How Educational Inequality Affect Social Class Mobility in the UK - Report Example

How educational inequality affect social mobility in the UK Education has been a powerful force capable of promoting and increasing opportunityfor social mobility. Equal access to educational opportunity is the center of various policies that are implemented in order to promote children, particularly from poor backgrounds, to encourage economic growth, and to do away with deprivation cycles of generation. People from the broader field of politics have advocated for equal opportunity as an important aspect of society building. Education is a vital means of supporting generation to mobility of generation in the society, most certainly to the degree in which social and economic failure of success of people is related to the failure or success of their parents. In the UK, higher expansion of education has not been distributed equally across all backgrounds from poorer and richer backgrounds. Instead, it has benefited children unequally from relatively richer families. In spite of several children from rich backgrounds participate in higher education before the system was recently expanded, the expansion in widened the gaps in participation between poor and rich children (Jo Blanden, 2005). Definition of social class mobility is broad. Economists define social class mobility as a measure of the extent in which the people’s social status changes between different generations. Many people look at social mobility as a measurement of equal life opportunities that reflects the extent in which parents influence success or failure of their families in their later life, or generally the degree to which individuals or people make by virtue of their own talents, luck and motivation. This paper therefore seeks to discuss how educational inequality affects social class mobility in the United Kingdom. In doing so, the paper defines social class mobility, illustrate the condition of educational inequality and social class mobility in UK and the kinds of educational inequality as well as why the inequalities exist. The paper will also detail examples of contemporary policies taken by the government in order to improve social mobility through education. The government has adopted and put in place some modern polices to put in action in order to improve social mobility through education. The contemporary policies that have been put in action by the government to improve social mobility include: Enhancing acquisition of higher education qualifications which has occurred rapidly in the last thirty years due to the existence of rapid increase for people who grew up in richer families Increasing rapidly the wage differences for more educated, especially for graduates and with postgraduate qualifications. Putting together more education for people hailing from richer background families and increasing their pay to higher qualifications Reinforcing inequalities already existing that slows down social mobility. Education inequalities have impacted significantly on social mobility. Those with higher educational qualification tend to fall in higher social classes. As children hail, especially those from poor background, they get access to education and move from one social class to another. For example, a child who grew up in a low social class attained education and moved from low to middle class due to access of higher education. This is because of the change in socioeconomic status which also changes with acquisition of higher education (Jo Blanden and Gregg, 2004). The population of the United Kingdom today appreciates high level of educational than at any earlier point. This has developed from the view point that higher education enhances productivity of individuals and generates more wage pay off. This leads to social class mobility, from low to middle class. Evidence has it that this perspective holds in the modern labor market context. Wage differences between employees with less education and employees with high education has significantly risen over a period of time as employers also increase their requirements for individuals with higher education. This is in spite of the increasing number of educated employees which has increased rapidly within the past three decades. Social class mobility is affected by this fact. This is because; workers attaining higher education get access to higher wages and therefore change their economic status leading to movement from one social class to the other. Rising educational levels and employee wage differences due to level of education do not only matter for generations facing inequality, but also for those experiencing potential implications for the social mobility level across generations. Where individuals from generally a well off background attain education and access a high wage pay off, then the existing inequalities are strongly and rapidly transmitted across generations and hence, the fall of social class mobility (Erikson and Goldthorpe, 2010). The effect of wealth and education on social class mobility can be demonstrated by making a comparison between two boys in 1958, who stopped schooling in 1970 (these individuals have been tracked from Children Development Survey). The family of one child doubled the earnings of the other child’s family. The son from this high income family would earn 17.5% more than the son from the poor family in their early thirties on average (Ermisch and Nicoletti, 2007). For another two comparable children who were born in 1970 and finished schooling by 1980s (tracked from British Cohort Study 1970), the advantage is heightened to 25%. Research indicates that this is a feature of an experience recently seen in the United Kingdom. A comparison made across generational comparison of income between two birth cohorts in British, with first child in 1958 and second in 1970. It showed that the comparison significantly rose between the sons leading to a fall in social class mobility. Increased sensitivity of acquiring degree to income of the family is a key aspect of this social class mobility fall. Further investigation showed that there is a change in the level of social class mobility for these cohorts, of the respective age of attending higher education in 1970s and 1980s. The cohorts that were born later had a non deteriorating or improving level of social class (Gregg and Macmillan, 2010). Social mobility is affected by education due to the increase in wage differences resulting from acquisition of higher education. Individuals move from one social class to the other as a result of good pay and change in socio economic class, which is the ultimate of acquiring higher education. Educational inequality may however affect social class mobility in that individuals may fail to access education because of lack of income and therefore poor access. However, perspectives of the falling social class mobility and rising inequality have not been mastered well (Machin, 2011). There is need to gain a much better understanding of the manner in which levels of higher education generate benefits economically for some people and the manner in which it translates into changing the levels of social class mobility. The need for more education has affected social class mobility across generations and educational inequalities within generations. The individuals with higher educational qualifications fall in high social and economic classes. Therefore, any inequality in accessing education will therefore mean no access to income, hence low social and economic class. This will mean individuals born in poor background will remain tied to their low social class. Improved access to education and educational equality will hence result into social class mobility, especially from low to middle and to high social class (Lindley and Machin, 2011). Attainment of high level of education eases generation to generation mobility. It is hence natural to study the role played by education in the decline in social class mobility. Research has documented that a significant relationship exists between the income of the children’s family and achieving higher education (O’Leary and Sloane, 2005). The lower the income, the low chances of attaining higher educational qualification and the low the social class mobility. This can imply that the participation in university benefits more children from rich families. There are two stages of educational performance that influence social class mobility: being in school beyond 16 which is the compulsory school leaving age; and attainment of higher education. Social class mobility will be inhibited by education access, especially if children drop out of school due to lack of enough income or educational inequality (Walker and Zhu, 2008). There is a relationship between education achievement and social class mobility due to wage differences. Social class mobility is affected by educational inequalities because of: the link between educational achievement and income of the parents, the link between educational achievement and social class of the parents, the link between educational terms and the ability of individuals, children from rich backgrounds benefiting more from the expansion of the system of higher education, the link between the income of the parents and the success or failure of the labor market leading to the fall in the degree of generation to generation mobility, and the link between cognitive ability and education in the labor market. Social class and income of the parents are increasingly becoming significant determinants of cognitive ability. This has also increased the role of family background in the determination of both labor market and educational outcomes (Gipps and Stobart, 1997). Inequalities in educational also affect social class mobility through the varying mobility of earnings. Earning mobility varies systematically within the inequality level. The United Kingdom has moved from being more to less equal society due to limited education access for low social class families leading to the fall in social class mobility (Glennerster, 2001). The United Kingdom and United States has been ranked among the unequal. However, minimizing educational inequalities would minimize generation to generation inequality. In addition, the underlying causes of educational inequalities need be addressed in order to increase social class mobility. Some of the identified causes include family income, markets, labor market, and higher education system. Inequalities also rise because of the increasing top incomes which continually extend the gap between the rich and the poor. Societies, the United Kingdom, experiencing more educational inequalities experience less social class mobility. This is due to lack of family income leading to poverty and continuous stay in the low social class. It should be noted that educational opportunities creates wealth to individuals who pursue it. Failing to access education or not acquiring higher education will resultantly lead to the maintenance of the status quo, which is to the poor families a set back and hence less social class mobility (Goodman and Kaplan, 2003). Inequalities in educational and social class mobility can also be explained by examining the relationship between attainment and participation in higher education and family income in the United Kingdom. Family income and college attendance are directly related in that children from rich backgrounds tend to achieve higher education qualifications and attend college more than those from poor families. Attendance of college and degree attainment is also related to success in labor market. Employers today prefer workers with higher educational qualifications. High qualifications also attract high pay and remuneration. High remuneration and wage differences lead to high social class mobility due to change in socio economic status of the educated individuals. Income and school enrolment are also related to social class mobility. Students from poor and less income families are less likely to be enrolled in colleges for degree attainment compare to students from rich families with high income. Social mobility and educational level goes in handy with income levels and college enrolment as discussed. The United Kingdom analysis views associations between parental social class and education (Greenaway and Haynes, 2003). A recent data of the social trends of participation on parental social class and higher education for the United Kingdom indicates a sharp increase, relatively from those in higher social classes and richer families. For example, between 1992 to 1992 and 1998 to 1999, number of children from professional parents attending higher education increased to 72% from the initial 55%. Additionally, the number of children (comparable) from unskilled parents rose to 13% from the initial 6% over the same duration of time. It is therefore evident that parental income, educational outcome, and individual economics are directly related and influence the mobility of social class. It is therefore significant to make consideration of the links between social class and education and consider social class persistence across generations. It is therefore much more vital to focus on family earnings as this clarifies the metric, most specifically, the social class groupings which has changed significantly with the structure of occupations because of levels of education (Kane, 1999). In summary, inequalities in educational affects social class mobility in many significant ways, limitations of education access leads to poverty especially in the labor market where employers now prefer workers with higher educational qualifications. Students from rich families access higher education more easily than those from poor families resulting into a broad gap between the two classes. This leads to a fall in social class mobility. The population of the United Kingdom holds more qualifications of education, this is because of the perception that higher education enhances productivity of individuals and generates a wage pay off. This leads to social class mobility. Wage differences between employees with less education and employees with high education have significantly risen over a period of time as employers has increase their requirements for individuals with higher education. Bibliography Erikson, R. and Goldthorpe, J. 2010. Has social mobility in Britain decreased? 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