New Learning’s Updates
Social Mobility Through Education is in Decline
... says this year's 'Education at a Glance' OECD report. NYT: 'Many young people are attaining lower qualifications than their parents, even in the richest countries of the industrial world. Among people from 25 to 35 years old, 16 percent now have lower qualifications than their parents, compared with 9 percent among those 55 to 64 years old, it said, based on data from the 34 member countries of the O.E.C.D. ... More access to education has not translated into a more inclusive society, Ángel Gurría, the secretary general of the agency. “The benefits of the expansion in education were shared by the middle class, but did not trickle down to less-advantaged families. In relative terms, the children of low-educated families became increasingly excluded from the potential benefits that the expansion in education provided to most of the population,” he said.' More.
There are two reasons, at least, in Europe, for this decay in HE: (i) the high rates of youth employment and (ii) the rise of HE fees.
The economic crisis has a negative impact on family income and the prospectives for youth getting a job are minimal, so why to take the burden in one's education?
Eurostat data in 2013 - http://www.statista.com/chart/1524/youth-unemployment-still-unrelenting-in-europe/
Comparatively, we have in Portugal one of the highest fees and less scholarships.
OECD data - http://www.oecd.org/employment/unemployment-set-to-remain-high-in-oecd-countries-through-2014youth-and-low-skilled-hit-hardest.htm
We have a qualified youth doomed to «bullshit jobs» - http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ and to anew precariat class - http://youtu.be/ctpR2fDzgv4