It has been found by researchers in education that the odds are stacked high against the learner from a deprived socio-economic background. A learner, whose parents are illiterate, whose parent earn poor income, who has no access to the electronic media of information, and who has no educated siblings or peers to learn from, faces an uphill task in his educational career. The task is even more difficult if the learner lives in an obscure rural area for he is then cut off from modern civilization.
The learner from an academically enriched background, whose parents are highly learned and financially stable, and whose has constant access to the electronic media, has a head start over his deprived counterpart from the village. Therefore, it is unfair that learners from different backgrounds should face the same competition for admission into higher institutions or for employment opportunities since nobody determines their background.
Unfair as the practice may be, it is not easy to work out an alternative system. In the first place, distinguishing between students from academically enriched and those from educationally deprived backgrounds and reserving some places for the latter, would amount to double standard. Indeed, such a policy would inevitably engender a number of malpractices on the part of candidates. Moreover, formulating a policy by which learners from educationally deprived background are given special employment opportunities would tend to play down the practice of selection on the basis of merit.
It does appear that the way out is to minimize the odds against which the less advantaged learners have to struggle. If rural communities are improved, and if conscious efforts are made to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, much would have been done to help the socio-economically disadvantaged learners overcome some of the odds against them.
