Inequality in Life

Inequalities exist an all aspects of life. The nature and result of such inequalities shapes our social as well as economic lives. As people progress through their educational life certain inequalities will result in different outcomes of schooling for different sets of people. “In post war Britain pupils from a working class background are constantly found to gain fewer academic qualifications, to be under represented in institutions of higher education and to end up in jobs offering little opportunity for social advancement'; (Brown 1987 p11). It is inequalities such as these that are present both in and out of school that will determine life chances of individuals. It is commonly accepted that education is the main determinant of where someone will find himself or herself in later life, certain experiences at different stages of the life cycle with regard to education will therefore have an effect on life chances. This essay will examine these in and out of factors and how at different stages in the life cycle they affect life chances.

One of the main contributing factors to life chances is education. What someone achieves in his or her academic career exhibits much inequality. It has been a long running trend in employment that those from working class backgrounds will enter into occupations of manual or low-skilled nature. Conversely those from middle-class backgrounds tend to enter more into administrative and or professional occupations. Despite government reforms to limit inequalities in education and the effect of class differences but since trends in employment and educational achievement still persist there is still a strong link between social class and life chances. The schooling system has been regarded by some Marxist writers who feel “school is primarily a means of reproducing the existing structure of social and economic inequalities'; (Brown 1987 p15). In this manner it can be argued that the way children are schooled neither takes away or adds to the current inequalities but merely adds to them. One of the ways this can be illustrated is when school leaving ages are examined. In order to enter into higher prestige jobs further educational qualifications are generally required where as manual and low-skilled work does not demand an equivalent level of qualification. According to Courntney ...

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... student this will b past on to the student having the effect of lowering the pupils achievements.

Therefore many in and out of school factors exist which can affect life chances. How these factors contribute is mainly due to inequalities within them. First, one of the main factors in social class. This acts as a disadvantage to lower classes who throughout their academic career will suffer as a result of their social background. Also rejection and an inability to respond to school is linked to social class but acts in a way to shape pupils attitudes in a way where they feel school has nothing to offer and end up with poorer life chances than those who accept schooling and strive to achieve the highest possible goals. Also gender plays an important part in life chances since boys and girls not only tend to perform differently in school but also achieve different qualifications which result in different occupations. Finally ethnicity works in a way that again disadvantages ethnic minorities who can be cast out at school leading to under achievement but can also be discriminated against leading to lower perceived ability and hence educational attainment