are implementing our integrated solutions on how to increase enrollment, we must simultaneously devise a way to make that time in school mean something. While this may mean a fundamental change in school curriculum, such action must be taken. With that being said, an issue we must consider is whether we would first like to prioritize enrollment, quality of education, or both at the same time. Should we wait until most children have access to at least basic education before we try to improve it? Or are we satisfied with less children enrolled in schools but receiving a more quality education? I think that these are all issues that we must consider when we're coming up with our solutions in committee. Until then, have an awesome day!

    -Natalie from France :)

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