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Education and Control
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis
Thursday September 23, 2004 16:29 by No Masters
Education is not accessible to all in society. A blatant fact. I challenge anybody who thinks on the contrary to this. The reasons for this inequality are abundant. The main reasons are predominantly due to broader social and economic inequalities created and maintained by the present government. Education in today's society is a privilege when it should be a Right that is constitutionally enshrined. At a time when education is increasingly becoming a commodity to be bought and sold on the market place the government is implementing cutback after cutback in public expenditure on education. At present the Irish government spends a pathetic 2% of its GDP on education, in Sweden 15% is allocated to the education budget. |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2I disagree with No Masters when s/he writes:
'The chief role of the university is to train you how to be obedient in an unequal , racist, heterosexist, neo liberal, oppressive and alienating society. '
Yes, universities and education do promote ideas of neo-liberalism, subservience to political elitism etc...but while society is 'racist, heterosexist', it is not universities which 'train(s)' one to be 'obedient' to this. In my experience, universities offer students the potential to become politically active in leftist politics and by extension is a place where they encounter anti-racist ideas, feminist politics etc...even if this is the short-lived SWP bandwagon. I can't believe lecturers promote racism/sexism
I agree that there are inequalities in universities. I heard last year that a Queen’s University (of Belfast) report indicated only 16% of its studentship came from ‘working class’ backgrounds. However, as a female, working class recent graduate, it has been my experience that by the time we reached our final year, critical thinking was exactly what was required, with ‘regurgitation’ of references used only to demonstrate that we had actually researched reading materials. A springboard if you like in order to support our own individual arguments.
I agree with the previous comments, that universities do offer platforms for leftist politics to those who seek it out. While these institutions hold their own ‘cultures’, we are still able to use them to build our own futures. What studying at this level gave me was a thirst for knowledge and investigation with a formal approach to literary criticism. I had never known this before since I’ve had no other opportunity outside of university to make it actualised in my life. I must admit that this may already have been central to my character before I entered university. So perhaps for those entering at 18 there is still a naivety towards the world.
Yes, education systems are faulty – but not wholly so. Though perhaps it is rightly up to those who are so dissatisfied to bring unique and profound changes motivated by such dissatisfaction. However, I couldn’t support a complete damnation of what was for me a very real learning curve. My opinion of this education level is simply this: it is what you make it. So yes, let’s make it more open to all classes; more practical than solely academic.
If I have one major criticism of how things appear to be going at this level it’s this: that Research funding seems to be now the central driver steering the validation of programs. Teaching and arming future practitioners is becoming more peripheral. Academics are pushing for and being pushed towards this end and students are being increasingly used to provide cash for these pursuits. For example: entrepreneurship in the Arts or, higher engineering grants/awards to strategically encourage more students in this direction as opposed to other academic pursuits.
Research is a valid pursuit in opening new doors for academia and indeed, progress or innovation. But that shouldn’t make it a priority at the expense of educational quality. So perhaps more than ever there needs to be an institutional separation of Teaching from Research programs? Otherwise I truly fear the level of education offered will become increasingly second rate as schools compete for funding by moulding legitimate programs into those that suit the investors.