Equity in Education: from Hope to Change

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Fangzhou Liang

Growing inequality is nowadays a global concern, to which education is seen as a key solution. But how well are today’s education systems responding to such a call, and what are the challenges faced?

Are today’s education systems equitable?

There is increasing research evidence that achieving equity and quality in an education system at the same time is actually possible. For example, according to PISA 2012 results, countries like Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, Estonia and Australia succeed in combining high performance and high levels of equity.
Failure in reaching equity not only limits economic growth and innovation, hampers social cohesion and mobility, but also generates higher public expenditures, for instance in health and public welfare or security. As this has been proved by more and more research (See note 1), policy makers are more aware of the need to invest in equity in education.

However, education systems around the world still face challenges to achieve equity in education:

  1. in making sure that everyone has a minimum level of skills. In 2012, around 20% of 15 year olds among all OECD countries do not reach a minimum level in PISA test.
  2. in reducing dropout rates. 19% of 25 to 34 year olds in OECD countries have not completed upper secondary education; these people could lack basic qualifications in the labor market.
  3. in reducing the risk of low achievement due to diverse backgrounds, such as low socio-economic status, low parental education, immigrant background or gender.

Policies to reduce system level obstacles to equity

equality-vs-equity-webCountries are already taking measures towards more equitable education systems. Efforts have been put into: reducing grade repetition; managing school choice to avoid inequalities; postponing tracking to upper secondary; designing equivalent upper secondary pathways, and making funding responsive to needs.
In our class, a heated debate focused on repetition, which is quite a common practice in certain countries like France. Students argued that repetition, despite being a tradition in some countries, harms students’ social skills, self-esteem and interest in studying, and is more costly than efficient and helpful. Policy alternatives to repetition lie in preventive approaches to failure, better targeted student assessment and support, for which Finland has provided a good example.


Another important area of inequality is school choice. This is not as common as we think: across OECD countries, more than 80% of students are attending government or public schools. In ideal circumstances, free school choice should allow equal access to high quality schooling for all. However, in real practice, school choice generates segregation but doesn’t necessarily improve results; meanwhile, disadvantaged students tend to lose out in the competition. To raise equity through better management of school choice, policy options include introducing controlled choice programmes, making disadvantaged students more attractive to schools and better-informed when choosing.

Approaches to support low-performing, disadvantaged schools and students

Apart from system level efforts, another way to achieve equity is to support low-performing and disadvantaged students and schools. As is shown by OECD data and other research, disadvantaged students and schools tend to come together and end up in vicious circle. In this regard, support can focus on the following dimensions:
  • quality staff: to attract, support and retain teachers and school leaders of high quality;
  • school climate: to have high expectations for students and trigger their motivation to learn;
  • parental and community engagement.

All over the world, a diverse range of education reforms are already being carried out for better equity; but much more remains to be done. Such progress may take generations, but is for sure a worthwhile investment.

 by Fangzhou LIANG

 Note:
1. See OECD (2012), Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264130852-en


Image source: http://www.gastandardsequity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/equality-vs-equity-web1.png

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