Scotland's social and economic inequality is deeply ingrained both in the educational system and in society at large. One in five Scottish children lives in poverty. The difficulties these have poor kids they are evident already at an early age and intensify during primary and secondary education.
Un educational study in Scotland assures that at three years the vocabulary of these little ones who live in poverty is much lower than that of children from families with high incomes. At five years the gap in vocabulary corresponds to about thirteen months. At the end of compulsory studies, the socially more advanced young people have a much better chance of reaching the university, since the old study centers still present many social differences.
So much so that leading educational studies in Scotland attest that young people living with high-income families are five times more likely to enter university than boys from more disadvantaged neighborhoods and areas. The Scottish universities They host 40% of their pupils from private schools, which only serve 5% of Scotland's total school population.
Reducing this gap has not been a social policy priority in recent years in Scotland (England, for example, has reduced it). All the programs that have ended successfully had a great deal of funding behind them, however, the Scottish authorities have only attributed 5% of the budget to social deficiencies, the minimum to fulfill their legal responsibilities.
For a few years now, the main opposition parties have been fighting so that the new scotland curriculum can improve the educational outcomes of children from poorer families. In the context of the independence referendum all this raises important questions about what can be done to tackle the growing problem of social and economic inequality so evident in Scotland.
Educational inequality will be a serious Scottish problem after the referendum. And, therefore, the distribution of resources is one of the great problems that the government will continue to face.