“All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality.” Opportunities are omnipresent. Yet, only a hand full of people get the chance to grab them. The two major factors being; influence and nepotism. Having said that, an insight into else’s introspection also plays a prominent role in describing inequality in opportunities. A farmer’s son shall carry on yielding, the very land his father did. What work has he to do with medicine and Engineering? This is what a stereotypical mind is bound to think about. This portrays our perplexity concerning the realistic issues. This is what I term to be the ” Theory of being biased.” It states that the human mind, perceives equality to play it’s role with due righteousness as long as it doesn’t threaten their own existence. It’s convenient to talk about feminism and issues regarding differences in caste system, because these conversations are subtle to address. Equality of Opportunity is one such combination and it has been a rich source of academic and political debate, a political slogan, and a widely held conviction about how human beings should live together. At its most basic, Equality of Opportunity requires that all human beings are equal in the sphere of opportunity. Equality of opportunity is usually opposed to slavery, hierarchy and caste society, where social positions, life prospects and individual freedoms are determined by membership of some group that you are born into, such as the aristocracy. Our acknowledgement of the importance of freedom and equality motivate the theory and practice of Equality of Opportunity. But, what about education? There is no heed paid to attendance of equality in this field and thus that’s why, equality in Education sounds all the more hypothetical. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
One person’s happiness may hinge on his/her access to education far more than another’s persons. We can say the same about health. Let’s join our hands together band pledge to rebuild our society; going against the traditional norms, and breaking the barriers of strata. Let us help every being to gain permission and enter the gates already open for the entire mankind.
We can say that educational institutions will have a central role to play in better realizing equality of opportunity. This is because education is valuable for a wide range of goals that we think are important, such as employment, health, wealth, welfare and citizenship. Moreover, almost all contemporary societies compel school attendance for all young children and so education can be offered to all and across many of the irrelevant obstacles, such as race, sexuality, religious affiliation, social class and natural talent. Yet, education is bestowed only upon those fortunate few. Education facilitates learning and practical growth. I believe very firmly, that each and every mind, when gifted with the right knowledge can develop into a genius being’s workshop! That farmer’s son, the stereotypical mind-set believes, is capable of farming, can grow up to be a leading economist, resulting to be of great beneficence for the GDP growth when gifted with education. But how many of us think in that way. For us, it’s giving an out of the box approach which will just indulge itself in an increase in the financial burden and reduction in employment opportunities. But that’s not what a great leader is supposed to do. A true and wise leader is the one, who builds in many more leaders like him. It all starts with a small step. There are broadly two types of strategy we could adopt, each of which has its own pitfalls and each of which uses educational institutions. The first strategy is to focus resources on trying to correct inequalities by providing extra schooling to those who are disadvantaged by social class. This aims to address the inequality of opportunity that is caused by institutions other than educational ones. The second strategy is to focus on attempting to correct inequalities in the social background, which may include inequality in educational opportunity and access to good schools, as well as unemployment and poverty in general. When Our focus will be on the application of conceptions of Equality of Opportunity to education, there are many other goods that people value and should have equal opportunity to pursue. For instance, most people value healthcare as it is important no matter what their ambitions and life plans are. Access to good doctors and basic medical treatment could be evaluated in terms of equality of opportunity. So, if some people face greater obstacles than others in getting to see a good doctor. If basic healthcare is expensive, then poorer people will face greater obstacles than the rich. If few doctors are willing to work in rural areas, then those in rural areas will face greater obstacles than those in urban areas. These unequal obstacles may be condemnable, depending on the conception of Equality of Opportunity that is most desirable. Moreover, rather than focusing on particular goods, such as education and health, we may prefer to focus on happiness itself, since it seems to be the fundamental value that people care about. Such a focus would enable us to condemn obstacles that stand in the way of health or education only insofar as those goods affect the happiness of those individuals. This makes an important difference if people wish to pursue health or education to different extents. One person’s happiness may hinge on his/her access to education far more than another’s persons. We can say the same about health. Let’s join our hands together band pledge to rebuild our society; going against the traditional norms, and breaking the barriers of strata. Let us help every being to gain permission and enter the gates already open for the entire mankind.
(The author is a political science student at AMU Aligarh Muslim University) [email protected]