ES5000 Graduate English Course (Basic) Sem 1, AY2021-2022 1 WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2: PROBLEM-SOLUTION ESSAY Instructions: 1) Read the following text on the issue of social inequality carefully. 2) From the reading (you may also refer to readings beyond), identify the problem(s) and solution(s) regarding the issue. 3) Based on what you have read in the text, write a problem-solution essay of 450 to 500 words, on the problem(s) of and solution(s) to social inequality. 4) When making references to the reading, or other sources, please use the APA (7th ed.) referencing format. Your text should contain: In-text citation Reference list 5) Follow the overall essay structure and include the following: Introduction, including your thesis statement Supporting paragraphs, with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence Conclusion, including your evaluation 6) Submit your Problem-Solution Essay 1 as a Word document to the LumiNUS folder by 11:59 pm, Wednesday, 13 October 2021. Text: The Power of Education to Fight Inequality In most countries, children born into rich families will go to the best possible schools, very often being privately educated. They will have small class sizes, good teachers and get good results. These students will be given multiple opportunities to grow their inherited privilege. However, girls and boys born into poverty, suffering from ill health and malnutrition, arrive at the school gates already disadvantaged, if they arrive there at all. They will then struggle with overcrowded facilities that lack trained and qualified teachers, textbooks and toilets. New analysis by Oxfam, using data from UNESCO, shows that in developing countries, a child from a poor family is seven times less likely to finish secondary school than a child from a rich family. Even in rich countries, only three-quarters of children from the poorest families complete secondary education, compared to 90% of children from the richest families. Inequalities of income are compounded with other inequalities of gender, ethnicity, disability and geography to form a suffocating web of exclusion. In a poor rural area of Pakistan, girls are three times as likely as poor boys to have never attended school. Educational inequalities are also driven by policies that encourage commercialization of education and expand private provision of schooling through public-private partnerships, which can deepen segregation and stratification in education systems. When good education can only be accessed by families with money, it undermines social mobility; it ensures that if you are born poor, you and your children will die poor, no matter how hard ES5000 Graduate English Course (Basic) Sem 1, AY2021-2022 2 you work. It also undermines our societies, as the children of the wealthy are segregated from the children of ordinary families from an early age. While schooling remains segregated by class, wealth, ethnicity, gender or other signifiers of privilege and exclusion, this cements inequality. Segregated patterns of schooling build segregated communities, driving a wedge between the haves and the have- nots, right at the start of life. Conversely, good-quality public education for all can be a powerful engine for greater equality. Governments can take the cost of a good education away from families, with an immediate impact on the income gap between rich and poor, as the cash benefit is proportionately far greater for families on lower incomes. To find out more about these positive effects, Oxfam looked at available public spending data for primary education across 78 low-, middle- and high-income countries. The cash value of public education often exceeds the total income of the poorest families by a wide margin. For a single mother with two children both in primary school, for example, public spending on her children’s schooling exceeds her family income by three times in Colombia. Yet beyond this boost to incomes, good education is an engine of equality in other important ways. For example, a good education makes the likelihood of higher incomes and lower poverty much greater. It is estimated extreme poverty could be halved if universal primary and secondary education were achieved. UNESCO estimates that each year of schooling raises earnings by around 10% for men and up to 20% for women. A good education boosts opportunity for all. Social mobility, i.e. the possibility for children from poor families to end up better off than their parents, is intimately tied to the availability of education. A good education brings society together. Schools can be places where the children of rich and poor families can become friends, and the barriers of inequality are broken down. They can challenge the rules that perpetuate economic inequality in broader society, and give young people the tools to go into the world and build more equitable societies. A good education supports democratic societies. Education offers individuals the tools to exercise their right to an equal say over the structures and policies that govern their lives, which boosts democracy. Extensive research shows that increased education leads to greater political and civic engagement. Good education has considerable power to increase equality between women and men. Education can help tackle gender disparities in wages, poverty, reproductive autonomy and political power. It can dramatically improve the health outcomes for women and their children. The more educated women are, the closer their earnings are to those of men. The more educated women are, the more power they have over their lives, particularly over when they marry and how many children they have. If all girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia completed secondary education, there would be a 64% drop in child marriages. The more educated mothers are, the healthier they and their children are. UNESCO estimates that if all women had completed primary education, there would be a 66% reduction in maternal deaths globally, and a 15% reduction in child deaths. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, good quality education has the power to challenge traditional social attitudes and ensure that girls and boys know that they are equal. The way that education is delivered is key to ensuring its positive impact on reducing inequality can be maximized. To do this, first of all, education needs to be universal. In recent decades, there has been huge progress. Primary school enrolment is now almost universal, with nearly as many girls enrolling as boys, a huge challenge only a generation or so ago. Nevertheless, at current rates, it could be another 100 years before all girls in sub-Saharan Africa have the opportunity to complete a full 12 years of education, which is a commitment in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Secondly, education needs to be free. Government investment in free education is crucial for building equality because it gives every child a fair chance, not just those who can afford to pay. Fees of any kind at pre- primary, primary and secondary level exclude the poorest, and especially girls. Thirdly, education needs to be public. When publicly delivered education works, the scale and speed of its impact cannot be matched. Many public education systems face challenges in terms of learning outcomes, but the ES5000 Graduate English Course (Basic) Sem 1, AY2021-2022 3 answer is adequate investment, not turning to the private sector, as donors like the World Bank are increasingly advocating. Public private partnerships and for-profit schools are a dangerous diversion from what is needed to deliver education for all. Fourthly, education needs investment in teachers. An empowered and professionally trained teacher has been shown to be the biggest contributor to ensuring quality education. Public school teachers, the majority of whom are women in most regions, are often underpaid, under-supported and portrayed as part of the problem. Yet they are the backbone of every school system. Fifthly, education needs to be inclusive. Education and teaching have to address the unique learning needs of all students and be designed to meet the needs of those left out and left behind, including children with disabilities, minorities, marginalized groups, the poorest and out-of-school children. Education also needs to be relevant. The curriculum, or what is taught in school, is vital to ensuring the maximum impact of education on reducing inequality. Teaching needs to be in the local language and done at a pace that benefits all children, not just the top performers. Curricula need to challenge traditional attitudes to gender equality and inspire critical thinking in children. Finally, education needs to be accountable to families and citizens. Good education systems have good public oversight mechanisms. These ensure that every school is properly scrutinized and accountable to those it serves. Delivering universal public education for all is an investment. As the World Bank and others have noted, investment in human capital is integral to driving sustainable and equitable economic growth. Many governments recognize this and have dramatically increased their funding of education. Sadly, many others have not. Nigeria has more than 10 million children out of school, yet some of the lowest education spending in the world. Most of the increased spending can be covered by increased tax collection from rich individuals and corporations. For example, Ecuador tripled its education spending from 2003 to 2010 through effective tax mobilization policies and prioritizing education in its budget. However, tax alone is not enough. The poorest countries need significantly increased levels of aid from rich nations for education. Of the $340 bn needed, $40 bn will need to come from increases in donor aid. Aid to education, after falling, is now stagnant, and being diverted away from those countries that need it most. Education is not a way to escape poverty. It is a way of fighting it. Economic inequality is growing. The kind of education system a country has will have a major impact on the capacity to respond to this. Access to good quality education for individual children offers a pathway to liberation from poverty and illness, towards the fulfilment of basic rights. It can transform lives and bring children out of the shadows of poverty and marginalization. For societies, it acts as a leveller, and as an agent for greater equality. Rapidly investing in quality public education for all should be a priority for all nations. Adapted from: Walker, J., Pearce, C., Boe, K., & Lawson, M. (2019). The power of education to fight inequality. Retrieved from file:///Users/shenfa/Downloads/bp-education-inequality-170919-en.pdf




























































































































































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