Educational Imbalance: Assessments & Roles

Doing a lot for so little time and resources is exhaustive.  But looking back and seeing that only few are ever fulfilled, that makes the exhaustion twice as heavy.  Putting all that in context of education and its Educational Imbalance you get.

An imbalance is not just something education sectors could shudder or frown about; its immediate request is action – to address the imbalance and perhaps, avoid encountering its perplexing issues.  It may be sufficient to proffer such threats to scare the education authorities towards function; but that too suggests a more proactive approach: an assessment of the level of Educational Imbalance occurring at schools or certain regions.

This assessment may tell people a lot; it could introduce everyone to new challenges, newer than those substandard textbooks or teachers.  It may implicate as to how the educational institution is bound to address the needs of its home community.  Assessments are, indubitably, invaluable.

And while assessments are capable of giving clues about the Educational Imbalance permeating in a school, region, or society, it doesn’t readily provide answers.  Hence, more actions are expected to see through this lack (of answers).  The assessment still sneaks through the picture as it is a means or a guide throughout the answer-search.

Education authorities from both government and non-government branches have their corresponding tactics in looking for answers.  But as the task is relied upon them, it is also important that other education stakeholders recognise their roles in the attempt to setting back the balance.
Parents could give voice through parent-teacher associations.  They can also extend information and understanding to their children, the students.  This in turn may encourage students to also give their take in the whole imbalance issue, as they are the common casualty (of such issue).  Teachers could also mimic the same parent-effect.   

Educational Imbalance: The Other Side of the Coin

In the vast world occupied by thinkers and doers, education is the balancing scale.  Education permits students to work on their relative weakness, that is if they’re inclined to think, they’re taught to apply it and the same goes vice versa.

But balance can never persist without its twin pair, imbalance, or educational imbalance.  In fact, it’s a famous spot for transition, like:

• From not knowing what education is, to identifying and fully acknowledging it.

• From not being able to assimilate the impacts of education, to being equipped with such understanding.

• From a lack of access to education, to the newly established channels.

The list could go on and on; yet, it can never deter an observer from seeing how dramatic a change is if it started with educational imbalance.  Change, then is much more appreciated – citizens are cognisant to their various rights; no one needs to tread the blind side of ignorance, and a lot more.

Obviously, the word superimposes transition, and to that dramatic effect makes it look like a ‘revolution.’  At the heart of this transition is the dream for progress; and at play are stakeholders that stand a great chance of creating a huge leap not solely for them, but for their brothers and sisters.

Perhaps, it is why there ever exists in movies, antagonists – they make the protagonist’s existence worthwhile.  The same probably appeals to educational imbalance; without it, would it be easy to move forward?  Or much interestingly, would the need to move forward become evident?

More questions may chase the hunt for logic or rationale behind such concept.  The essence here is to present a belief that those anomalies, discrepancies, and other maladies exist for the purpose of pushing people to relentlessly inquire for remedies – something invaluable for a concept, or an argument. 

Countdown of Existing Educational Imbalance

The word imbalance fails not to suggest a bunch of figure-tinkering tools like weighing scales or the common seesaw. Funny it seems, with its iconic falling and rising ambivalence. However, there are times that even its silly analogies impale the sore maladies of society -- educational imbalance, for one.

What imbalances could subsist under the wing of educators and academics? Provided below is some of it:

1. Imbalances in quality of education. An example would be the strong emphasis laid on higher education but less of such in secondary education. Hence, quality education is proliferated via strict evaluation in higher education.

2. Educational imbalance in access to quality education. Quality is largely accommodated by urban areas, while its percolation fails to effectively populate amongst its rural counterparts.

3. Imbalances in educational resources. This is inclusive of both human and material resources. Imbalances in human resources entail the shortage of teachers in areas of great demand. On the other hand, material resource-imbalance manifests through the lack of physical appropriation of text and reference books, technological equipment like PCs or learning software, and other important facilities, such as libraries and audio-visual rooms.

4. Educational imbalance in course or program choice. This describes the limited choice of course or program offers in an educational institution and/or community. For example, a fishing community naturally offers marine biology programs or tourism courses, but may lack information technology or I.T. courses.

Indeed, behind such numbered imbalances is a multitude of factors at play. In other words, the obvious may not probably show it all and may hide the real culprit. Hence, imbalances are rampant – its lack of genuine roots propels everyone to point fingers and not address the real issue. Yet, this does not give the authority any right to give no fight against these imbalances.

Educational Imbalance: How?

Education has been considered as one of the main pillars of the human society. Through education, the society has been able to maintain its humanity while posting progress in all other aspects. Though education, human beings are able to pass on, develop and improve knowledge, skills and abilities. Without education, a person would be left fending by himself through relying on his instincts.

Regrettably, there is so-called educational imbalance that threatens to weaken the formal process of imparting knowledge and skills. This imbalance has been there since the education was institutionalized. Through the course of time, this imbalance has become more and more noticeable, especially in the modern times where equality and parity is the common theme. Although politicians, governments and education stakeholders have been doing something to minimize the imbalance in education, the situation seemed do not improve but only became more obvious than before.

How is educational imbalance happening today? Here are two situations that prove that imbalance is very rampart today.

• There are places in the world where young people has no or limited access to university or even vocational education. Many of the major and well-funded universities and colleges in the world are located in urban areas and mostly in developed countries.

• University and college education have become less affordable to the many young individuals aiming to study their chosen courses. In the United Kingdom alone, students have to pay tuition fees of up to £9000 per year. Those who do not have the money would have no choice but be discouraged in studying.

Educational imbalance is not rampart in one side of the world, but in all part of the globe. For the imbalance to disappear, there is a need for education stakeholders to move according to their humanitarian will.

The Issue of Global Education Imbalance

Late in 2011, a group of people launched a protest called “Occupy Wall Street,” which rocked the world’s central financial district. The aim of the protest’s organizers was to send out a strong message about the imbalance of income and wealth in the United States, where it is believe that one percent of the working population controls around 40 percent of the country’s wealth. Same is true about the wealth situation around the world. However, wealth imbalance is not the only thing that the protesters should cry about. They should also worry about the educational imbalance prevalent around the world.

Educational imbalance may seem not as great as a concern as wealth imbalance, but think of this: wealthy persons became that rich because of a certain platform from which they could launch their careers. That platform is education. Although it is true that some billionaires and millionaires were college drop-outs, it makes sense that their success could still be attributed to the fact that they learned how to do things right by acquiring the necessary education. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the popular and money-magnet social networking site Facebook, was a college dropout himself, and that is from Harvard University. He started Facebook along with his friends while still in Harvard, and what he is now could be attributed to education being his springboard.

In terms of worldwide educational imbalance, the main factor for this is the unequal distribution of institutions that provide higher education like universities and colleges. Presently, majority of higher education institutions that made the top 400 of the best universities and colleges in the world is located in developed nations like the US, United Kingdom, Japan and most countries in Europe. No wonder that these countries enjoy development at a higher level than others in the world.

Educational imbalance in Nigeria

        The citizens of Nigeria have already put in a lot of effort and personal sacrifice just to unite it politically. However, the true measure of a united nation cannot be said through its political system or military might. The issues which affect unity in Nigeria can be traced to a dominant social undertone. Social restructuring is an important move to ensure that a society can be created which will provide equal opportunities for all. This, in turn will contribute to a lasting national unity and stability. In order to achieve an egalitarian society, the problem of educational imbalance must be addressed in order to give equal employment opportunities for everyone. The most important factor that will promote equal opportunity employment is education, most especially higher education.

        As it is, certain regions of Nigeria will be disturbed to know about their prospects to improve their status in life should Nigeria be united by studying the pattern that is shown by the educational imbalance in higher education opportunities. This is the kind of disturbance is the reason why people make actions and counteractions leading to mutual suspicion, the practice of nepotism especially in politics and the overall loss of confidence by ordinary people for the idea of fair play.

        In Nigeria, the existence of educational imbalance in opportunities for obtaining higher education has been observed among its various ethnic groups. This is one of the reasons for the friction that often occurs between ethnic tribes. While efforts from various sectors have been made to correct the disparity with regards to educational imbalance, this issue will have to be faced head on in order for lasting nation building and social integration to be achieved.

        Note that this problem is not unique to Third World countries such as Nigeria. There are also other countries whose population is composed of various groups and races such as Canada and Malaysia which experienced this kind of problem.

Educational Imbalance in the Study of Architecture

        There is a general consensus in the field of Architecture as an academic discipline that it should characterise both art and science, with an additional argument that it is also considered as practice, because society and clients requiring architectural services require several constraints and complexities which are all critical for architecture to stay vital. In terms of the education that aspiring architects get, an important question that should be asked is whether they are receiving adequate opportunity for education in all three aspects. The absence of lack of one or more of these components will result to an educational imbalance.

        In the United States, educational imbalance occurs because most of its schools of architecture, most of awards programs that draw sponsorship from architects and many professional journals all cultivate the perception that the artistic side of architecture alone is exciting, intellectually satisfying, and worthy to be recognised, while architecture as a science is generally perceived to be a burden, something that is only learned because of necessity and learned with the minimum amount of knowledge required. The idea that the scientific side of architecture involves imagination, creativity or design skills is interesting by its own merits. As for architecture and its practices, this is generally perceived to be the responsibility of the employer who will hire the student when he or she eventually graduates. However, many architectural firms have problems in stabilizing their work load and others cannot afford to do on-the-job training for new hires because of austerity measures. Another critical aspect of the completion of a project relies on the strong working relationship with clients, users, government agencies and other parties who all have a hand in the project.

        So how did an educational imbalance develop? It is because majority of an aspiring architect's education is through “the Studio” which uses a learning format that allows students to develop their own projects while they are guided and criticised by their teachers. Unfortunately, the faculty teaching students in the Studio setting subscribes to the school of thought of architecture as art. To remedy the educational imbalance, changes should be allowed in the Studio to allow students to further explore the aspects of architecture as science and practice and integrate this into the curriculum.