Education and a Classless Society: an appraisal

Education: Does it really promote a classless society?

The ideas related to education are largely radical and sweeping. They promise a greater step taken towards the improvement of our society, because it is generally felt that the more we understand about our environment, the better we can mould an ideal way of life that suits everyone and thereby raise our living standards. Some people view education as the harbinger of equality, one of the ways to eliminate social stratification. However, this has been proven to be a grossly misguided view. It also automatically assumes that a classless society is possible state to attain, which, considering human nature, is a great misconception.

Education may hail the importance of equality between all men and strongly advocate the idea of a classless society, in which every individual was given the same treatment and nobody was granted special privileges whatsoever. It certainly does appear as though education may be the answer to the social disparities seen in almost every country in the world. By educating the masses, idealists propound, people would then gain greater understanding of their rights and demand for everyone to be treated equally and presented with equal opportunities. However, even in developed countries with high levels of literacy, such as Sweden with a ninety-nine percent literacy rate, inequalities still exist in its economy, in the form of income distribution. Such is also the case for USA, Finland, Germany and Canada. In capitalist countries, inequalities exist in the economy itself, despite any government’s well-meaning attempts to reduce the income gap. Furthermore, education does not always endorse equality. Within the education system, inequality exists in the form of elitism. There is disparity between those who are able to get further ahead academically and those who are not, be it for financial or academic reasons. College-bound students are granted more opportunities and avenues in society, while those with a lower education level tend to be stuck in lesser-paid jobs with fewer opportunities in life, which then perpetuates the cycle all over again. As such, education seems to revoke the ideal that it may uphold or seem to promote.

Society is inherently unequal. To think that any society has the ability to become a classless one is to disregard the crucial factor of human nature. No two people can be absolutely equal, simply because of different perceptions of what is equal. While one may view having equal opportunities as a form of equality, another may feel that progress at one’s own pace, despite how everyone else is doing, is equality. Apart from that technicality, human nature prevents any society or civilisation from being truly classless. History has shown how leaders that start out creating a classless society morphed into tyrants or dictators and these one-man or one-party regimes imposed strict regulations upon the people. The people may be equal in that respect, but power is entirely in the hands of the ruling party. Is that not a greater inequality? Man has to be ruled by someone, or a group of people. This is the best form of civilisation Man has attained. Therefore, to think that education can change society to become one that is classless and equal is overly idealistic. A classless society is not even a possibility, much less a goal that education can help us achieve.

There is, of course, some form of equality in meritocracy upheld by some education systems, those that believe that opportunities should be given to those who apply themselves well so equality is maintained by the individual himself, depending on the amount of effort he puts in. Meritocracy, however, can also be viewed as a kind of inequality. Again, that depends on one’s definition of equality, because meritocracy inevitably leads to class differences. If a classless society means that everyone is able to progress without consideration of one’s background, then meritocracy is an example in which education can promote a classless society.

However, it still has to be noted that education is not the most equal of all social systems too. While it does try to promote the elimination of class differences in a society, the fact that not everyone has a chance to be educated negates its efforts altogether. Literacy rates are still dismayingly low in countries such as Bolivia and Mozambique. If not everyone is allowed the chance to education, then education has lost its intended purpose, which is to prevent anyone from falling behind while society progresses. Yet, disparities now are greater than before, when literacy levels were lower.

Despite all the efforts to eradicate social stratification, the chance to be educated still depends on a person’s financial capability. Whether the cycle of self-improvement spirals upwards or downwards ultimately takes into account the circumstances one is born into, even though education is said to promote greater equality. Therefore, not only is a classless society an illusion, education does not always practise what it preaches too. Inequality lies in the heart of any civilisation; to change that would mean having to change the intrinsic quality of Man.

~ Joyce