Essay on the role of
education in society
ASHISH AGARWAL
Education,
has a great social importance specially in the modern, complex industrialised
societies. Philosophers of all periods, beginning with ancient stages, devoted
to it a great deal of attention.
Accordingly,
various theories regarding its nature and objective have come into being. Let
us now examine some of the significant functions of education.
1. To complete the
socialization process.
The
main social objective of education is to complete the socialization process.
The family gets the child, but the modern family tends to leave much undone in
the socialisation process. The school and other institutions have come into
being in place of family to complete the socialization process.
Now,
the people fell that it is “the school’s business to train the whole child even
to the extent of teaching him honesty, fair play, consideration for others and
a sense of right and wrong”.
The
school devotes much of its time and energy to the matter such as co-operation,
good citizenship, doing one's duty and upholding the law.
Directly
through text books and indirectly through celebration of programmes patriotic
sentiments are intimates and instilled. The nation's past is glorified, its
legendary heroes respected, and its military ventures justified.
All
societies maintain themselves, by exploitation of a culture. Culture here
refers to a set of beliefs and skills, art, literature, philosophy, religion,
music etc., that are not carried through the mechanism of heredity. They must
be learned.
This
social heritage (culture) must be transmitted through social organisations.
Education has this function of cultural transmission in all societies. It is
Only at the under leaves of the school that any serious attempt has been, or
now is, made to deal with this area.
(3) For the formation of
social personality
Individual
must have personalities shaped or fashioned in ways that fit into the culture.
Education, everywhere has the function of the formation of social
personalities.
Education
helps in transmitting culture through proper molding of social personalities.
In this way, it contributes to the integration, to survive and to reproduce
themselves.
(4) Reformation of
Attitudes :
Education
aims at the reformation of attitudes wrongly developed by children already. For
various reasons the child may have absorbed a host of attitudes, beliefs and
disbeliefs, loyalties and prejudices, jealously and hatred etc. these are to be
reformed.
It
is the function of education to see that unfounded beliefs, illogical
prejudices and unreasoned loyalties are removed from the child's mind, though
the school has its own limitations in this regard, it is expected to continue
its efforts in reforming the attitudes of the child.
(5) Education for
occupational placement :
An
instrument of livelihood. Education has a practical and also it should help the
adolescent for earning his livelihood. Education has come to be today as
nothing more than an Instrument of livelihood. It should enable the student to
take out his livelihood.
Education
must prepare the student for future occupational positions, the youth should be
enabled to play a productive role in society. Accordingly, great emphasis has
been placed on vocational training.
(6) Conferring of Status :
Conferring
of status is one of the most important function of education. The amount of
education one has, is correlated with his class position. This is four in
U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Japan, Germany and some other societies.
Education
is related to one's position in the stratification structure in two ways. (1)
An evaluation of one's status is partially decided by what kind of education
one has received and (2) Many of the other important criteria of class position
such as occupation, income and style of life are partially the result of the
type and amount of education one has had.
Men
who finish college, for example, earn two and a half times as much as those who
have a grammar school education.
The
school instills co-operative values through civic and patriotic exhortation or
advice. Yet the school’s main emphasis is upon personal competition. For each
subject studied the child is compared with the companies by percentage of marks
or rankings.
The
teacher admires and praises those who d well and frowns upon those who fail to
do well. The school’s ranking system serves to prepare for a later ranking
system. Many of those who are emotionally disappointed by low ranking in the
school are thereby prepared to accept limited achievement in the larger world
outside the school.
Peter
Worsley has spoken of a few more functions of education. Some of them may be
noted.
The
relation between the economy and education can be an exact one. For example the
number and productive capacity of engineering firms are limited by the number
of engineers produced by education.
In
planned economy, normally it is planned years in advance to produce a definite
number of doctors, engineers, teachers, technicians, scientists etc. to meet
the social and economic needs of the society.
Education
fosters participant democracy. Participant democracy in any large and complex
society depends on literacy. Literacy allows full participation of the people
in democratic processes and effective voting.
Literacy
is a product of education. Educational system has this economic as well as
political significance. Education Imparts values:
The
curriculum of the school, its extracurricular activities and the informal
relationships amongst students and teacher communicate social skills and
values. Through various activities a school imparts values such as co-operation
or atmospheric, obedience, fair play.
This
is also done through curriculum that is through lessons in history literature
etc.
Education
acts as integrative force in society by communicating value, that unite
different sections of society. The family may fail to provide the child the
essential knowledge of the social skills and values of the wider society.
The
school or the educational institutions can help the child to learn new skills
and learn to interact with people of different social backgrounds.
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