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Try as we might, it’s futile to battle ‘parentocracy’

I refer to the letter “‘Parentocracy’ skewing educational playing field” (Aug 20).

I refer to the letter “‘Parentocracy’ skewing educational playing field” (Aug 20).

In an ideal society, all children will receive the same amount of support for education and personal development, and parents will not support their children in any way. The best kids will get the best outcomes, and vice versa.

But parents do not behave this way. Any parent aware of the competition his/her children are facing will put in more resources to nurture them — if he/she has the means — to achieve an outcome that would be better than without his/her intervention.

In the past, this was less obvious because there were more people living in poverty, and fewer parents had the resources to give their children a leg-up. For that reason, even parents with the resources did not have to devote as much to give their children an advantage.

Today, it would be futile trying to equalise the access to the kinds of opportunities that children of parents with means have. Must we give every child piano lessons? Art classes? Ballet classes? Sports classes? Extra tuition? Gifted Education Programme exam coaching? No matter how much we try to equalise opportunities, parents with means can always provide more.

Even if the Government could pay for all those classes, those with the means still have other advantages. For example, they can afford a car and the time to ferry their children from class to class, so their children can take more classes. It is a never-ending race.

Absolute equality of opportunity is a fantasy. In its current state, our education system already provides decent opportunities for every child. And organisations that grant scholarships have the leeway to consider an applicant’s background when selecting candidates. Schools provide bursaries.

To the extent that there are sufficient resources to make the playing field more level, we should provide them, but we must always be aware of the limited resources that we have and the vicious circle that devoting more resources may entail.

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