The biggest factor affecting education is this: the quality of learning is very low that even students who have finished high school and are able to attend college are still struggling and haven’t acquired the necessary competencies, are falling behind, unable to assess themselves, and lack persistence to the challenges of schooling. In Japan, compulsory education is until junior high school and I can witness many children who are able to graduate primary and middle school despite low attendance and lack of academic achievement. Low-ranking high schools accept students from varying districts with the requirements to sit in an interview and entrance examination inconclusively whether they pass it or not. My experience as an educator in Japan is that many students in high school in Japan are still unable to structure a proper English sentence despite having to learn it in primary and middle school.
Learning isn’t happening (World bank, 2018). According to the most recent data presented, millions of children around the world haven’t acquired functional learning and numeracy, couldn’t even read a single word despite having attended school in the primary years. In India, students’ achievements are very low that they couldn’t master two-digit subtraction in grade 3 according to the data collected in 2016. The basic competencies required to achieve in primary school are crucial to becoming competent in secondary school, hence, the incompetency in the most basic requirements such as reading, and numeracy impedes further learning.
I conclude that the factors that lead to this problem are being poor, lack of access to advance resources like books and technologies, incompetent teachers, ineffective teaching methods, outdated curriculums, poor assessment methods, lack of student support, cultural issues, and even mentally slow children themselves.
There are risks in believing in the wrong expectation and sticking to a fixed mindset. It is important to consider the complexities of many aspects in the world, understand that there are many ways to achieve literacy, not by the books you read or the school you have attended, but by being a person with an open mind and is open to broaden your knowledge and accept incapacity, which extends whether or not they need to seek further learning instruction or stick to the current pace as what an assessment suggests. The low-ranking high school in Japan that accept low-ability students deliver a low-level curriculum, their students acquire less or no additional knowledge, or retain their academic level, while high-ranking schools provide advanced resources and are able to equip their students in their higher learning potential. Again, the danger in having to believe that low achieving students cannot surpass the challenges that high achieving students do is poisoning the society, therefore, affects the learning outcomes. Many educated individuals despite having to achieve higher learning stick to the idea that what they know is the truth, and what they have learned is universal. These educated individuals can be teachers, curriculum developers, doctors, politicians, and many professionals who function in the society that by sticking to their truth can result in failure of achieving a better economy and hindering its expansion. This danger has been demonstrated eloquently by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (see The danger of a single story, 2009) that all people need a mental shift whether you have achieved the highest methods of learning is important to recognize we are all impressionable and vulnerable in the face of humanity. All these disparities that affect students' ability to meet standardized educational goals are a matter of cultural socialization, learning specific information in many defined contexts to be able to produce an optimum level in education (Nakkula, M. & Pineda, C., 2015).
References:
Adichie, C. N. (2009). The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal 2009. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript#t-99179
Nakkula M.J., Pineda C. (2010) Cultural Issues in Education. In: Clauss-Ehlers C.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_111
World Bank. (2018). Ch 3: The many faces of the learning crisis. In The World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28340/9781464810961_Ch03.pdf
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