Meritocracy In Education Essay

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Education system is viewed by different people in different ways1. Some see education system as a form of education where people learn the norms and values in school, while the others see education system an agent of social control where people were imparted to obey the expectations of the society such as who and how to be respectful to the others through school curriculum.
The idea of meritocracy is a system whereby the people in the society are rewarded based on their own performance, ability and achievement rather than the wealth or class of an individual. While meritocratic in the view of education, is a system that everyone gets equal opportunity to learn, succeed and excel regardless of their race, gender or class. However, meritocracy …show more content…

For example, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has recognized that the key to success in Singapore is based on one’s network. Not only this, he has also indirectly admitted the flaws of meritocracy, and that our egalitarian society has reached tipping point. With the increased social immobility, entrenchment of the elite and widening gap of the poor from accomplishing their goals, it become a true reality as our Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong says that “fewer children from lower-income families are rising to the top of the heap”13. Furthermore, he also states that inequality is now a challenge in creating a comprehensive society, and with social stratification, the rich are doing better while the poor are doing less well14. Thus, this has been a serious problem caused by meritocracy that would need to be reinforced.
Next, based on the problems mention above, some of the solutions that education can do to address these problems are as follows:
First, meritocracy fails to consider the fact that people do come from different backgrounds that maybe advantage to a certain group of people. One example would be the “meritocratic run” played during our tutorial, where it create a sense that people are judged by who reach the finishing line first even if they have different starting

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