Education divides, rather than unites, society

Today's society has evolved to a point where the lines between country, society and culture are blurred. It is increasingly difficult to draw the distinction with the mushrooming of new trends such as shifting paradigms of state-run education programs, family structures, and mind sets of people, just to name a few. Unfortunately, education has largely remained backward in new times, as a result causing the division of the masses instead of unification. Although it remains the bedrock of a stable society, education today has empowered people in other ways such that people no longer all sing the same tune. Despite being a bitter pill to swallow, we have to face up to reality and acknowledge the fact that outcomes of education toady diverges from that in the past.

Education today does not merely consist of the passing on of knowledge. Driven by demands of the market, many (if not all) state-run providers of education have been compelled to provide tangible qualifications as certification of an individual’s progress in the pursuits of education. These papers can be used for entry into institutes of higher learning, or to secure a job in society. Such qualifications are reflective of one's level of education, and there trends to be a direct correlation between the prestige of the qualifications and the remunerations of the job. Superficially, what receiving an education has done here is to mark out an individual’s perceived worth in the labour market. It is no surprise that some individuals fare better than others in terms of academic pursuits, setting the stage for a better chance in securing a high-paying job than those who do not fare as well. This stratifying of individuals based on academic merit appears harmless, making it vital to point out the fact that individuals tend to tie their self-worth to their performances and recognition in society. Education divides society, only because society places such a big emphasis on the individual’s performance while receiving an education.

Apart from affective individuals, the effects of receiving an education transcends generations, making the idealistic notion of education as a unifying force more chimerical. This is achieved in many ways, such as parents who have received higher education realising the importance of education, being more supportive in their children’s academic pursuits, or parents paving the way for their children by using their influence to get their children into a good school. These phenomena are by no means a hypothetical scenario: there is a wide array of studies showing how children of parents who received a higher education more likely to receive one themselves too, childbirth policies reflective of how children of educated parents fare better, and how children of alumni members of the school get preferential entry. All these factors serve as chaperones in culturing generations after generations of the academically elite with an early head start. Each generation does not start equal in the race fuelled by education as previously mentioned. They start on unequal footing, and as education further selects for certain people, the divide between the academically-successful and unsuccessful becomes so deeply rooted in society that it gets increasingly difficult to bring about a reversal to this trend.

However, education itself has its merits, which have to be duly recognized and lauded. Other than education of the head, the system has seen to it that individuals also receive an education for the heart. A common value system is instilled in every individual, especially so with governments across the world now playing a more active hand in moral ad sex education. With the majority having the same takeaways on what is appropriate behaviour, societal norms are cemented. This is an extremely unifying aspect that education has bestowed on society, especially in today's increasingly liberal world which is governed more by society's approval or disapproval than government legislation. The unanimous agreement on contentious issues propels the assurance that one is not sticking out like a sore thumb and fans the feel-good feeling of inclusion in the society.

Nevertheless, in the same way as there are always two sides to a coin, education of the heart divides as it unites in equal measure. The keystone of this paradox belongs to the trend that education is shifting away from rote learning and into higher order thinking that compels individuals to not blindly accept what is proffered to them. Given the subjective nature of moral or sex education, coupled with growing strength of independent thinking, education has provided a platform for the identification of differences between people/ Actualisation of the individual reduces the homogenous nature of society, which is the basis of how divides arise. It is crucial to note that division of society in this case is not distasteful-- It is less of discrimination that the discovery of differences between members of society.

As we objectively studied major trends that education has brought about in our society, it is easy to conclude that education divides rather than unites it. While regretful in certain cases, it certainly is not the cause for undue worry. In actual fact, as education divides society financially, it might help to remove inequity with governments that handle good transfer payment systems. While education retains nuances of its unifying effects on society, the scale tips towards the other end when education is coupled with our hunger for economic progress, tighter family units and opportunities for freedom of speech.