Education and Social Justice

Byline: Dr. Shahid Siddiqui The notion of social justice has multiple interpretations. An oversimplification of the term is the execution of justice at societal level. A more radical interpretation would be a just society where people have equal opportunities to exercise their freedoms and where there is no discrimination in the provision of justice on the count of social class, gender, disability, ethnicity, color, and religion. The role of education in realizing the objective of social justice is vital. It is education that empowers human beings to achieve the goals of socio-economic development, emancipation, and social justice. Unfortunately education, instead of minimizing the socio-economic disparities, is further widening the disparities. According to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu education is instrumental in perpetuating the social structures ridden with inequalities.