Does Education Provide Meritocracy in Pursuit of Success or Is It All an Illusion/Myth in Canada?

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The objective of this paper is to communicate the relationship between the level of education a person has, and the meritocracy that is enjoyed due to it. The functionalist and conflict theories are also studied. The present day struggles of the new graduates in securing well paying jobs, and the issues associated with repaying the student debt incurred in order to acquire higher educational achievement is analyzed. The statistics used here exclude the aboriginal population. Does Education provide meritocracy in pursuit of success or is it all an illusion/myth in Canada? The education system is viewed in different ways by different sociologists. We will discus the functional theory and the conflict theory only in this paper. Both the functionalist and the conflict theorists believe that education is a prelude to inequalities in work and manner of living, but they differ sharply on whether mass education results in class assignments that are just (Brym, 2010 p.502). Emilie Durkheim, the father of the functionalist theory believes that the education system is meritocratic. Meritocracy is the idea that those who work hard receive rewards. This is the view that the hardest working students get the best grades and go on to get the best jobs. There is equal opportunity for all; everyone has equal chance regardless of class, gender or ethnicity of succeeding, and becoming whatever they desire…doctor, lawyer or engineer. Meritocracy is defined as a system based on ability, a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects, a belief that the rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their ascribed status which includes their wealth and birth/social status. The origin of the word meritocracy was seen in the book ‘Rise of Meritocracy’ by Michael Dunlop Young, written in 1958 and

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