CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

            Education is an important role in determining how we spend our adult life, usually a higher level of education means higher earnings, better health and a longer life. In Malaysia, education has allocated a large portion of its resources to education and education should be available to everyone. Other than, accessibility, equity in education also a concern in Malaysia. Equity has been one of the issues in education ever since education was made public (Levačić, 2000). Equity also a main objective in many countries because of the amount resources it consumes and it has been increasing from time to time (Siphambe, 2000).

            Therefore, to make a society to be more equitable, a fair system must have advantages of education that are available to everyone. However, there are still certain groups have not risen and have troubles in inequalities of income and wealth and it affects their education. There are many still left behind in education. At the same time, increased migration can make us faces new challenges for social cohesion in some countries while other countries face longstanding issues of integrating minorities. Fair and inclusive education for migrants and minorities is a key to these challenges. Equity in education enhances social cohesion and trust (Andre, 2008).

            Teachers are an important person in an education production function and therefore the economics of teacher inputs deserves a substantial amount of investigation (Berne and Stiefel, 1984; Belfield, 2000). The relationship between teacher and student is important in the aspect of interaction, which will cause a successful teacher practice and student learning to take place.  Teachers must know how to earn respect from the students to make a success in the classroom. Teachers must establish high expectations for students through informing them of acceptable classroom practices and create an environment that welcomes students to express their ideas about these practices.

Teachers’ placement often contributes to the inequity in public schools (Krei, 2000). In spite of this, which characteristics of a teacher are important is still debated among the scholars. While some feel that teachers’ experience is important, others give prominence to teachers’ qualifications because of their influence on students’ performance (Reischauer et al., 1973).

There are arguments that have prompted the Malaysian government through its Ministry of Education (MOE) to ensure equity in the education system. In Malaysia, education is viewed as a general policy approach to reduce inequality in the society (Snodgrass, 1980). This could be done by ensuring that educational resources are distributed equitably. Allocation of teachers to schools, being one of the educational resources, is controlled by Ministry of Education. Individuals who wanted to teach in Malaysian public schools must undergo training, either at the local universities or at teacher training colleges.

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY

“Equity is compromised due to the privatisation of education. Education has become a commodity. Those who can afford to buy it, buy it, and those who can sell it make money out of it”

(Satyarthi, 2016)

Teacher must know how to deliver the instruction to students during the learning in class in order to increase students’ learning and they can assists in organizing, storing and retrieving information in the brain for a long-term memory. These also need to avoid the inequity and inequality issues in education. To gain trust from students, teachers need to build up trust between students through positive interactions both in and out of the class. Teachers also must entrust students with ownership, and encourage students to share their expectations, persistence, and commitment and allow students to have a voice during the learning in class.

            Human rights are the common issues in every country, this issues is seen in terms of values and beliefs. Usually, the issue based on different class of cast, religion, ethnicity, races and so on. Nowadays, the consciousness towards human rights is expanding through education of human rights especially on equity and equality of education. In future, education could lead to the revolution of thoughts and quality of better living.

            Equity in education is a measurement of achievement, fairness and opportunity in education. Meanwhile, equality is an access to channels of communication and sources of information that is made available on even terms to all level playing field is derived from the concept of fairness as uniform distribution where everyone is entitled to the same level of access and can avail themselves if they so choose (Nancy, 2001).

So far, in Malaysia, equity and equality has been a sensitive issue among community. This matters have been discussed for a long time since 1951 in Barnes report where it more focusing on Malay Nationalism which not favored by other races. However, the government allowing the vernacular schools to provide the needs of Chinese and Indian community, therefore, generally rights to access to lower and secondary education in Malaysia is equals to all majority races.

      After that, we have Vision 2020 document which it predict a fully developed economy with national unity and social cohesion, social justice and political stability adhering to high standards of quality of life including social and cultural values. However, to move ahead in achieving the national mission of Vision 2020, the highest development priorities that remain are greater equity and reduction of inequality, particularly in the social realms. This includes the need to improve the situation of poor, indigenous, migrant and other marginalized children, women and young people. There is also a need to mobilize the social agenda and enhance the quality of living for all, with a special focus on promoting a protective environment and positive community values for all children in Malaysia.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT  

             Based on the structure of education systems, it affects equity because education systems have sorted students according to their achievement. There is evidence from previous research that studies of primary and secondary schools suggest that such division can increase inequities and inequalities in education. Besides that, socio-economic structure of education systems is also important. Secondary school systems where there are large socio-economic differences between schools tend to have worse results in examination. In fact, social background is a big contribution of an obstacle to educational success than in systems without such socio-economic differences between schools.

            Furthermore, the selection of students based on the academic achievement tends to create social differences between schools. It can increases the link between socio-economic status and performance, which tends to accelerate the progress of those who have already gained the best start in life from their parents and is associated with stronger performance at the top end of the scale in mathematics and science. So academic selection needs to be used with caution because of the risks it poses to equity (Andre, 2008).

            Nowadays, government allow parents to make choice of schools, somehow contributed to the risk of inequity because educated parents will make better choices. Therefore, the choices of school requires careful management from an equity perspective, particularly to ensure that it does not result in increased differences in the social composition of schools. Students are struggling within the systems and face the risks as they get into the final years of education that they are lack of choices and high risk of dropping out altogether. Mostly, the drops out students end the school with low skills and high rates of unemployment. The reasons for dropping out include disappointment with school, lack of support at home, negative learning experiences and having to repeat years because of poor performance (Andre, 2008).

            To improve the performance and prevent the drop out is to identify at-risk students early and take action quickly. This means monitoring information on attendance, performance and involvement in school activities, and having a concrete response to improve outcomes and prevent dropout.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

            The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges in achieving equity and equality in education. The results will be compared the students’ achievement that has an equity and equality in education with the students that do not have equity and equality in education. This study attempt to identify the challenges faced and barriers in applying equity focus, therefore, this will help teachers, students, parents, school and stakeholders to enhance the quality of education in school.

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To determine in what level the equity focus has been integrated in programme design and implementation that contributed to achieve results.
2. To identify the challenges faced and barriers in applying equity focus.
3. To recommend best approaches of equity focus can be more effectively used and applied in policy and programme development.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the level of equity focus has been integrated in programme design and implementation that contributed to achieve results?
2. What are the challenges faced and barriers in applying equity focus?
3. What are best approaches of equity focus can be more effectively used and applied in policy and programme development?

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

            This research will be conducted to study the challenges of achieving equity and equality in education. It will be done to compare the students’ achievement that has an equity and equality in education with the students that do not have equity and equality in education. Firstly, the findings of this study will be contribute to the existing study so the researcher hope that the findings of this study will help for the other researcher to proceed with this topic.

Moreover, this study also will introduce the new techniques and new learning strategies to teachers to achieving equity and equality in teaching. By the existing of new method hope will attract more students’ interest in learning with the new learning environment. Teachers also will improve their teaching strategies in class by deliver their lesson to make students more understand and interest in learning.

1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The limitations involved while conduct this study is time. All researchers just have six months to collect all the data needed and must complete their research in that time. Therefore, the sample only limited to the teachers in Secondary School in Selangor and the findings cannot be generalized to teachers in other school. Besides that, the limitation of the sample is the number of respondents. The surveys depend on teachers’ willingness to participate in this research and they may refuse to answer the question because they find it difficult to answer it.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Equity:

Equity is a personal or social situation, for example gender, ethnic or family background are not obstacles to achieving educational potential and everyone reach at least a basic minimum level of skills.

Equity emphasizes the fairness to individuals being different (Lincoln, 2015)

Equality:

Equality is an access to communication and sources of information that is derived from the concept of fairness, which everyone is deserved to be at the same level of access and can benefit themselves.

Equality is relative and it is the process towards the higher level in achieving quality and quantity depending on the specific historical and social contexts (Lincoln, 2015)

Education:

Education is a process of acquiring knowledge, developing the authority of reasoning and judgement and preparing them intellectually in future.

Education is a systematic process which a child or an adult acquires knowledge, experience, skills and attitude. It makes an individual civilized, refined, cultured and educated (Parankimalil, 2012).

1.9  CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this chapter described about the reason of this study have to be conducted in school. This study is conducted to study the challenges in achieving equity and equality in education. Finally, this chapter also discussed about the limitations of the study.