Educational Institutions

Introduction
Education and Inequality
Educational Profession
Discrimination in Education
Summary

Introduction

We will teach you about education in a variety of ways in this post on educational institutions. Aspects of inequality and education are covered in this unit's introduction. This includes different kinds of educational institutions. The article then takes a close look at the field of education. In addition to making some observations about the textbooks that are used, it discusses academic achievement. The discussion of discrimination in education based on factors such as gender, class, and other factors is fairly in-depth in the section after this. As a result, this unit gives a good overview of educational institutions.

Education and Inequality

You might have assumed after reading the previous post that society's hierarchical divisions make it difficult for education to accomplish its stated objectives. It is important to keep in mind that while this is unquestionably true, there are still inequalities within the educational system. We'll talk about class stratification in this section, as well as biases in textbooks and racial discrimination practices. Next, we'll examine how the formal system's presumptions have impacted the non-formal stream. Finally, we'll quickly review some of the issues raised and their potential fixes.

In Britain, attending one of the pricy fee-paying public schools is a prerequisite for admission to the esteemed universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as access to the best professional and managerial positions. A small percentage of Britons dominate in a number of other occupational fields as well as the stock market. Similar patterns can be seen in India thanks to the colonial legacy: a pupil from a public school like Doon School or St. Compared to his peer in a government school, Paul is much more likely to enroll in the nation's top colleges and universities if he attends a high-fee, non-residential private school. The main reason is that the former train students to use the English language fluently as well as compete for a limited number of seats. Despite all of our efforts to give national languages a voice, English continues to be the language of the affluent or those in positions of power in society.

Primary Schools

There are 6.9 lakh educational institutions in the nation, according to recent data. Primary schools make up more than 70% of these. These are supported by public, private, and municipal organizations. Although the majority of these institutions are funded and governed by the government, the majority of students who enroll in elite colleges and universities like the IITs, IIMs, medical schools, and professional schools do so through small numbers of private schools. In spite of the fact that the government funds a large portion of higher education, it is clear that this does not guarantee students' access to it. In institutions where public funds heavily subsidize education, the son of a senior civil servant or the daughter of a successful doctor can pursue their dreams of becoming architects or engineers while paying relatively low tuition. They eventually find employment in well-paying positions at reputable organizations.

Few Indian children make it to colleges and other professional institutions; the majority attend government and municipal schools. Again, the facilities are appallingly inadequate for many students: according to government statistics, 40% of schools lack proper structures and blackboards, and 60% lack access to drinking water. On the other hand, the fifty-five or so public schools that were modeled after their British counterparts teach their students chess, photography, and archery in beautiful settings. The government has started its program of model schools, or Navoday Vidyalaya, in an attempt to give children in rural areas and those from less privileged backgrounds access to similar educational opportunities. These institutions exist to give deserving students, particularly those living in rural areas, access to a quality education, regardless of their parents' financial situation.

Private Schools

However, these Navoday Vidyalayas are doing exactly this, with the exception of having a slightly different catchment area. The government is allegedly against the perpetuation of privilege through high-fee-paying private schools. A prestigious education is now being provided for the children of the wealthy landed elite in rural areas who had previously felt discriminated against by the educational system. The creation of higher-caliber institutions is generally acceptable, but this does not mean that greater equality will result from them. In the best case scenario, they aid in expanding the base of privilege and opportunity. According to a report from Maharashtra, where seven such schools are currently operating, the program's start has been a little shaky due to a hasty implementation. Rural girls' participation in high-quality education is one of these "pace-setting" institutions' goals, but research has repeatedly shown that parents are hesitant to send their daughters to coeducational institutions. Furthermore, the idea of co-ed residential schools at the secondary level is itself novel; even the wealthy might be hesitant to send their kids to such schools. As a result, 8 out of 74 students at the Tuljapur Navoday Vidyalaya were female, compared to 29 out of 120 students in the Amaravati school. This is a very encouraging start given the bleak picture of girls' education; it remains to be seen, though, how long these girls will remain in these schools. It is very likely that these Vidyalayas will quickly integrate into the elite educational systems serving the sons of the rapidly growing rural upper and middle classes.

As a result, we discover that the educational system is not a standalone force for change; rather, its institutions both maintain and produce new disparities. For example, the Navoday Schools are deepening the divide in rural society and even succeeding in spreading urban, consumerist norms to those who have previously been shielded from the school, namely the attitude of teachers, biases in text books, and so forth.

Educational Profession

The assumption seems to be that if the legitimate needs of teachers could be met, they would be successful professionals if we take a look at the writings of the well-known philosophers of education. In the latter half of the 20th century, things are a little different: while teachers typically come from the hard middle classes, those who need to be educated have a wider range of social backgrounds. Other factors that are nearly as important as tenure security and reasonable working hours in this situation determine how involved a teacher will be in the position. A shared set of moral principles between teachers and students is crucial for developing empathy between them. Additionally, if this is not possible, it is important to understand that cultures that are different from the teacher's culture are not always inferior and require urgent reform. In India, students attending top-tier privately run schools benefit from more amenities than those attending public or municipal schools. This also applies to how much a teacher is involved with and understands the issues that students face. Truthfulness, bravery, and culture are typical expectations for the public school product. Helshe frequently goes on to join the nation's elite professions or succeed in business as a result. Boys and girls from the upper echelon of society are educated by masters familiar with the prevailing values of that particular culture. Elite private and public schools' overarching goals and the aspirations of the students' families don't fundamentally conflict with one another. Both desire training for highly regarded and lucrative professions.

Studies on Teachers

Comparative studies of teachers in urban government and private schools have found that the former find it simpler to relate to their students. Lower middle class and middle class teachers are keen to keep their distance from their students, the majority of whom are from the working class, in government schools. Teachers in government schools typically respond when asked about their students by saying that they are cunning, stupid, and ignorant. Such attitudes are supported by value systems that highlight the diversity of language, sentence structure, and vocabulary, as well as by teachers' expectations of proper conduct. The dissemination of knowledge in schools has been extensively discussed by British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein. Whether through written communication or speech, he believes that there are specific social class-based linguistic codes that govern interactions in the classroom. These laws favor the upper and middle classes, who have access to and control over a particular way of life. The relationship between social class and a particular type of education is constantly reinforced by this way of life, which sociologists have described as the accumulation of culture capital: children who do not speak the dominant middle-class language in the classroom remain alone, if not alienated.

reports from the U. S. A. demonstrates how race and ethnicity play a significant role in teachers' evaluations of students. Objective intelligence tests frequently fail to support these. A British study found that middle class teachers tended to favor children who were more neatly coiffed and those they believed came from "better" homes. The labeling of students can be detrimental because they quickly internalize the negative stereotypes that teachers have formed about them. A study in a U.S. elementary school for black kids. S. A. found that students who had high expectations from their teachers excelled, while students with low expectations saw a decline in their performance.

Education and Teachers

It was discovered that teachers were systematically imposing white values, culture, and language on the students in the predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. Children were viewed as potential failures if they couldn't acclimate to this, in many ways, alien way of life. Teachers, who served as the main implementers of this culture, were fully aware of the significance of their function. The analysis above has drawn attention to two distinct pedagogical approaches: the first involves the purposeful exclusion of working-class children, and the second involves school reform, which aims to eradicate one subculture and impose another on students from various backgrounds. In the 1960s, opponents of American educational reforms discovered widespread adoption of the latter in schools across the nation. However, in India, where most children up to the age of 14 come from impoverished homes and have little in common with their teachers or the formal school curriculum, the issue is more one of neglect. The assumption that the middle-class curriculum and the culture it promotes are superior to those of the PoBr child is implicit in this neglect; as a result, if the child does not understand, the fault is with him or her, not with the teacher, teaching method, or curriculum. The presumption is that the child's chances of social and occupational mobility would likely be much higher if they were able to accept the middle class lifestyles that are taught in schools. However, it is the child who must take the initiative in learning. On the other hand, in the U. S. A. teachers are taught to force kids to learn a foreign idiom. There aren't many accommodations made for the cultural and ethnic differences that might influence a child's adjustment process.

Achievement in School

Today, it is widely acknowledged that a variety of factors contribute to students' academic success. Further investigation is required into the role of the teacher and curricula in the educational system as well as the alienation of the child from the system in India, where the issue of school drop-outs is acknowledged to be "intractable.". A working-class child's decision to continue in school is also influenced by whether or not the family sees the value in it. Children will avoid attending school if there is a high opportunity cost involved, as will parents' attitudes if they believe that the faculty and administration lack empathy. In addition to the teacher, textbooks and in-classwork assignments typically cater to the typical middle-class child. If the goal of education is to promote understanding, it is obvious that if you look at some of the required school books, stories frequently deal with situations and characters that kids from certain1 homes can hardly have any familiarity with. a straightforward approach would be to teach in contexts that the child is already familiar with. On the other hand, the persistence of stereotypes—or their inception—can eventually backfire. The way girls and women are portrayed in textbooks is one example.

Writing Textbooks

It is now widely acknowledged that textbooks, whether they teach English or mathematics, can serve as a potent vehicle for the perpetuation of stereotypes and role models through the use of characters and symbols in specific contexts. For instance, a NCERT-sponsored study of Hindi textbooks that are widely used in the nation discovered that the ratio of stories centered around boys was 2:1. Once more, 94 out of a total of 10 biographical references in the books are to well-known male figures. In the 13 English-language textbooks that the Central Institute of English has published. In Hyderabad, there were eighty one more boy-centered stories than girl-centered ones. In addition, boys were typically portrayed in books in both languages as courageous, successful, and interested in science and technology, while girls and women were infrequently given roles that implied independence or economic activity. According to a study of Marathi textbooks, girls were almost always portrayed in menial and subordinate roles, even when they were depicted as being employed.

The Women's Education Unit in the NCERT recently undertook projects to develop handbooks on how text books should be written in order to improve the status of women, taking note of the fact that such glaring departures from reality could in fact affect selfperceptions. The mathematics handbook is a good example of how a supposedly gender-specific subject can be used to change attitudes. Pro-male gender biases were earlier illustrated in the textbook. Solving gender-neutral problems is currently requested. Students in class 3, for instance, are asked to determine how much money Lakshman had in his bank account prior to distributing equal amounts to his son and daughter. The biographies of female mathematicians and scientists are used to introduce ratios, graphs, and equations in middle school. The guidelines for teachers who are expected to incorporate the text while teaching students how to solve a problem are more significant than the sums themselves.

The creators of these cutting-edge handbooks are well aware that unless teachers are persuaded of the need to teach more imaginatively, students will focus solely on the answer and ignore the text. This is unquestionably the root of the issue: teachers are, on the whole, a conservative force who are not easily persuaded of the necessity to teach or preach greater equality between the sexes through Hindi, Physics, or Mathematics. Assuring that the same textbooks are to be taught in all of the nation's schools or even beginning the process of text book revision are also difficult. Additionally, text book authors themselves are vehemently opposed to change because they believe that radical deviations would obviously upset the deeply ingrained expectations of both the school community and the family.

Discrimination in Education

We discover that the practice has taken root deeply within the system and is not limited to the discrimination perpetrated by textbooks and teachers against particular student populations. No matter what level of education is being considered, Indian boys have an advantage over Indian girls in terms of access, retention, and future application of their training. In addition, girls are disproportionately concentrated in the lower status, less competitive forms of education among the small percentage of the population who can choose to pursue higher education. With the first generation literate son of a farmer or potter, girls from the upper middle class and middle class share a common fate in this. There is a clear distinction between the high status of a relatively small number of medical colleges, technology, management, and engineering institutes, and the majority of higher education, which is made up of the numerous degree colleges, polytechnics, and technical institutes. While the former tend to be the domain of boys from privileged backgrounds, the latter serve both their sisters and the boys who are unable to pass highly competitive selection tests that require fluency and familiarity with a particular subculture as well as the English language.

Therefore, the dual higher education system that divides a select, self-perpetuating elite from the majority trained in various institutions is divided not only on the basis of socioeconomic status but also on the basis of sex. The key distinction here is that while boys from certain backgrounds frequently struggle to enroll in elite institutions, the girls in question aren't even allowed to try. While middle class boys also experience a variety of pressures when making decisions, these pressures are qualitatively different in nature. The stress that the achievement, examination, and selection syndrome places on boys in a society where men predominate is not insignificant, but there is a commitment to enrolling in and succeeding in a wider range of courses through open competition. Girls should theoretically be able to enroll in the same courses as boys. Actually, when given the opportunity to attend college, they are more likely to enroll in a few, highly selective "feminine" fields of study. Boys are socialized to compete and succeed, while girls are socialized to accept participation in clearly defined, "safe" educational environments. If we look at some empirical data, these claims will become a little clearer to you.

Various Disciplines

There is a presumption that girls are more skilled than men in some areas. Equally significant is the promotion of the STEM fields—Science, Mathematics, and Engineering—as more prestigious and demanding of advanced intelligence. An elite crop of students in higher education is produced by a small number of institutions that specialize in these fields and are only accessible to those who pass extremely difficult entrance exams. Girls are rarely among the select few, as we shall see. One significant benefit of the 10+2+3 system in India is that it makes the study of Science and Mathematics mandatory for all students up to the class X (10) level. Here, 10+2+3 refers to the years spent in school, and 3 to the time spent on a first degree. Although this educational model was formally adopted in 1968, it has yet to be accepted in some states. As a result, under the previous plan, schools could continue to provide girls with Home Science and Art instead of Science and Mathematics. Because of the alleged inadequacy of the teaching staff, we also discover that schools operating under the new program find ways to circumvent the system. For example, in Delhi's Jama Masjid neighborhood, which serves a sizable Muslim population, girls' schools are unable to offer science and mathematics because there aren't any qualified teachers in the area. It is also not improbable that these institutions are in fact meeting the needs of girls from primarily purdah societies who seek a particular kind of education. The choices girls make at the 2 level, which is for classes XI and XII, show how pervasive the idea of what is right and proper for a girl to study is in the educational system as a whole. According to a recent study of Delhi schools, over 40% of girls flocked to the relatively new vocational stream, even though they made up about 60% of the Art stream and 30% of the Science and Commerce stream. The subject-wise breakdown of available occupations further revealed that girls focused on typing, weaving, textiles, health care, and beauty culture while boys selected office management, ophthalmics and optics, auditing, and accounting. Again, options for socially useful productive work in a non-academic area that were offered in classes IX and X are clearly sex-typed, and girls continue to complete the same tasks at school that are assigned to them at home. However, a look at how girls fare in various parts of the country's school-leaving exams shows that not only are girls' levels higher than boys', but also that those who have chosen the Science stream frequently perform as well as or even better than their male counterparts. Using the elh hi Secondary school (class XII) results from 1985, it can be seen that girls outperformed boys in terms of pass rates in all four subject areas: science, humanities, commerce, and vocational studies. The Humanities stream had 60% female students, the Commerce stream had an even split of male and female students, and the Vocational group was more popular with female students than with male students. Over 70% of those who chose Science were male. Even though there were fewer girls in the science group, their pass percentage was 83.8% compared to the boys' 70.7%.

Science and Gender

It is necessary to ask two crucial questions. While it is difficult to provide precise answers, there are indications that in some of the best schools in the country there is a ratio of one girl to four boys in the Science section. Additionally, observations of teacher candidates in the classroom reveal that these girls are reserved and quiet non-participants. They were good at their homework and did well on unit tests, but they hardly ever participated in discussions that the boys dominated. They may have accounted for their low level of participation by being a minority. However, teachers of classes VI and VII observed that adolescent girls were equally assertive and clear in their viewpoint as boys, suggesting that adolescent girls quickly internalized the need to be submissive and obedient rather than questioning and argumentative, particularly in a male-dominated environment. The majority of girls who did choose to major in science, according to the principal of a prestigious coed Delhi school, hoped to become doctors. Most people who failed the premedical exams chose to major in home science, the natural sciences, biochemistry, or changed their course of study to arts. Few people wanted to work as engineers, research scientists, or geophysicists. Girls' socialization emphasizes docility, obedience, and a sense of collective family duty as adolescence draws near. Docial scientists have noted that the inner life of the school reflects an authority hierarchy based on middle class dominance; as we've seen, this is reflected in linguistic codes as well as in the textbooks being used.

Many of these impairments are common among both girls and boys from disadvantaged homes. For instance, if we look at studies conducted among the Scheduled Castes we find that students often suffer because they are unable to comprehend all that is being taught to them. A more or less uniform curriculum in the regional language is not always comprehensible to children from a variety of linguistic and social class backgrounds. Both the language as well as the subject matter are often alien to some students who then drop out of the system. Further, corruption within educational institutions acts as further disincentives as families rarely have the resources to pay for routine "pass karani" and hospitality fee for examiners and others. Even then Scheduled Caste boys manage to make it to the portals of higher learning.

Scheduled Castes and Tribes

13 students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who were admitted to the B. At the end of the second year of the tech course at the [IT, Bombay in 1973, only five students remained enrolled. All of them had gone through a crash course intended to help them overcome some of their social and educational disadvantages, but it was obvious that this was insufficient to compensate for the birth defects. The academic requirements drove half of them away, but the remaining students complained of hostility from their caste peers. It was difficult to speak and write English while staying in the hostel and using the cutlery and crockery. Only a very small percentage of applicants are accepted by these prestigious institutions; the majority enroll in general education colleges, ITIs, or programs with a similar focus.

This does not imply that all members of the Scheduled Castes are equally fortunate or that they form a homogenous group. Given that some people are more equal than others, some important remarks also apply in this situation. A small proportion of the Scheduled Castes are given the chance to compete thanks to seat reservations, but the vast majority are kept outside the system. The allocation of limited resources within a large community has certain unintended consequences, and the better organized and politically more potent Scheduled Castes end up with the majority of positions. Education produces new inequalities within the community by enlarging the gap between the less fortunate and the privileged. Of course, we are not opposing reservations; rather, we are merely attempting to draw your attention to the fact that, even when policymakers intend to do otherwise, the beneficiaries of a particular strategy are not always those for whom it is actually intended.

If we're talking about privilege and opportunity, it's safe to say that a sizable portion of the population, including girls, people from Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and those who are otherwise economically and socially disadvantaged, does not participate in the formal educational system. We briefly mentioned that the non-formal system has a number of issues in the earlier unit. The inability to develop curricula and course content that are sufficiently pertinent to the target audience is a significant challenge. Again, perceptions of what is needed frequently diverge from actual needs because the majority of text book authors, planning personnel, and teaching staff are from the middle class. Non-formal or adult education classes may not be very helpful if taken separately; therefore, it's crucial that they be connected to larger issues of growth and skill acquisition. Should that not happen, these programs will continue to be useless and irrelevant. Only those immediate needs, such as an accessible source of drinking water, cheaper grains, and medical assistance when illness prevents someone from working, are considered relevant, as those involved with many such projects have noted. For when it comes to "debating the fundamentals of citizenship, social integration, and the sharing of political power," poverty creates a legitimate indifference.

Education and Voluntary Organisation

Making non-formal education more relevant has become a concern for volunteer organizations, women's groups, and others. When the education system is so unprepared to teach differently, this is not always simple. Flip charts, diagrams, and other teaching aids are also not always applicable. Innovation and initiative can be very helpful in this situation; the experiences of some groups in Maharashtra show how much interest can be sparked with a little imagination and initiative. Group singing, storytelling, and the sharing of essential health information were combined with the distribution of the primer in a non-formal class for female members of the nomadic Gosavi group to maximize participation.

This type of management is uncommon in non-formal settings. Both the formal and non-formal sectors struggle with excessive bureaucracy and a lack of creativity. There are Navoday Vidyalayas instead of Nav Yug schools because of the obsession with opening new institutions without first ensuring that those that already exist are operating as intended. This is a problem that, in varying degrees, several nations have experienced. As a result, since the end of the 1960s, there has been a period of education disillusionment, and concerned individuals have been speaking and writing about alternatives. Few social scientists held the opinion that schools ought to be abolished because they merely exacerbated inequality and taught kids to compete excessively in a framework built on a secret curriculum. Results were more significant than content in this curriculum, which assessed a child's aptitude in terms of how much learning he or she ingested. If we assume that formal, structured education can help combat the drawbacks of birth, according to experts who created a novel method of educating the poor in Latin America, we are confusing the issue.

These experiments, however, have also only been somewhat successful. You are already aware that education frequently serves as a barrier to change rather than serving as a catalyst for it. As an example, we have seen that it plays a significant part in the continuation of new inequalities. It will be simpler for you to place these two units into a larger context once you have read the units on socialization, social structure, status and role, and other related topics. The majority of social institutions undergo change and are open to modification as soon as they are a part of the crucial interactive process. It is important to constantly remind ourselves that change and adaptation are necessary for both human development and survival when studying sociology rather than entering the subject with preconceived ideas about how institutions ought to function.

Summary

You have learned various aspects of educational institutions from this post. The topics that were covered will be listed here. First, the subject of education and inequality was covered. Second, different facets of the educational field were taken into account. Thirdly, the subject of discrimination in the educational system was discussed. These topics have been covered in a number of different ways. The conversation covered a lot of ground and was in-depth.