Stratified education system and its impact
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Date
2017
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
The central argument of the study stresses that stratified education system prevalent in Pakistan is responsible for inequality and social differentiation in society. My research argues that it is reproducing the non-egalitarian opportunity structure and perpetuates the class-distinction. One more aspect is worth mentioning. Our education system shows indelible signs of social, cultural and historical forces. Two antagonistic ideologies fill the narrative core of Pakistan. One is the British protégés class of liberal elite and another is fundamentalist religious clergy. They have maintained their ideological legacy through monopolization of respective educational institutions. Elite English medium schools and Madaris represent their respective classes. And like every other socio-administrative institution, public education emerged to enact a compromise between these two antagonistic perceptive orders. And it represents the worst of both. Though there are wide varieties of educational streams, yet my research included three major types, i.e. Public Schools, Elite Education System and Madaris. They provide divergent curricula, pedagogical strategies, cultural orientations, epistemologies foundation and social experience to their respective pupil. All these differences directly impact their personality development and self-image. The analysis of income status of parents of students urges that their socio-economic status is highly bourgeois. Students of elite school enjoy prestigious position, where as their counterparts belong to lower strata. All the factors bring important repercussions. An upper stratum instrumentalizes their dominant and elevated class status by providing quality education to their children and ensures them competitive advantage to occupy the leadership roles and hold monopoly over means of power and control.