After reading the materials of topic three, I have a better understanding about equality. The design principles stated by Kral and Schwab (2012) have a huge impact on my understanding about the equality of learning.

Among all the principles explained by Kral and Schwab (2012), what impressed me most is that they state the importance of reading when they explain the first principle. Previously, I thought books and online articles were effective ways to understand learning materials and read news. However, I did not realize that some people from deprived families lacked basic reading skills and reading materials until I read the Design principles for Indigenous learning spaces.

In Design principles for Indigenous learning spaces, Kral and Schwab (2012) state the reading problems that aboriginal people in Australia are facing. However, lots of people living in other countries are also facing the same problem. Take China as an example. Although the Chinese government provides lots of financial aids to help students with deprived backgrounds finish the nine-year compulsory education, there are still lots of kids from underdeveloped countryside who do not have opportunities to go to school.

There are two main reasons causing this problem. Firstly, lots of parents in those villages do not realize the importance of education. They hold the belief that reading skills are less important than practical skills. The other reason is that lots of villages do not have any schools or teachers. Even worse, in some villages, none of the residents can read.

 

This situation significantly affects the kids in those villages. Since most of those villages cannot provide enough jobs, lots of the teenagers in those villages have to leave their hometown when they are around fifteen-year-old and go to the developed cities to work. However, since they lack the ability to read, those teenagers are very likely to be treated unfairly in their daily life and work.

On the one hand, they are more likely to get a lower salary because of their educational backgrounds. Compared to teenagers who finished middle school courses, the salaries of teenagers who have never gone to school are often cut off by their bosses. On the other hand, those teenagers are often discriminated against by their peers which has negative influence on their mental health.

However, if they have the opportunities to go to school and improve their reading ability, their current living conditions can be improved. For instance, by finishing middle school courses, they can be equally paid. Also, by reading some books related to their career, their professional working skill can also be improved.

In order to change this situation, the government and people living in other provinces try their best to help kids in those villages. In terms of the government, they offer more and more financial aid each year. Currently, most people do not have to pay tuition fees until Grade 10. As for people from other areas, lots of teachers from other areas volunteer to teach students in those villages. Also, schools and libraries from other provinces donate books and newspapers on a certain basis.

 

References

Kral, I. & Schwab, R.G. (2012). Chapter 4: Design principles for indigenous learning spaces. Safe learning Spaces: Youth, literacy and new media in remote indigenous Australia. ANU Press. http://doi.org/10.22459/LS.08.2012