A DISCREPANCY IN THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS IN CITIES AND VILLAGES

Introduction

Nowadays a gap in education between urban and village schools is widespread in world. This gap is associated with inequality of academic performances in 2 schools, lack of opportunities in villages, little budget allocation for education in countryside. It’s a global problem because education contributes to the economical, social and general development of the country, by raising talented, intelligent people and creating equitable and prosperous society. As other countries, Kazakhstan faces this issue widely as there are over 5000 schools located in rural areas. (n.d.) Education depends mostly on teachers, their qualification needs to be better for better academic results of students. In Kazakhstan, between 2 schools, there is difference for 13,7% in qualification characteristics of teachers. (n.d.) According to this percentage, small-staffed schools have lower qualified teachers, which is a problem for further education in rural areas. I chose this topic because I am a volunteer for club which organizes lessons on English for village children, who have problems with learning English language in their schools. I think even small-staffed schools need to be on par with urban schools, children of such colleges deserve bright futures as city college kids do.

Explanation of key terms

Discrepancy – surprising lack of compatibility or similarity between 2 things

Education – the process of receiving systematic instruction

Village and city schools – colleges located in city and village

Society – a group of people, environment

Context section

A discrepancy in funding between 2 schools decreases the quality of education in rural areas. Rural schools often face challenges in maintaining infrastructure and facilities due to limited funding which may lead to inadequate classroom spaces, lack of resources for technology and other equipments. The state of a facility in this moment dramatically affects the educational opportunities of the students in countryside. These infrastructure problems in schools not only affect academic performance, but they also infringe on the rights to education, as well as the rights to safety and health of learners as well as of teachers.( DBSA. (2022).  For example, a recent study from the U.K. found that environmental and design elements of school infrastructure together explained 16 percent of variation in primary students’ academic progress.(Teixeira, J., Amoroso, J., & Gresham, J. (2017, October 3).Also in the 2020-2021 period 36 schools were in a state of disrepair, almost all of which were located in rural areas Cap. (2023, May 17). Therefore infrastructure is vital for academic success of children

It may be difficult for rural schools to recruit and retain qualified instructors due to a lack of financing. Teachers may be dissuaded from working in remote locations by lower pay, less possibilities for professional growth, and less resources available for classroom assistance. Because of this, rural schools might find it difficult to retain a stable and qualified faculty, which could have an effect on the standard of instruction given to pupils.  For example, while the teaching force in urban and suburban school systems both increased by about a fifth in that timeframe, it decreased by about a fifth in rural schools. Preston, T. (2023, October 30).Thus teachers profession in process of education plays an integral role for rural children.

Theres no significant differences in academic achievements of students in 2 schools.

Equality of opportunities in students is the first reason, why there’s no difference in academic outcomes. As children have equal opportunities, no matter of the school’s equipment, they will be given equal chances to prepare for assessments, exams. Materials for testing will be based off the themes that each school has covered, everything else depends on children’s willow to prepare. Provasnik found that there was no difference in high school grades, even though rural areas has less percentage of APs(69%) while urban ones have 93% of them(Manley, K. (2018).) Thus, children’s possibilities are equalized no matter of what.

Student outcomes depend on qualification of the teacher. Such teacher should present the material to children in understandable way no matter of conditions  (n.d.). Well trained teachers are capable of raising children which will do academically good, even in worst conditions, such teachers will find a way to teach: 1996 NAEP scores found that rural schools did better than urban schools in math due to better teacher trainings( Angela, J.(2021)).That is why it doesn’t depend on the state of the school, its on the responsibility of the teacher(Deliverable 3.2 Rural Schools Innovation Strategies. (n.d.).

Rural schools are in lag compared to city schools in terms of technology and digital resources.

Not enough money allocated by the government makes rural schools to fall behind  the urban ones(Stanford, L. (2023, November 20).Limitations on budget which leads then to limitations of digital gadgets restrict children to be aware of up-to-date information, news around the world. Technology gives students access to resources from all over the world (Home. (n.d.). In Kampala, 42% of households had a working TV set, while in the countryside, ownership ranged between 1 and 3%. There is higher access to a mobile phone at more than half of the households across the country, but less than one third have a smartphone, which  makes children to stay behind on awareness of whats happening in the world. Technologies are a key for engaging students fully in getting knowledge. (Independent, T. (2020, November 4).

Geographical location impacts on having less access to technologies too.An access to high-speed internet limits rural kids to have less opportunity for making researches, reading digital textbooks, using tools, online platforms and even in preparing for exam. The average score was around a 30, but a student who performed modestly lower in digital skills scored about 7 percentiles lower nationally on the SAT. (Michigan State University. (2020, March 2).To summarise children’s location is important to gain enlightment along with technologies.

Aims

The purpose of this research is to explore if such gap still exists in Kazakhstan as a big problem and how is it getting solved by experts, the issue with technologies, how schools are equipped with them and was it effective using them to improve education. The aim is to find out how much budget is allocated per year for schools in local areas. Hypothesis : Some village colleges still are lagging behind urban schools. The research may show the difference between 2 schools in form of academic achievements, budget, infrastructure of schools, the result may be either gap between schools, either equalization of these colleges.

1) How different is the amount of money which was allocated by government in 2 areas?

2) What are the differences in pupils' academic achievement between schools in villages and cities? What possible causes exist?

3)What differences exist in urban and rural schools' access to technology and digital resources, and how does this affect students' education?

4)How do economic factors intersect with the gap between 2 schools? And how it does impact social inequality?

Methods

Purposes of my research are to explore issue of a gap between city and rural schools and methods section can be a great tool for doing it. For methodology section there were selected 2 types of methods, which are interview and survey. For both of methods, there will be 10 questions for each to learn about the present situation in rural and urban schools. Questions will be around the “How 2 schools differ from each other on financial plan, activities, school lessons and grades, technological equipment?”. Interview and survey both will help me in making a hypothesis and compare it with the previous made hypothesis. They will give me more information from which i can make a brief summary of the research.

For primary methods type there has been choosen an interview. There will be asked questions from 2 people. Interview is great at getting more detailed answers from the interviewee and it can also get qualitative information. It will allow for me to analyze the gap between 2 schools in an easy way as there will be complete answers. Also interview is a good option because it will allow to get information from experts of their area and avoid biased answers as there will be 2 experts as said above. Interview will be conducted in Taldykorgan and in offline format as it will be more efficient to get detailed answers. Questions will be asked from local directors of rural and urban schools and they will be about the funding of the school, interest of students in various types of activities, size of the classrooms, amenities.

Survey is indicated as the secondary methods type. It will be made for 50 or more people, which will be the students of rural and city schools of Taldykorgan city. Survey is useful on getting answers in a short period of time and brief answers. Plus survey can be taken from a great amount of people which will allow to summarize the given answers and make a diagram of received answers. Survey will be made in online format, because it won’t need any effort and will be more convenient way to get answers as some students may be busy. Survey questions will be just as the interview’s one but will be based on students choice more. It includes questions like “Are you satisfied with school activities, lessons?; Do you get good grades on science themed classes?; Is there enough space and amenities for school lessons to be provided?”

Results

Survey was taken from 108 people overall.

According to the results of the survey of people, which was taken from rural schools, 40% of students were from 10^th grade, 28% of them 11^th grade and 32% of them are 9^th grade students(fig 6), which were all 90% from Erkin school of Taldykorgan . 58% of students were male and 42% of them were female. Number of respondents in 15-16 age gap contained 44%, 14-15, 16-17 year olds were 28%.

Outcomes of the survey in city schools showed that 45,6% of students were in 11^th, 29,8% of pupil were in 10^th and 24,6% of them were in 9^th grade(fig 1). Most of students were from NIS Taldykorgan – 58,8% and other 41,2% were from different schools such as Haileybury, UWIS, 202 school gymnasium schools of Almaty.42,1% of respondents were in 16-17 age gap, while 35,1% were in 15-16 age range and 22,8% of them are 14-15 year olds. 59.6% of students were female and 40,4% were female.

RQ1: Do students involve in activities out of school with interest?

22% of students answered sport and music, 18% of them responded with none of activities and other 18% showed dance, while 14% of them replied with art and 6% voted for languages(fig 7). To the open-ended question, do you feel engaged in those activities, 8% of students replied with “They are fine, we attend them regularly”. Other 12% of pupil, responded with “I am not interested in them, I do not have time”; 68% answered “Activities are fun and interesting,I like it very much”, 12% of them answered “They are kind of boring”(fig 8)

24,6% of pupil answered sport, 12,3% voted for music art and languages, 19,3% were attending dance lessons. 10,5% showed none(fig 3). Other not significant answers were volunteering, Olympiads and science, clubs. To the open-ended question about involvement of students in out of school activities, 29% of people answered “Yes I do attend with interest”, while 10,4% have responded with “Certainly, kind of” and 60,6% “I do not have time for them, i do not attend any”(fig 4)

RQ2 : How educational programs provided by government affect student’s intelligency?

The results of attendance of rural school children to olympiades to improve intellectual skills showed 62% of No and 28% Yes(fig 9). While city school children responded with 34,5% of No, 20,7% Yes and 44,8% I am not sure(fig 5)

Interview was taken from Viktor Nikolaevich Sosin and from Erlan Erkinbekov Sataevich

RQ3 : How do economic factors intersect with the gap between 2 schools?

To the question of the budget which was allocated for this year, Erlan Sataevich answered “I can not reveal that kind of information, but budget stays almost the same every year, sometimes there are shortages for 5-10%” For “Are there any other sources of funding besides the government”, he replied “No as our school depends mostly on state. But there are cases when money allocates by parents when it comes to buying books, renovation”

To the 1 question Viktor Nikolaevich answered similarly “I can not say that kind of information, not in precise way and not approximately, however budget stays the same every year, there were not any troubles with it”. For 2 question director responded “No, our school is totally governmental so it only depends on the government. Founders are the state people only.”

RQ4 : How large are classrooms and do they provide enough space for each student and equipments?

To this question Erlan Sataevich said “Classrooms in our school are medium sized, but there are enough spaces for every 25 students in each class and there are other spaces for teacher, boards”

Viktor Nikolaevich answered “Now we have groups for 16 people which have not been before, we try to place those groups in classrooms with enough space. In general our school provides sufficient space for 900 students to study. Our school is not that type of school which lacks spaces. Big sized classrooms are spacious for everyone. Maybe in small sized classrooms as in ICT classes, there is not enough space, but students bring their own laptops.

Discussion

The author of this work is a professional in his job as he is the candidate of sciences in history and associate professor in the department of regional studies of L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University – reputable university. He has a research which was about ungraded schools in Kazakhstan and he took a part in Central Asian School Analysts Cabar. Moreover his interests included the educational reform which means he has a knowledge about education, schools and he is an expert in this field, which also detects that his work is a credible source. Other arguments in author’s research were about quality of education in rural schools and material, technological foundation. Generally arguments are nice written but it lacks of structure of an argument which is the statement, 2 sub-arguments and explanation with evidence, brief summary. Author has written in both arguments the claim and plethora of evidences, but he did not include explanation, 2 sub-arguments and concluding sentences.

The source is credible as it is written in period of 2021, which is the latest information. Author of the work is an expert on education field as stated above. Also the source was taken from site which is Central Asia program. It is an educational, research-oriented platform and global organization which discovers educational aspects of 5 post-Soviet Central Asian states(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) In general results of this research can be taken as evidences as it is credible and reliable source which contains a significant number of past studies including international observations as PISA, TALIS and EAEA. There are also answers from experts in educational field for research questions.

My opinion was that village schools need to be on par with urban schools and rural children deserve bright future to create a prosperous society and equal opportunities , the research had some impact on my view. Rural schools may be equal to city schools in terms of activities, subjects but it still lags behind with equipment of technologies and infrastructure. I had difficulties with finding people for survey in rural school and gaining some answers from directors for question "What is the budget allocated by government?" For further research i would recommend to explore these schools on different sides as school rank, activities provided at school for colorful lives of students and other aspects that this research has not covered. Changes could be made on making questions for survey and interview methods as I could not get full answers for some questions and could not go deeper.

For the next step researchers might dive into more into class ranking of students and school rank in the country or local areas and qualification of teachers and how does it affect the education process. To investigate this investigators can conduct an experiment or observation. Goal of project stays the same – to indicate if gap still exists between 2 schools in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan analysts can do the same tasks as listed above to continue the project work and improve methods section with results.

Conclusion

Based on the data of primary and secondary research, it can be concluded that the current situation of schools in Kazakhstan are still not equalized in some terms. From information of the interview and survey, data allows to see that in village schools there are shortages in funding for 5-10% in some years and they have medium sized classrooms for students, less participants in olympiades in comparison to city. City schools have larger space for different equipments as technology, board and others. Additionally students of urban colleges tend to be more diligent and intellective by taking part in olympiades. To conclude, city educational institutions are still 1 step higher than village schools in these spheres.

To improve this situation on staying behind, issue requires an integrated approach. Funding problem could be solved by being partners with business owners and non-profit organizations by government. Collaboration with such faces can help to attract different sources for funding and growth of the school. Facilities and other tools can be ameliorated by building of new classrooms and expansion of school construction. Refurbishment of premises may be a solution too as refitting of places as attics can provide extra space for students to study in. Usement of technologies for education process can ease and optimize usage of educational facilities and resources. As using interactive board can be used instead of wooden boards to minimize the space.

Equal opportunities for education are essential for the overall development of any child. By ensuring that village children receive the same quality of education as their city counterparts, we can bridge the educational gap and provide them with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in today's competitive world.Identical opportunities empower village children to break the cycle of poverty and contribute to the economic growth of their communities. Moreover, fostering equality between village and city children promotes social cohesion and reduces disparities in society.It allows for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives between different communities, fostering mutual understanding and respect. This integration can lead to the development of well-rounded individuals who can contribute positively to society.