Social class and inequality within the education system in the UK Essay

Social class and inequality within the education system in the UK - Essay Example In this case study I will be looking at social class and whether social class faces inequality within the English education system. I will be looking at the education system in the United Kingdom and I will be discussing the differences between middle class and working class in education. The reason for this case study is to discuss the education system in the UK in order to find evidence on how social class faces inequality and I will be doing this by using different theoretical approaches and sociological ways to discuss the relationships. There is a social class gap in the UK for educational achievement. In the UK students attainment is based on parents qualifications, income and occupation (Francis and Perry, 2010) In the UK the working class are eligible for free school meals, free school meals helps us to identify the students class and free school meal students come from a socio-economic background (Perry and Francis et al, 2010). I will be discussing the exam results of both the working and middle class. Children’s social class has a major impact on their performance and their results. The working class tend to not achieve in comparison to the middle class, the education system is biased and is produced to meet the needs of the middle class students and not the working class students (Bryant, n.d.). Children’s class has a major impact on their performance. In addition there is a gap between the middle and the working class and this could be seen through their GSCE results (Shepherd, 2010). According to Shepherd, Sedghi and Evans (2012) statistics show that there is around 27.4% attainment gap between students that are eligible for free school meals and students achieving A*-C in English and Mathematics GCSE. There... According to the paper the critical theory depicts how people within the society receive different treatment. In respect to the present study, the middle class has power, control and fits well in the society. In contrary, the working class are found to suffer from frustration, rejection, isolation and are powerless. These challenges have further implication within the education sector as depicted by affordability of quality education. The middle class has the capacity of enrolling their children in academies that are known to offer quality education as opposed to working class who cannot afford to enrol their children in academies (Muller, Ringer and Simon, 2003). This brings out a gap in social class as evidenced by lack of affordability of quality education by working class as opposed to their wealthy middle class who controls the society and has the resources to afford quality education for their children. The report gives all answers to the questions which are connected with the Education in United Kingdom. Ideally, in the light of modern world, people continue to be segregated in terms of social groups which are facilitated by differences in cultural and economic capabilities. As noted from the present study, those people who are economically advantages exert power within the society. This fact is well supported by social cultural theories such as Critical theory still pushes the UK government to level education for both poor and rich, it is apparent that the middle class who has sufficient resources continues to get quality education relative to the working class. This nature is attributable to the UK form of economy which is more inclined to capitalism. It can therefore deliberate that the UK education system is modelled to be exclusive where the richer ones can afford quality education as opposed to the less rich.