Essay on Social Mobility and Education

Social mobility can be described as status change of households, families or individuals within a society. It is relative to the current status and where that person socially stands. It is the up and down movement of one’s status quo. It can also be perceived as movement of people in a social stratification. (Henryk, et al., 2018) We can simply say that it is change in social position of a person, family or household. This social change can be of vertical of horizontal nature. Any position change within the same domain is considered to be horizontal mobility. If there is promotion and change in status than it is considered to be vertical mobility. Social mobility is used as an indicator of social status change of individuals or group within a society. The two factors that are considered in this regard are class and education. Social mobility has become a topic of interest for psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, epidemiologists and many other professions. The reason for this is that it correlates individual activity with economic growth. It assesses the opportunities available to individuals and groups in respect of educational growth and healthy environment. Low levels of social mobility have been attributed with high levels of income and vice versa. According to a research, children of highly paid individuals are more likely to get highly paid jobs than individuals that are low paid. Similarly, countries that have higher level of income inequality have shown lower level of social mobility. Education is especially seen as a strong driver of change in social mobility. Countries with high level of inequality may have lower social mobility and countries with lower level of inequality may show higher social mobility. Social class difference also affects social mobility. Education is considered to be major factor of determining the outcome of an individual’s future. It ensures upward mobility by enabling the individual to tapping into upper layers of the social mobility.

It also depends on the income level of the family and the better the income level better the opportunities will be. According to a research the academy chains that recruit students from low income level families are performing low in respect to disadvantaged children. The Sutton Trust report states that few chains had a transformation impact on the disadvantaged children and many children are struggling to improve among their peers. (Ho & Neubauer, 2016) Researchers assessed 58 academy chains over a period of five years and according to their findings 12 of these chains performed above average for disadvantaged children however 38 academic chains showed that children performed below average which poses a challenge to the government. It is clear from these findings that academic chains are struggling to improve social mobility of poor pupils. The academies programme was established in 2000. The main purpose of this programme was to replace small numbers of secondary schools which are operating in low income level areas with the goal to open more opportunities for disadvantaged children. The programme was later on extended due to the efforts of conservatives who wanted to see this programme grow more and more. The aim was to reduce the gap between most and least advantaged children. The conservative led government aims to improve the social mobility by standardizing the academy programme. It has since been found to be not effective in terms of social mobility and is further increasing social segregation. Also, it was found that working class parents contribute towards social segregation as well. (Christine & Carvalho, 2017) The social class gap can only be reduced with a self-improving schooling system and cooperation and collaboration with other schools.

Faith schools usually shows higher results than their competition because of their selection process. Faith schools generally accepts few pupils from disadvantaged background than their counterparts. This is the reason why they show better results. The one main disadvantage of social selection is increase in social segregation. Government is proposing to increase the number of good schools in England. The proposal also mentions to remove the 50 percent limit on faith-based admissions. This decision was made to ensure good quality education for disadvantaged children. The increase in faith schools have shown positive increase in education level but the social mobility level remains low. (Elise & Hellier, 2018) The pupils that are inducted in these schools have different demographic than pupils from non-faith schools. Those pupils that scored high in their previous education are sometime given more attention as compared to disadvantaged pupils. Also, the pupils eligible for free school meals given in these faith schools is relatively low to its counterparts. This can be seen in almost all religious category schools. According to a report a social selection score was calculated for faith and non-faith schools. The comparison was done in respect to free meals offered at the schools. At secondary level the faith schools scored a social selection score of 0.7 out of 1 meaning that the chances for a pupil being eligible for free school meal are two third. Every one in ten faith school is socially selective when it comes to free meals offered at their schools. However, it is evident from reports that faith schools achieve higher results than their counterparts. It is attributed to the social selection process. It has where raised the standard of education has decreased social mobility. Increasing the faith schools will only increase social segregation and achievement in terms of social mobility will be lower.

Grammar schools are also damaging the social mobility of people. According to researchers, increasing the selection criteria is not good for the social mobility. Grouping the privileged children together in grammar schools will harm the social mobility of those disadvantaged children who don’t attend these schools. Grammar schools are found to be no less effective than other schools. The only apparent advantage is that the pupil intake is from advantaged social background and their academic scores are higher at age 11. The grammar school plan was scrapped after general election but it some schools are still authorized to expand and allowed to open their franchises. Government is also funding these schools. There are 163 grammar schools in England that are currently operating. The conservative government plan to open more grammar schools was not found affective for social mobility. According to a report the grammar schools take fewer pupils that are eligible for free meals and those they induct have been eligible for fewer time period. This means that other schools are giving free meals to chronically poor pupils in dipropionate manner. The study also found that children attending grammar schools are less likely to need special educational treatment and do not choose English as an additional language. The students are also older in age and likely to be from Asian background. The grammar schools pose danger to social cohesion and their advantages in relation to social mobility are less clear. It is not proven that existence of a grammar school in an area will drive up the social standards of the people living in that area (Erica, et al., 2017). It is also not clear that grammar schools will reduce the gap for free meals offered to pupils in relation to other schools. Children who are receiving free school meals are far less likely to attend grammar schools. Secondary schools offer more in terms of free meals and are compelling option for low income people. According to law new grammar schools cannot open but the existing grammar schools can expand. The selection process at grammar school also focuses more on scores than personal background of the pupil. This inequality of opportunity to go to grammar schools widens the gap of social segregation. While the grammar schools do perform better than state school, they have little effect on the social mobility of people.

In conclusion we can say that while the education level greatly effects the social mobility of people it is also necessary to have standardize level of education system for all children to be able to achieve social mobility. The development of specialist schools although have raised the bar for education level it has done little in terms of social mobility. Poor people are neglected in selection process or due to their financial background. It is also not cohesive and generally merits privileged people who are already high on social mobility level. To enable people from low level of income to achieve higher social mobility there is a need for amendment’s in education system. Academy schools model need to be redesigned to focus more on underprivileged people. Faith schools need to take into account people from disadvantaged background and focus more on selecting low income people. (Jake, et al., 2020) Grammar schools are also not necessary and do little in terms of raising the level of income of underprivileged people. The schools themselves are not the problem but the problem lies in how these schools are designed and their induction process. There needs to be a system that provides equal opportunities to underprivileged people to move vertically on social mobility level. It can only be possible with doing amendments in education system that provides quality education for all people.

References of Social Mobility and Education

Christine, B. & Carvalho, J. P., 2017. Education, social mobility and religious movements: The Islamic revival in Egyp. The Economic Journal, 607 (127), pp. 2553-2580.

Elise , B. & Hellier, J., 2018. Social mobility at the top and the higher education system. European Journal of Political Economy , Issue 52, pp. 36-54.

Erica, S., Brosnan, C., Lempp, H. & Kelly, B., 2017. Travels in extreme social mobility: how first-in-family students find their way into and through medical education. Critical Studies in Education , 2(58), pp. 242-260.

Henryk, D., Mach, B. W. & Przybysz, D., 2018. Social mobility in education and occupation, 1982–2006. Dynamics of Class and Stratification in Poland, p. 83.

Ho, M. K. & Neubauer, D., 2016. Higher education governance in crisis: A critical reflection on the massification of higher education, graduate employment and social mobility. springer, pp. 1-12.

Jake, A., Bukodi , E. & Goldthorpe , J. H., 2020. Social Mobility and Education in Britain: Research, Politics and Policy, Cambridge. Journal of Social Policy , 1(49), pp. 229-231..