Answer to Question #239450 in Sociology for Jay

Question

Explain your understanding of each of the points below by using examples from the South African context:
1. inequality is evident in and perpetuated by education and/or educational institutions.
2. The highest drop-out rates are to be found in low-income schools or communities.
3. Schooling for capitalism is the idea that educational institutions "produce the right kind of workers for capitalist economies."

Answer 1

1.     In South Africa, broken and unequal education perpetuates poverty and inequality. The South African education system, with its crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and relatively poor educational outcomes, is perpetuating inequality and failing too many of the country's children. For example, it highlights the fact that many schools and the communities they serve are still dealing with the consequences of political and economic decisions made during the apartheid era. As a result of this modern-day South Africa, a child's educational experience is still heavily influenced by where they were born, their socioeconomic status, and their skin color. Major changes are required in order for South Africa to comply with both its own constitutional and international human rights commitments in the area of education.

2.     Education is one of the most powerful indicators of health around the world. School dropout is a crisis in South Africa, with only 52 percent of the age-appropriate population remaining enrolled by Grade 12. Using secondary, longitudinal data, survival analysis was performed to detect the risk of dropping out of secondary school for male and female teenagers, as well as to investigate the influence of substance use and leisure experience variables while adjusting for demographic and known predictors. Dropout was substantially predicted by being male, not living with one's mother, smoking cigarettes in the previous month, and having lower levels of leisure-related intrinsic drive.

3.     In today's capitalist world, schools are essential institutions. We must reject the notion that they are eternal and unchangeable, and that the “natural” mode of learning occurs within the four walls of a classroom with set times, grade levels, and scores, among other things. Schools are historical artifacts. They only emerge for a brief period of time and are hence neither natural nor eternal. Today's educational institutions are doomed to vanish or alter in lockstep with the culture that gave birth to them. Because it is predicated on the premise that school provides "fair chances" for all citizens, public education is an important method for fostering social consensus. The concept of education serves as a powerful legitimizing factor for capitalism. The concept of equal opportunity in the capitalist economy is a fallacy in and of itself. Teaching has a third function: it serves to socialize students. It's a method of teaching kids to assimilate the dominant society's values, ideas, and attitudes. Educational institutions are particularly effective at legitimizing the current social order because they play a role not only in training workers in the strict sense of equipping them with the skills necessary to participate in the productive labor force, but also in the naturalization of production relations.