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Richer students get unfair edge in international schools
By Marilyn Tsaih |
July 22, 2013, Monday
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WE talk a lot about educational inequality, and for a good reason; it is an issue I personally care greatly about.
As an international student, having acquainted myself with people of different backgrounds over the years, I've realized that there is much more to educational inequality than meets the eye. Educational inequality not only exists between different communities, but also within individual private schools themselves.
Some may argue that the privilege surrounding these schools nullifies any need to attend to the problem. However, this, in itself, illustrates just how serious the issue of disparity is on a global scale. Contrary to popular belief, socioeconomic status does vary at the international schools in Shanghai.
Not everyone is well off. Many families are fortunate enough to send their kids to these private schools because of company packages, while others cut spending in other areas in order to pay the fees.
The inequality gap is created as some families with larger budgets pay generously for supplements to the standard private education, which itself is part of the global scheme of educational inequality.
Most families, on the other hand, are not willing to pay for or cannot afford such expensive additional programs.
The extra classes and the extra tuition are unfair because they give this select group of students an advantage. These costly programs push its students forward in a slightly unnatural manner, ahead of other children who do not have access to such reinforcement, but would otherwise perform well and be equally successful in academics.
A good example of this is SAT preparation in Shanghai. Various SAT preparatory programs have become notorious for their extreme intensity, and are popular among expat families, especially during school holidays. Most are extremely expensive - some parents splurge 14,000 yuan (US$2,277) on these classes that last only two weeks. Kids who are privileged enough to participate in any such classes get an unfair advantage.
With these extra programs meticulously designed for their academic achievement, students are able to get personal help, practice for the exam daily, and then regurgitate all that's been taught to them on the actual day of the SAT exam.
Other children who do not or cannot take such classes only have two or three shots at the SAT, possibly with one or two practice tests beforehand. Their chances of performing as well as students taking extra classes are very low. What's worse, they look relatively less ready for college; they can appear almost like underachievers in the community, when in actuality, they could very well be equal in potential or perhaps more naturally intellectually gifted than assumed. It's just that their socioeconomic backgrounds do not easily allow them to shine.
I do not believe that depending so heavily on extra classes helps the intellect; at some level, the student's ability to think independently, to work as an individual fades away. Though I value the ability to think and to innovate, this is not a priority to many, and this creative ability cannot easily be demonstrated on paper, whereas it's easier to deal with standardized test scores in an application.
With the extra tuition and extra classes many families are now resorting to, students from wealthier backgrounds are able to embellish their academic profiles, much more so than less privileged students. They have access to more opportunities in education, often allowing them to attend their first-choice university, while children from average-income families struggle more, without extra help. Advantaged students then go on to take very different paths in life - meaning endless possibilities for worsening the disparity.
The bottom line is that everyone deserves the same chance to succeed. Education plays a huge role in that. If as society we believe in this equality, we surely aren't facilitating it in practice.
Marilyn Tsaih is a student at an international school in Shanghai.
As an international student, having acquainted myself with people of different backgrounds over the years, I've realized that there is much more to educational inequality than meets the eye. Educational inequality not only exists between different communities, but also within individual private schools themselves.
Some may argue that the privilege surrounding these schools nullifies any need to attend to the problem. However, this, in itself, illustrates just how serious the issue of disparity is on a global scale. Contrary to popular belief, socioeconomic status does vary at the international schools in Shanghai.
Not everyone is well off. Many families are fortunate enough to send their kids to these private schools because of company packages, while others cut spending in other areas in order to pay the fees.
The inequality gap is created as some families with larger budgets pay generously for supplements to the standard private education, which itself is part of the global scheme of educational inequality.
Most families, on the other hand, are not willing to pay for or cannot afford such expensive additional programs.
The extra classes and the extra tuition are unfair because they give this select group of students an advantage. These costly programs push its students forward in a slightly unnatural manner, ahead of other children who do not have access to such reinforcement, but would otherwise perform well and be equally successful in academics.
A good example of this is SAT preparation in Shanghai. Various SAT preparatory programs have become notorious for their extreme intensity, and are popular among expat families, especially during school holidays. Most are extremely expensive - some parents splurge 14,000 yuan (US$2,277) on these classes that last only two weeks. Kids who are privileged enough to participate in any such classes get an unfair advantage.
With these extra programs meticulously designed for their academic achievement, students are able to get personal help, practice for the exam daily, and then regurgitate all that's been taught to them on the actual day of the SAT exam.
Other children who do not or cannot take such classes only have two or three shots at the SAT, possibly with one or two practice tests beforehand. Their chances of performing as well as students taking extra classes are very low. What's worse, they look relatively less ready for college; they can appear almost like underachievers in the community, when in actuality, they could very well be equal in potential or perhaps more naturally intellectually gifted than assumed. It's just that their socioeconomic backgrounds do not easily allow them to shine.
I do not believe that depending so heavily on extra classes helps the intellect; at some level, the student's ability to think independently, to work as an individual fades away. Though I value the ability to think and to innovate, this is not a priority to many, and this creative ability cannot easily be demonstrated on paper, whereas it's easier to deal with standardized test scores in an application.
With the extra tuition and extra classes many families are now resorting to, students from wealthier backgrounds are able to embellish their academic profiles, much more so than less privileged students. They have access to more opportunities in education, often allowing them to attend their first-choice university, while children from average-income families struggle more, without extra help. Advantaged students then go on to take very different paths in life - meaning endless possibilities for worsening the disparity.
The bottom line is that everyone deserves the same chance to succeed. Education plays a huge role in that. If as society we believe in this equality, we surely aren't facilitating it in practice.
Marilyn Tsaih is a student at an international school in Shanghai.
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