Assess the Importance of Cultural Factors in Causing Social Class Differences in Educational Achievement (20 Marks).

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Assess the importance of cultural factors in causing social class differences in educational achievement (20 marks). In the early 40’s there were many changes which brought about the change in the way the educational system operated. The most important of these changes was the Educational Act in 1944- which made primary and secondary school compulsory till up to the age of 16. Official statistics shows that these changes have indeed brought about the increment of the overall working class population having better grades and an improved education knowledge in comparison to the previous generation. However, there is no evidence to show that class inequities in educational attainment have shown any trends to decline. Social class background has a powerful influence on the child’s education attainment. For example, middle class families may get most of the places at elite universities, better grades, higher pay rate, and may stay longer in education. One popular theory of class differences in achievement is that richer parents can afford to send their children to private education, where- arguable- their quality of teaching is better than at state school, because they may have the better equipment to explain elaborate ideas, they have smaller classes so there is more teacher-pupil interaction during lesson time. Official statistics shows that 7% of the British children go to private schools, of the 7%, 90% of them go to elite universities, like Oxford, Cambridge. Andrew Adomis and Stephan Pollard (1998) see private education as a major way in which privileges are transmitted from one generation to the next, suggesting that the middle class will always be middle class, therefore they will always be able to go to private schools, always go to elite universities, always have higher pay rate, always have better jobs. However, private does not indicate for class

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