INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION AND SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION A STUDY OF SCHOOL EDUCATION IN UTTAR PRADESH

Article 45 (Part IV), in Indian Constitution; under the Directive Principles of State Policy, contains provision for free and compulsory education for all children below 14 years of age within a period of ten years from the commencement of the constitution. Article 46 points out that the state shall promote with special care the educational and economic Interests of the weaker sections of the people particularly of the SCs and STs and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. The study has Identified the cluster of socio-economic and educational inequalities in terms of community, native place, levels of parents' educational as well as socio-economic background on the one hand, along with the socially patterned inequality pertaining to the sex variable and the educational opportunities In terms of the school system management and medium of instruction and distribution of groups at the Plus One level along with the level of academic performance 1n both positive (percentages In public examination) and negative (Incidence of failure) aspects on the other. The present study has brought out that social inequalities do have their consequences on the life chances of individuals, reaffirming similar conclusions of earlier studies, and so in this light the study calls for a reviewing and reformulating of the merit paradigm so that the reckoning of merit becomes holistic, realistic and Just without any social group claiming monopoly over it. Hence, In the light of the main thrust of the study and the theoretical perspective adapted to understand the hard realities presented by the data It Is found appropriate to call for an alternative education model radically different In content, form, methods and purpose which could provide an effective answer to the question of equality.