Contemporary Elementary Education in Greece and India: Incessantly Challenged Equity and Excellence

Greece and India have been the two pioneers of western and eastern cultures individually from the dawn of human civilization. Greek and Indian cultures are like cousins and western and eastern cultures are vastly considered as only the syntheses of these two nations' cultures respectively. Although a significant negative correlation between education and equity has been claimed by some empirical sociological studies, still education, on the one hand, is largely regarded as the key to strong democratic scenario and socio-economic upliftment and on the other, as a weapon to tackle exploitation, unemployment, poverty and ignorance (U. S. Department of Education, 2013). And it is evident that elementary education poses just as a basic foundation of a learning society and attaining a universal elementary education is yet far from reality in all the continents. But, in reality, there are disparities in educational equity or opportunities which give rise to a gap in educational excellence or achievement (Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, 2014). Thus, if education is not catered to each and every child, it in turn, leads to monetary loss and ultimately grave economic crisis (UNESCO, 2017). The chief objectives of this paper are to examine the existing factors hindering equity and excellence in Greek and Indian elementary education systems with a special reference of historical backdrops to compare these two and to improvise some creative and prospective way-outs to establish elementary educational opportunities and achievements for these two nations.