Annina Wiher

The UN sustainable development goal (SDG) number 4 is to ensure equal, high-quality education by 2030 and to promote opportunities for lifelong learning for all. With an equal and high-quality education, all social classes, genders and ethnic origins should be entitled to the same quality of education. However, educational equality has so far only been achieved to varying degrees in the countries. In order to illustrate the still present inequalities of opportunity in education, the weaknesses of the education systems of the following three countries are presented: Switzerland, the USA and Pakistan. In these countries there are different reasons why inequality in education exists. In the USA, for example, poor people go to lower quality schools, which deprives them of equal opportunities. In Switzerland, children with poorer grades often come from lower social classes or are of foreign origin. In Pakistan, girls are not allowed to go to school because of social beliefs, so most girls have to give up their right to education.

At first glance, the Swiss school system seems to be flawless. But as soon as you take a closer look, you notice tendencies that should not exist. There are two criteria of a country’s performance that indicate inequality of opportunity: A wide spread between the best and worst performance and a close link between performance and social status. In Switzerland, the dispersion is indeed very large and the children with the poorest performance also come more often from a lower social status and/or are of foreign origin, compared to other countries. Finland, for example, is a country with a less pronounced link between performance and social origin and has a high level of performance. If Switzerland were to make an initial selection only at the age of 16 and the proportion of foreigners were to be at the same level, Switzerland would be as socially equal as or even slightly fairer than Finland. This is because late school enrolment and early initial selection in Switzerland may not give children from educationally disadvantaged families enough time to compensate for their disadvantages by interacting with children from educationally and socially better-off families. However, because selection begins relatively early in the Swiss school system, children of foreign origin or from lower social strata are often at a disadvantage. [J. Hollenweger]

Figure: Countries by mean reading achievement and social gradient of reading literacy. [J. Hollenweger]

In the USA, the share of students from poor families in public schools is increasing, and since 2013 more than half of the students have been from low-income families. A high concentration of poverty in public schools is a threat to the quality of education, as these schools often have financial problems and poor quality. “High-poverty” schools often receive too little state and local funding. As a result, these schools lack qualified teachers, good programs in subjects such as mathematics or science, or other educational resources. [WEForum]

The state of Mississippi has the worst education system in the USA and is also the poorest state, which is certainly no coincidence. At the same time, it is also the state with the highest percentage of black people. [The guardian]

Besides many poor-quality schools, the USA also has the best schools and colleges worldwide. This points to a wide dispersion of performance and thus to a great inequality in the country. So, if you want to improve the American school system, you first have to reduce inequality in the country. The difference in school quality is due to the amount of school fees available. Education in a district is mainly financed with the school fees collected from the same district, and not from a national fund. In poorer school districts, however, this amount is not enough to provide adequate education for the students, which is why enormous differences in quality arise. [TheAtlantic]

Due to cultural and social beliefs and religious tensions, girls in Pakistan are not allowed to go to school and thus miss out on the opportunity for education. In society, it is common practice to invest in the education of sons rather than daughters. As a result, 32% of girls who are of primary school age do not go to school, compared to only 21% of boys. Both too many girls and too many boys miss out on their right to education, but girls are much worse off. [human rights watch]

Due to this discrimination, the girls and women in this country have a very low self-esteem. In addition to social beliefs, early marriage and pregnancy are central reasons, why girls do not receive the same educational opportunities. In Pakistan, there are too few schools to ensure that all children have access to them. The older the children are, the fewer school places are available to them. It is therefore becoming increasingly difficult for girls in particular to obtain a place in schools. In addition to the few school places, the children have to walk long distances, especially in rural areas. These distances to school are dangerous for the girls, as they are often sexually harassed there. Victims of sexual harassment rarely complain about the harassment because they are fearing of being accused or of being taken out of school by their parents. In general, violence against women plays an important role why women do not dare to go to school. The threats of extremists frighten many of them and take away their courage to fight for the education they would legally be entitled to. Attacks on schools are unfortunately not uncommon in Pakistan. If there has been an attack on a school in the area, many families take their daughters out of school for the next few years. [human rights watch]

Many children do not go to school because they have to work. The girls sometimes earn money by sewing or embroidery. Other children (again, it is mainly girls) do the housework at home or are domestic workers for other families. [human rights watch]

Pakistan should change its education system. This would be quite feasible; the state should invest more resources in education and use them to reduce inequalities. In this way, all children would have access to good quality education and the state would benefit. [human rights watch]

If girls in Pakistan received the same education as boys, the economy in Pakistan would be boosted, as women could participate in the professional world.

One girl had already started to work for the education of girls in Pakistan some years ago. Her name is Malala Yousafazi and she grew up in the Swat Valley in Pakistan. She herself went to school in Swat Valley until she was shot in the head by the Taliban on her way to school. After many months of surgery and rehabilitation, she decided to continue to fight for the education of girls in Pakistan. Together with her father, she founded the Malala Fund to give each girl the future she desires. In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work and is the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17. Today she visits many girls in different countries who are fighting against poverty, war, gender discrimination and child marriage to go to school. She wrote an autobiography “I am Malala” in which she tells her story beginning with her childhood. The book won many awards, but it is banned in schools in Pakistan. She herself says she tells her story because it is the story of many girls and not because the story is special. Despite her efforts and successes, many girls in Pakistan are still discriminated against and often not allowed to go to school. [Malala Fund]

In summary, it can be said that of the countries presented, Switzerland has the best education system. Because in Switzerland almost all children of primary school age attend the same school. In the USA, children go to different schools right from the start, depending on whether the family is poor or wealthy. With this “pay to win” education system, you get a good education if you can pay for it. Otherwise the children go to lower quality schools. But the most extreme inequality of opportunities takes place in Pakistan, where many children (especially girls) are not even allowed to go to school.

Of course, much is already being done to improve education systems and inequalities have already been reduced in some cases. But to achieve the UN SDG of “ensuring equal and high-quality education and promoting opportunities for lifelong learning for all”, more needs to be done in all these countries over the next ten years. For although one country may be closer to the goal than another, education systems in all countries should be improved to ensure equal opportunities in education.

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