Restriction of educational opportunities in capitalist systems

Capitalism, in creating an artificial non-productive class elite, the bourgeoisie, to whom wealth and consequent opportunity accumulate, effectively denies the same opportunities to the majority, the working class. Even where education is provided free of charge, budget allocations are influenced by tax contribution considerations and effective political power, which only the wealthy have. Therefore there are likely to be insufficient and inferior schools in poor communities. This applies equally on the wider scale, among poor countries as opposed to rich countries. The developed countries sell technical know-how to the underdeveloped. Payment is made in resources and in profits from enterprises in the underdeveloped countries which return to the developed, thus depriving the former of the benefits.

Appropriate schooling is the joint responsibility of national and local educational authorities in most free-market economies. There is considerable variation and levels of quality achieved among the school system, but they are free to evolve and make choices concerning subjects taught, design of curricula and methods of teaching. State-control of education is abusive of the individual's right to know, to have access to information, and to think. The separation of school and state is as important as that of church (or ideology) and state. Education in underdeveloped countries, where there are shortages of teachers, equipment, funds and everything else except students, may have a brighter future owing to such technologies as computer-assisted learning which have been pioneered in non-socialist lands.