Education discrimination undermines the acquisition of quality education, which should be a right for every human. Various factors can motivate education discrimination, such as gender and race. The outcome is a situation where the minority and majority have distinct education experiences. Education discrimination is widely institutionalized, with most types of education discrimination and affirmative action resulting in unequal access to opportunities for self-advancement after schooling.
Institutionalized Discrimination
Mainly, experiences of educational discrimination occur in formalized settings where appropriate conduct is defined through rules and policies. Policymakers or lawmakers in an organization create rules that embody their beliefs on particular matters. These rules establish an accepted way of doing things, which all individuals that expect to benefit from an institution must adapt to guarantee access to the system. Suppose education is embedded in the policies. In that case, the regular operation of the institution denies specific groups access to education, for instance, a government policy favoring disproportionately large budgetary allocations to urban at the expense of rural schools. Luckily, various assignment writing services like the one here are pretty accessible for students, allowing them to get good grades and free study guides.
Forms of Education Discrimination
Education discrimination may be categorized into three main classes: government, institutional, and individual levels. Education discrimination at the government level emerges through national education policies, which affect staffing, financing, and curriculum. Institution-based discrimination occurs due to organization-specific policies designed to develop standards, for instance, requiring high scores on particular tests for college admission. Finally, at the individual level, education discrimination occurs through differentiated classroom experiences. For instance, the use of examination questions requiring prior knowledge, accessible from a particular cultural or socioeconomic background. Thus, an individual may experience education discrimination in different forms depending on the context.
Affirmative Action
Contemporary responses to educational discrimination involve affirmative action, which has complicated the social issue to a large extent. Conversely, reverse discrimination offers a solution to education discrimination because it attempts to eliminate discrimination against minorities. Nonetheless, the forceful attempt to undo educational discrimination against minorities creates a similar problem for the majority. For example, implementing diversity quotas in college admission may discriminate against qualified whites to accommodate minorities who may be selected based on a lower standard. Consequently, affirmative action on education can result in unwanted effects.
Unequal Access to Opportunity
The culture of credentialism is sentencing students who are victims of discrimination to a future with limited access to opportunities for self-development. Credentialism culture places much emphasis on formal education qualifications as the currency to access meaningful employment. For instance, a student with a law degree from a community college cannot secure employment in a top-tier law firm because he or she did not graduate from an ivy league school. As a result, the inaccessibility of quality education significantly reduces individuals’ opportunities for the rest of their lives.
Unequal access to education is a systemic issue that arises from institutionalized discrimination at various levels. Institutionalized at the government, institutional, and individual levels of the education sector have established a hostile environment for minority students. Although affirmative action was initiated with good intentions, it has worsened rather than resolved discrimination. Credentialism culture continues to limit the opportunities that a person with lower quality education can access.
