Discriminative activity on basis of gender, race, caste, color or creed is an ideology we’ve been fighting for ages now. But even then, it still persists, however the more devastating fact is its existence in school across the world.
One can try understanding these types of feelings to reside in those who are uneducated. The narrower outlook towards equality is not aloof in the schools and colleges, and this is not something existent only in certain parts of the world but everywhere.
In the USA, segregation on ethnicity seems to not go away, a recent research conducted by the Department of Education showed that; white students are likely to hang out with whites and ignore the African-American and the Latino students. Asian children too are subjected to such segregation. With the American society, appearing very tolerant through all medias, the fact remains that it’s not like that at all.
Over at India, discrimination on the basis of sex and wealth has been very dominant. Students at college level are also very conscious of whom they hang out with, and they judge each other on the basis of how wealthy they are. The poor are ill-treated, while the rich boss over like there’s no tomorrow. This is not prominent amongst students only; faculty members also deliberately humiliate the poor. This is an issue going deep into the roots of humanity; it’s not even concerned with history or religion anymore.
The UK ethnic minority students still face inequality; the Pakistani students are less likely to be offered a place at a university, as compared to their white peers, ditto for Black African students. Other than the bias on ethnicity, religious bias is too prominently existent. With Muslim girls being clearly identified by their hijaab, they aren’t treated the same, and looked down upon, or made to feel uncomfortable. Religious attacks like these are commonly found not only in the schools and campuses in the UK, but also reside in USA, India, UAE etc.
Schools at China also face regional favoritism. This Regionalism is against specific regional group based on their places of origin, provinces, states and residential zones. Students are not allowed to transfer schools to another region, they are simple not accepted. This is also a cause of hindrance to their educational development. Students have to score higher in-order to get into a good university if residing in a particular province, while students else where wouldn’t have to struggle as hard.
The fact that these acts of partiality exist at a place where educating is taking place is bizarre. What is the point of sending children to schools, if basic tolerance and acceptance isn’t taught? Just because it’s not part of the syllabus and doesn’t take up a chapter in the text books doesn’t mean these morals are not to be expressed in the classrooms.
Educational institutes should hold responsibility beyond, basic education and students that are scoring high percentages. Experiences of discrimination can affect the students beyond their school life, and can be a great cause of aggressive behavior and hatred, which will only prolong the existence of these phenomena. Education has to meaning if the future of the world is getting straight A’s in academia but are failures as members of the society.
