Education gives our kids a lesson in inequality

By Shahid Naqvi on Jun 5, 08 05:25 PM in Education

Scandal is the word that springs to mind. I'm talking about a Government report that shows children from the poorest areas have the least qualified teachers.
It makes you wonder what education is for in this country. Is it to perpetuate social inequality or is it to help children no matter what their background make the most of their lives?

Ministers will give it the rhetoric about "opportunities for all" and level playing fields. But time and time again the evidence shows it is anything but.
In this country you basically buy a good education. Either by overtly paying for it by going private or moving to a good catchment area or paying for private tuition to get into one of the few remaining grammars.
We know in Birmingham that the proportion of kids on free school meals that go to grammar school is around 4.5 per cent compared to a city average of 34 per cent.
We know also from research by the Sutton Trust that the proportion of children on free school meals at the top 200 performing secondaries is 5.6 per cent compared to a national average of 14.3 per cent.
In each case, poverty is proven to be a barrier to educational achievement.
This latest research - the Government's annual Secondary School Curriculum and Staffing Survey - shows that post A-level qualifications among teachers at schools with the highest proportion of pupils on free school meals is significantly lower than at those with the lowest proportion of kids on free meals.
Qualifications, of course, do not make the teacher. The most highly qualified person may not be the best teacher.
But it is still revealing. And at secondary school level, it's got to be better to be taught by someone educated to a higher level than that which you are studying yourself.
Education is supposed to be a vehicle for lifting people up. But how will we ever create a fair society if those at the bottom of the ladder get the worst deal in it?
I remember once being part of a judging panel for a schools competition run by this paper to design a new Monopoly-style board game. The prize was £10,000 and it was won by a grammar school. What was striking was the resentment among kids who had entered from a state school in a deprived area.
"They always win everything," said one of them.
They thought the competition was fixed. And perhaps this is the lesson we are teaching our kids. That life isn't fair. So live with it.
Which is a depressing thought.