The education system is unfair. Recently, while discussing with my friend, we talked about how high school education is different in the private and public network. She talked about how she felt a gap from when she went from private education to public education, specially on parent to teacher connection, this conversation had me thinking of how different these systems are.
I have been a private school student for 10 years now. I read from the best textbooks and learn from the best teachers, but all of this is hidden behind a paywall. In my journey through basic education (from elementary through high school) I’ve noticed how private schools are focused on college entrance exams and how their students' approvals become advertisement.
In Brazil, going to a public university is often seen as a way to get access to good free education or have a respectable degree. However, the ingress to higher education is mainly through college entrance exams or the national high school exam. Currently, the best way to prepare for those exams is to pay for tutors or prep courses, which come at extremely high costs.
Before taking a scholarship test on a popular preparatory course for college entrance exams, I had sat through a presentation on the course model and their approval rates. Over 50% percent of medical undergraduates in Unicamp (Campinas University) were students of their course. This has stuck with me since, to pay for a spot in a public institution seems kind of counterintuitive.
This is the sad reality of many countries. To get into prestigious public institutions, many people opt to pay tutors or courses, leaving those with no conditions to pay for a better education with a harder access to higher education, essentially perpetuating class inequality in an environment that was supposed to negate that.
It is also important to notice that it is not the fault of those who pay for preparatory courses, the system itself is flawed and only serves to mask a sad truth: There is no space available for everyone. Until education isn’t properly valued and more investments are made towards making it more accessible, the system will continue to favour those who already have an unfair advantage over those who have no conditions to pursue a degree.