Meritocracy: Myth or Reality in Australian Education System

Ancient History
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Meritocracy
Introduction
In the Australian society, there exist various types of inequality in the society domain.one
type of relevant theory that can be used is functionalist theory that aligns with meritocracy that
can indicate inequality in education. According to this particular theory, the theorist have
believed that over the years Australian inequality is both inevitable and desirable. Therefore it
plays a significant function in the society
In this case, a major description of meritocracy conceptualizes value in terms of tested
competency and ability and standardized achievement tests. Governments and other
administrative systems describe meritocracy as a system that weighs the advancement with
respect to education, intelligence, and credential (Arrow, Bowles,& Durlauf, 2018). Such a
description is determined through evaluation or examination.
Generally, Meritocracy can be said to be the philosophy that describes that some things
such as economic goods/power should be made permanent among individuals on basis of talent,
effort, and achievement rather than considering some factors such as race, gender age or wealth.
The advancement is based on performance which is measured on achievement demonstrated via
examination.
This article clearly defines the meritocracy assumption with relation to education by
describing the existence of mythical comprehension as described above the meritocracy weighs
the education performance with regard to economic strength, talent ability ignoring the other
factors that complete the education performance requirements. This article also offers a

conclusion that education performance depends on the number of factors irrespective talent or
ability.
Discussion
There exists several non-merits factors that which affects students' educational outcomes.
Basing our arguments on these factors it can be concluded that meritocracy is a myth in relation
to the education system in Australia. These factors include: -
Gender factor. This can be stated as a major factor that meritocracy no longer bases its
arguments on it. Gender mostly affects the education performance of individuals. For example at
university level some courses have been flooded by a certain gender i.e. Male Gender have been
performing best in engineering courses compared to the Female Gender (Castilla,& Benard,
2010). Also, the number of female students in both scientific and engineering courses is less
compared to the male gender. Concluding from such facts, meritocracy can be declared to be a
myth as it ignores the fact that gender affects education performance. In general, it can be said
that female Gender is weak when comes to technical courses.
Hard-work. This factor is seen as the most powerful one in meritocracy and functional
theory.in the description formula of individual growth, meritocracy majorly pressurizes on the
effect of hard work. It also describes that the most hardworking individual appears at the top
when it comes to the education performances. This factor can be said to hold a lot of myths as it
doesn't always work. For example, a student may be very hardworking and his or her mind
capture very little which finally proves his or her hard work as non-productive (Frank,
2016). When it comes to rating the hard work level some student can be poorly rated but the

outcomes via examination reflect otherwise. Such facts outgo the meritocracy understanding
hence making it be a myth.
Figure 1: graphical analysis of effect of hard work in performance under improved condition
(McNamee and Miller, 2004)
Figure 2: graphical representation of statistics of hard work under reducing condition
(McNamee and Miller, 2004)