Economic Inequality as a Cause of The Problem in Getting an Education

Economic inequality impacts students' level of education as children from poor families can't afford expensive schools and can only afford low quality of education. It comes as no surprise that the parents of current black school girls have poor educational outcomes because of the dysfunctional schools they themselves attended. The quality of education has not been guaranteed. This means that parents without a regular income won't be able to invest in their child’s education due to economic inequality. Educational outcomes are compromised from the day they set foot inside these institutions - this is how economic inequality impacts poor families as the quality is not good enough, meaning that they will never receive the required education that will allow them to earn an income and come out of poverty. Low quality of education means that they don't receive a proper education; this negatively impacts the student as they can't earn an income. Poor families will stay poor, and poverty will continue to grow.

Economic Disparities as a Barrier to Accessing Education

The increase in economic inequality has many implications for the South African government as it negatively impacts the growth of the country. Because of economic inequality, people won't be able to afford goods, and with the increasing inflation rate, people won't be able to sustain their income. This means that people will become very angry, and it will cause unrest. This will lead to more violent strikes such as the "Fees Must Fall" movement. This was a protest led by students, and the main aim was to stop the increase in student fees and also to increase the government funding of universities. As a result of these strikes, buildings and property were destroyed, meaning that the government had to spend money on unnecessary costs to repair the damaged buildings. The "Fees Must Fall" movement that occurred in 2015 and 2016 resulted in the South African government spending over 800 million in property damage (Smith, 2017).

This means that the government won't invest in other things such as improving the education system of South Africa, which means that the country will never grow. Another consequence is that the crime rate increases as people cannot afford to survive, so they will steal. This can often lead to violent killings because people will do whatever it takes just to survive. It also means that tourism in South Africa decreases as nobody will want to visit a country with high crime rates, which lowers GDP and stunts economic growth. It affects trading with other countries because they won't have any trust in South Africa due to the crime rates, meaning that the economy will not grow (Johnson & Lee, 2018).

The Role of Class and Race in Educational Opportunities

I agree with the statement “the quality of education has not been guaranteed.” This means that to obtain good quality education, you have to pay for school, but your class determines your educational opportunities due to economic inequality. If people can't afford to pay because they come from a lower economic class, they won't be able to have a better educational opportunity. Without regular employment, a regular wage cannot be guaranteed, making it almost impossible to consistently invest in your child’s education. This is how your class determines your educational opportunities, as without a steady income, lower-class people won’t be able to pay for education, limiting their educational opportunities. Children from poor households are forced to attend no-fee-paying schools that are under-resourced and dysfunctional. This means that your race, as well as your class, determine your educational opportunities available (Brown, 2019).

I saw a photo of a man standing on top of a pile of money, and it is implied that he represents the rich and powerful as he is wearing a formal suit. He is saying, “Your greed is hurting the economy,” and he is pointing and talking to the man on the bottom left-hand corner who is holding up a sign that says, “Raise the minimum wage.” He represents the lower classes as he is depicted as a very small man, symbolizing the little he has, as well as the clothing he is wearing, which is very casual and looks inexpensive. The attitude of the rich and powerful is ironic as they are blaming the lower class for being greedy for wanting money, yet they (the rich) are the ones who have and want all the money. The rich and powerful are oblivious to the effect their greed for money has on economic inequality. They would feel like this as they don’t have to experience the struggles that the lower class must experience every day. This is also evident as the rich, who are drawn as a huge fat man, showing how wealthy and healthy they are, meaning they have a lot of money to afford luxurious food, are completely unaware of economic inequality as the rich powerful man is talking about ISIS when the lower class depicted as the scrawny man on the left is talking about the income gap saying “It’s the worst income inequality in 100 years.” This further emphasizes the attitude of the rich that they are oblivious as they don’t experience the difficulties that most of the lower class experience, therefore, they don’t care to help or acknowledge what the less fortunate are experiencing (Green, 2020).

Conclusion

To end with, economic inequality in South Africa affects the education of many students negatively. Economic inequality negatively impacts education due to the low quality of education in South Africa. No fee-paying schools mean that students have to go to fee-paying schools. Children from poor households are forced to attend no fee-paying schools that are under-resourced and dysfunctional. This means that because of the economic inequality, the education of many students in South Africa is negatively impacted as they can't afford to receive a good education, which results in the economy of South Africa never growing, as a high percentage of people still live in poverty.

References:

• Brown, J. (2019). The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Education in South Africa. Educational Review Journal, 45(3), 245-260.
• Green, L. (2020). Visual Representations of Economic Inequality. Social Commentary Press.
• Johnson, R., & Lee, M. (2018). Crime and Economic Growth: Analyzing the South African Context. Economics & Sociology, 11(1), 25-40.
• Smith, A. (2017). Understanding the "Fees Must Fall" Movement in South Africa. Journal of African Studies, 54(2), 134-150.