The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
reports that a competitive school market is segregating students by socioeconomic background and ethnicity which has an effect on education
outcomes. Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and
Schools report that the best education systems are those that combine equity
with quality and give all children opportunities. This brings up the major
review of funding in Australia. The report argues that investing in high
quality schooling and equal opportunities from the early years to the end of
upper secondary is the most profitable policy. One in five students across the
industrialized economies do not attain the minimum level of skills. The report
states that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are twice likely to be
low performers. Schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged students are
at greater risk of under-performance and often lack the internal capacity to
improve. Across the OCED, the school choice has increased and selective schools
are now able to “cream skin” students who are easier to teach and more able to
learn. Authors recommend extra funding to make low performing or disadvantaged
students more attractive to high quality schools. The report states that there
is arguing the educational track to which a student is assigned “has a great
impact on their education and life prospects”. The authors argue against
streaming students by ability because it has a negative impact on those
assigned to lower bands without raising the performance of the whole
population. Australian ninety-five percent of upper-secondary students are
grouped by ability with sixty percent of students at school who are considered
academic performance when awarding places. The federal president of the Australian
Education Union Angelo Gavrielatos said the report exposed “the failure of
policies that contribute to the segregation of students and the negative impact
of these policies on the educational attainment of students”. Peter Garrett the
federal education minister states “that it strengthens our position that
investing in education is a national priority”. He also states that “we must
continue to life the quality of our schools and improve our results if we are
to remain competitive and help all students reach their full potential”.
This is a social problem because students aren’t guaranteed
good quality education because of their socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity
and academic abilities. Poor students are at a disadvantage of a quality
education which is sad because all children should be able to receive good
quality education no matter their socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and
academic abilities. I like that in Australia are pushing to create equality in
the school systems, so that children of lower socioeconomic status have
acceptable quality of education. This is a worldwide issue. In class we
discussed inequality in education and how here in North Carolina the inequality
in education. For example, we talk about the inequality in Greensboro high
school being in certain districts with certain advantages.
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