Kingston's Education and Unemployment

Not for the first time, recent statistics have shown a correlation between education and unemployment in Kingston’s local areas. The education-unemployment graph suggests low academic schools(LAS) are situated in local areas of the borough that has high unemployment. The question is why such a recurring ‘coincidence’ happens to be actual occurrence.

Families in high unemployment areas earn little or no income. A book ‘Small expectations: Learning to be poor?’ suggests children of low/non income families learn their financial difficulties and thus reduce their future aspirations based on their economic position in society.

Crime-Unemployment graph

Pupils’ academic attitudes are hugely affected by this link. Students attending high academic schools(HAS) behave more rationally, gain economic incentives to work harder because they have greater awareness of education’s value in the future. Whereas students of ‘LAS’, knowing there are better schools, automatically obtain an ‘I’m rubbish’ mentality. It lays out hedonistic incentives to drink alcohol, take drugs etc... This path leads to a future where one stays at home, has little or no qualifications, unemployed and, as the crime-unemployment graph suggests, is likely to commit unjustified anti-social offences. Therefore the poorer one’s education, higher the risk of unemployment and involvement in crime because, according to sociological theorists, one doesn’t understand ‘benefits of adhering to conventional social values’.

Teachers are a factor in the education-unemployment link. Most teachers realise the incentive of improving their pupils’ results to gain recognition from ‘HAS’. As a result, often those teachers leave for ‘HAS’ whom offer a higher salary, leaving low achievers with non-incentivised teachers which is why this link will always exist just as the unemployment rate will never reach zero.

Education-Unemployment graph

The link itself and its effects are not severe in Kingston compared to other boroughs. For instance, Tolworth Girls, despite situated in an area of 3% unemployment rate, their ‘A*-C’ % is higher than Hollyfield, who has a 2.4% unemployment rate, because of its pupils’ desire to succeed and its teachers’ dedication to teach. Stronger education leads to lower unemployment and crime rate and thus a safer community.