Educational opportunity

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Education opportunity denotes the chance of people or groups of people to participate in the education system , to obtain education .

In western industrialized nations, membership of a certain social milieu is held responsible for the diversity of educational opportunities . In other countries or social systems, the main reason can also be belonging to a religion, race or gender.

Origin and educational opportunities

The social status , so the affiliation to a certain social milieu , is considered partly responsible for the educational success. In this context, there is also talk of class-specific inequality in educational opportunities. The reasons given are:

  • Family background: There is often a significant correlation between the educational level of parents and that of their children. Their experiences and success in the education system are considered to be partly responsible for the success of the next generation. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu coined the term cultural capital or educational capital in this context .
  • Unequal distribution of income: If you have a low income, there is hardly any possibility of taking advantage of external offers such as paid tutoring. It is not possible to switch to private schools, which may offer more individual support. Tuition fees can become a hurdle in higher education .
  • Spatial segregation : Through social segregation, the spatial separation of social groups, children and young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds meet members of higher educational levels less often. The quality of an educational institution can correlate with the social composition of the population of certain districts: The "better" schools are found in "better" districts.

Situation in different countries

Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany there is a statistical disadvantage in education that has been criticized internationally. Studies show a correlation between educational opportunities and socio-economic origin, v. a. but of educational opportunities and gender. The Federal Ministry of Education concluded in 2006: "In no other industrialized country does socio-economic origin decide so much about school success and educational opportunities as in Germany."

In the German education system, the formal requirements for equal opportunities have so far been met:

  1. There is not only a right to attend school, but also compulsory school attendance .
  2. Attending school is free of charge , also due to the fact that there is no learning material .
  3. The curriculum is basically the same at all state primary schools .

These formal requirements for equal opportunities are often threatened in this specific case. Examples are:

  • School attendance is only partially compulsory for migrant children.
  • Free school attendance is thwarted by the abolition of the subsidy for travel expenses and books in North Rhine-Westphalia , as well as the introduction of book money in Bavaria and Hamburg . Since midday care is also subject to a charge and child poverty has grown explosively in Germany , one can only speak of a free half-day school , but not a free all-day school .
  • In the opinion of the proponents of primary school districts, if they were abolished in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2008, an increasing social gap between primary schools would be accepted, which would make a formally identical curriculum impossible. The primary school districts and the obligation of parents to enroll their children in these districts were introduced by their supporters at the time with the declared intention of preventing schools from becoming socially ghettoized.
  • A new study also points to a clear difference between rural and urban children. In rural Swabia (Bavaria), only 22 percent of girls switch from elementary school to high school. In the city, on the other hand, 44 percent of girls go to high school - despite the same grades. Possible reasons include a. the traditional understanding of roles, long distances, poor bus connections and the small selection of specialized high schools.
  • Gender also has an influence on educational success. According to a study published by the BMBF , boys received lower grades in all subjects even with the same skills in 2008. In addition, even with the same grades, boys were less likely to be viewed by teachers as suitable for grammar school than girls.

In principle, children of parents with higher incomes have better development opportunities, as the financial leeway that plays a role in education differs significantly. Wealthy families have significantly more educational tools at their disposal than poorer classes. This inequality continues in the cost of kindergartens and day-care centers . The availability of places in day-care centers in West Germany is very low, so that this support and care option is not available to many interested families.

In a study by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , today's society in Germany is divided into three “lifeworlds”. Their main differentiator is the concern of parents about the education of their children in the three social classes: lower class, middle class and upper class. Middle-class parents try to keep their children away from lower-class children. The lower class can be distinguished from the very broad middle class mainly by the fact that the parents in the lower class are barely able to take care of their children's school issues. This is about 5% of the parents recorded in a study. The division between the middle and upper classes is even sharper than the division between middle class and lower class. This division is largely insurmountable. Children who can be classified in the upper class experience support from their parents, helpers and private schools that is largely independent of material restrictions.

International comparative studies such as the IGLU study for fourth graders, the PISA study for 15-year-olds and the EURO Student Report determine that the existing conditions in the German education system will be maintained to a special degree in future generations. In addition to the missed early childhood support, this is also due to the weak staffing of the schools, which makes it difficult to provide more individual care for the children and so the task of support remains more in the parents' homes. Children from working-class families in particular have little chance of higher education. In recent times, their chances have again decreased significantly. While civil servants 'children were 9 times more likely to begin studying in 1986 than workers' children, it was 20 times more likely in 2003. Helps - in combination with the above inequalities - especially the early mapping in the upper school type ( primary and junior high school and high school ) when that happens here usually after the 4th grade. (Exceptions are Berlin and Brandenburg , which still have a six-year elementary school.) The extra-curricular and pre-school influences (for example the upbringing in families) can hardly be compensated for by the short time in elementary school. Even the second educational path , which is widely developed in Germany, can hardly correct this effect.

In the 1960s and 1970s there were increased attempts to create equal opportunities in the education system. The starting point was the Sputnik shock and the finding that the existing conditions mean that many people's abilities are not being used optimally. In this context, Ralf Dahrendorf shaped the image of the Catholic working-class girl from the country , whose educational needs are not adequately respected and who should be particularly encouraged. Approaches to promoting this educational reserve were, for example, the abolition of tuition fees and the establishment of freedom from learning materials , BAföG , student BAföG, school buses, high school centers, comprehensive schools and comprehensive universities . However, some measures are currently being reversed: All comprehensive universities were closed again in 2003. In addition to the establishment of long-term tuition fees, tuition fees have now been levied in some federal states from the first semester onwards. The increasing abolition of the freedom to learn aids is also worrying. It is also criticized that from 2006 parents in North Rhine-Westphalia will have the option of choosing primary schools for their children (danger of increased ghettoization ).

United States

In the United States , all 14-year-olds who do not attend homeschooling enter high school which, if they do not drop out , graduate with the high school diploma four years later . This school leaving certificate entitles them to attend any university in the state that offers an undergraduate degree . Almost two thirds of all young people in a given year start studying.

Although students from low-income families can avail of Federal Student Aid and many other financial aid options, the country's ethnic and social groups are very unevenly represented at universities. The situation at the top universities is particularly acute .

Key data from selected top universities in the USA
WITH
private 		Stanford
private 		Harvard
private 		Columbia
private 		UCLA
public 		Stand, sources
QS World University Ranking #1 # 2 # 3 # 16 # 32 2018/2019
Number of students Bachelor 4602 7083 6699 8931 30,873 2018/2019
Master, professional, doctorate 6972 9437 13,120 24.101 14,074
all in all 11,574 16,520 19,819 33,032 30,873
Admission rate 6.7% 4.4% 4.5% 6.1% 14% 2019
2018
Study costs (US $ per year, excluding learning materials and personal needs) Tuition fees ( Tuition & Fees ; Bachelor) 51,520 52,857 51,925 59,430 13,239 2019
Dormitory and cafeteria 18,720 16,433 17,682 13,644 16,625
all in all 70,240 69,290 69,607 73,074 29,864
Average income of graduates aged 34 years (in US $) 98,500 84,800 81,500 75,300 65,800 2019
Family background of the students Average parental income (in US $) 137,400 167,500 168,800 150,900 104,900
Children from the richest 20% of the population (= top quintile) 61% 66% 67% 62% 48%
Children from poor families (bottom quintile) who get rich after graduation (top quintile) 3.4% 2.2% 1.8% 3.1% 5.6%

literature

  • Pierre Bourdieu : The state nobility . Uvk, Konstanz 2004, ISBN 3-89669-807-9
  • Daniel Golden: The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges - And Who Gets Left Outside the Gates . Crown Publishers, 2006, ISBN 1-4000-9796-7
  • Michael Hartmann: The myth of the performance elite. Top careers and social origins in business, politics, justice and science . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2002, ISBN 3-593-37151-0
  • Heid, Helmut: Opportunities - in the education and employment system . In: Zeitschr. f. Vocational and Business Education, 87, 1991, 8, pp. 667–675
  • RD Kahlenberg (Century Foundation): America's Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education , Century Foundation Press, 2004, ISBN 0-87078-485-4
  • Holger Marcks: Social Inequality of Education - Education of Social Inequality. On the intoxicating sound of equal opportunities, in: special supplement to "Direkten Aktion", autumn 2005 ( online )
  • Douglas S. Massey , Camille Z. Charles, Mary J. Fischer: The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America's Selective Colleges and Universities . Princeton University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-691-12597-X
  • Meyer, Thomas; Vorholt, Udo: Educational equity as a political task . Dortmund Political-Philosophical Discourses, Volume 9. Bochum 2011. ISBN 978-3-89733-238-6

Web links

Wiktionary: Bildungschance  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

See also

swell

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry of Education and Research September 2006: International benchmarks in schools [1]
  2. ↑ a b Controversial: The planned dissolution of the primary school districts ( Memento from December 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Max Hägler: Bavarian country girls still losers in education in taz, the daily newspaper of September 5, 2007, page 18
  4. ↑ BMBF , 2008: Educational (failure) successes of boys and career choice behavior among boys / male adolescents ( Memento from April 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 645 kB) - Quote: "For the transition to secondary schools, learning Initial study (LAU) in Hamburg found that boys are not only generally less likely to receive a Gymnasium recommendation, even if the grades are the same, teachers are less likely to consider them suitable for Gymnasium than girls. "(Page 9) and" In all subjects, boys also receive same skills lower grades. "(page 16) - accessed on November 14, 2012
  5. ↑ Michael Borchard, Christine Henry-Huthmacher, Tanja Merkle MA, Carsten Wippermann: Parents under pressure - self-perceptions, sensitivities and needs of parents in different living environments , Berlin, Feb. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8282-0424-9 (ed. : Konrad Adenauer Foundation )
  6. ^ Immediate College Enrollment Rate. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ High School Graduation Rates By State 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  8. ^ College Enrollment and Work Activity of Recent High School and College Graduates Summary. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  9. ^ QS World University Rankings. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  10. ↑ MIT facts: Enrollments 2018–2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  11. ^ Stanford University: Autumn Quarter 2018-19 Enrollment. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Harvard at a Glance. Retrieved December 3, 2019 . (without Harvard Extension School)
  13. ^ Columbia University: Back to school: College campuses on the Greenway. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  14. ↑ About UCLA: Fast facts. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  15. ↑ MIT SAT Scores and GPA. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  16. ↑ How to Get Into Stanford: The Admissions Criteria. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  17. ↑ 2019 Harvard admissions statistics: Class of 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  18. ↑ 2019 Columbia Acceptance Rate: Class of 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  19. ↑ 2018 UCLA Acceptance Rate Class of 2022. Accessed December 3, 2019 .
  20. ↑ What Does MIT Cost? Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  21. ^ Stanford: The Student Budget. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Harvard: Cost of Attendance. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  23. ^ Paying for Columbia University in the City of New York. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  24. ^ Columbia Housing Costs. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  25. ^ UCLA: Fees, tuition, and estimated student budget. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  26. ^ The Upshot: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  27. ^ Stanford University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  28. ^ Harvard University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  29. ^ Columbia University. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  30. ^ University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .