Read this article to learn about relationship between education and society!

Society may be viewed as a system of interrelated mutually dependent parts which

cooperate (more or less) to preserve a recognisable whole and to satisfy some purpose or
goal. Social system refers to the orderly arrangement of parts of society and plurality of
individuals interacting with each other. Social system presupposes a social structure
consisting of different parts which are interrelated in such a way as to perform its
functions.

To perform its functions every society sets up various institutions. Five major complexes
of institutions are identified: familial institutions, religious institutions, educational
institutions, economic institutions and political institutions. These institutions form sub-
systems within social system or larger society.
Education as a Sub-System:
Education is a sub-system of the society. It is related to other sub-systems. Various
institutions or sub-systems are a social system because they are interrelated. Education as
a sub-system performs certain functions for the society as whole. There are also
functional relations between education and other sub-systems. For example, Education
trains the individuals in skills that are required by economy. Similarly education is
conditioned by the economic institutions.
The effectiveness of organised activities of a society depends on the interaction and inter
relationships of these institutions which constitute the whole. Now we will examine the
role of education for the society and the relationship between education and other sub-
system of society in terms of functionalist perspective. The functionalist view of
education tends to focus on the positive contributions made by education to the
maintenance of social system.
Emile Durkheim says that the major function of education is the transmission of societys
norms and values. He maintains that, society can survive only if there exists among its
members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this
homogeneity by fixing in the child from the beginning the essential similarities which
collective life demands. Without these essential similarities, cooperation, social
solidarity and therefore social life would be impossible. The vital task of all society is the
creation of solidarity.
This involves a commitment to society, a sense of belonging and feeling that the social
unit is more important than the individual. Durkheim argues that to become attached to
society the child must feel in it something that is real, alive and powerful, which
dominates the person and to which he also owes the best part of himself.
Education in particular the teaching of history, provides this link between the individual
and society. If the history of his society is brought alive to the child, he will come to see
that he is a part of something larger than himself, he will develop a sense of commitment
to the social group.
Durkheim argues that in complex industrial societies, the school serves a function which
cannot be provided either by family or peer groups. Membership of the family is based on
kinship relationship, membership of the poor group on the personal choice.
Membership of society as a whole is based neither of these principles. Individuals must
learn to cooperate with those who are neither their kin nor their friends. The school
provides a context where these skills can be learned. As such, it is society in miniature, a
model of the social system. In school, the child must interact with other members of the
school in terms of fixed set of rules.
Drawing on Durkheims ideas, Talcott Parsons argues that after primary socialisation
within the family, the school takes over as the focal socialising agency. School acts a
bridge between the family and society as a whole, preparing the child for his adult role.
Within the family, the child is judged and treated largely in terms of particularistic
standards.
In the wider society the individual is treated and judged in terms of Universalistic
standards. Within the family the childs status is ascribed, it is fixed by birth. However, in
advanced industrial society, status in adult life is largely achieved. Thus, the child must
move from particularistic standards and ascribed status of the family to universalistic
standards and achieved status of adult society.
The school prepares young people for this transition. Schools operates on meritocratic
principle, status is achieved on the basis of merit. Like Durkheim, Parsons also argue that
the school represents society in miniature. By reflecting the operation of society as a
whole, the school prepares young people for their adult roles.
As part of this process, schools socialise young people into the basic values of society.
These values have important functions in society as a whole.
Finally, Parsons sees the educational system as an important mechanism for the selection
of individuals for their future role in society. In his words, it functions to allocate these
human resources within the role structure of adult society. Thus, schools, by testing and
evaluating students, match their talents, skills and capacities to the jobs for which they
are best suited. The school is therefore seen as the major mechanism for role allocation.
Like Parsons, Davis and Moore see education as means of role allocation. But they link
the educational system more directly with the system of social stratification. According
Davis and Moore social stratification is a mechanism for ensuring that most talented and
able members of society are allocated to those positions which are functionally most
important for the society. High rewards which act as incentives are attached to these
positions which means that all will win through. The education system is one important
part of this process.
Scholars have also analysed the relationship of education and society in terms of
Marxian perspective. Chief among them are Louis Althusser, Samuel Bowels and
Herbert Gintis. According to Althusser, a French philosopher, as a part of the
superstructure, the educational system is ultimately shaped by infrastructure. It will
therefore reflect the relations of production and serve the interests of the capitalist ruling
class.
For the ruling class to survive and prosper, the reproduction of labour power is essential.
He argues that the reproduction of labour involves two processes. First, the reproduction
of the skills necessary for an efficient labour force. Second, the reproduction of ruling
class ideology and the socialisation workers in terms of it.
These processes combine to reproduce a technically efficient and submissive and
obedient work force. The role of education in capitalist society is the reproduction of such
a work force. Althusser argues that the reproduction of labour power requires not only
reproduction of its skills, but also, at the same time a reproduction of its submission to the
ruling ideology.
The submission is reproduced by a number of ideological State Apparatuses, such as
mass media, law, religion and education. Ideological State Apparatus transmit ruling class
ideology thereby creating false class consciousness.
Education not only transmits a general ruling class ideology which justifies and
legitimates the capitalist system. It also reproduces the attitudes and behaviour required
by the major groups in the division of labour. It teaches workers to accept and submit to
their exploitation, it teaches the agents of exploitation and repression, the managers,
administrators and politicians, how to practise their crafts and rule the work force as
agents of ruling class.
Like Althusser, the American economists Bowels and Gintis argue that the major role of
education in capitalist society is the reproduction of labour power. In particular, they
maintain that education contributes to the reproduction of workers with the kind of
personalities, attitudes and outlooks which will fit them for their exploited status. They
argue that social relationships in schools replicate the hierarchical division of labour in
their work place.
It can be stated here that education performs certain role for the society. At the same time
education is also conditioned by the social structure. Society crates educational
institutions such as schools, colleges and universities to perform certain functions in
accomplishing its end. The educational system may be viewed as a part of the total social
system.
It reflects and influences the social and cultural order of which it is a part. The class
system, the cultural values, the power structure, the balance between individual freedom
and social control, the degree of urbanisation and industrialisation all these factors
exercise a profound influence on school system of any society.
Functional Relationships between Education and other Sub-Systems:
What are the functional relationships between education and other sub-systems of society.
Many functionalists have argued that there is functional relationship between different
sub-systems. For example there is a functional relationship between education and
economic system. Skills and values learned in education are directly related to the way in
which the economy and the occupational structure operate. Education trains the
individuals in skills that are required by the economy. Similarly, education is also
influenced by economy.
Throughout the twentieth century, the rapid expansion of the tertiary occupation in
industrial societies has produced an increasing demand for clerical, technical,
professional and managerial skills. Education reflects these changes in the economy.
In this context Halsey and Floud argue that, the educational system is bent increasingly to
the service of the labour force. This can be seen from the steady increase in the school
leaving age, the increasing specialisation of educational provision and the rapid
expansion of higher and vocational education.
Various institutions or sub-Systems familial, political, economic, educational
institutions may be viewed as a whole cluster of institutions. These institutions are
social system because they are interrelated. A social system reveals a balance between its
parts which facilitates its operation. Occasionally it may reveal imbalance, but it tends
towards equilibrium.
In a changing society the interdependence of social institutions has a good deal of
significance, to quote Ogburn and Nimkoff, for a change in one institution may affect
other institutions. For example, when a country changes its Constitution, the change is
never confined to its political institutions. Corresponding changes take place in economic
relationships, in the educational system, in the class structure and so on. All the social
institutions would be in balance, each being adjusted to other, forming a single unified
scheme.
Social Origins and Orientation of Students and Teachers:
Education is a social concern. It is a social process. Its objective is to develop and awaken
in the child those physical, intellectual and moral states which are acquired of the
individual by his society as a whole and the milieu for which he is specially destined. It is
the significant means of socialisation. The function of education is to socialise the young
by imparting to them norms and values, culture and heritage, and to provide them with
skills and placement. This is traditionally, the accepted role of education.
In the West, for long, literacy was not considered essential for all. It remained confined to
the priests, ruling classes and to commercial class. The education imparted was literary
and religious. The valuation of education was not very high. In the Indian social milieu,
education has been traditionally given significant importance.
Education has been given greater prominence in India than in Western or Islamic societies
or in China. Referring to eighteenth century education in France, Helvelius observed that
men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. In England,
where, there did not exist a well organized education system, there were the public
schools for the higher strata of the society.
But in these schools, nothing worked except flogging. In our country too, education
suffered great fall and decline down the centuries. Eighteenth century, witnessed the total
disruption of educational system. The British introduced their own language gradually
and eventually the language of public business throughout the country.
In fulfillment of the provisions of Charter Act 1833, the resolution of Governor Generals
Council, provided that education be imparted in English alone. In this Macarlays aim
was, to form a class who may be Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes. It
ultimately arrested Indian intellectuality, alienated the educated from their mooring and
gave to the society an educational system not representing the educational personality.
The modern industrial society with its advance technology, division of labour, job
differentiation, assumes a general standard of literacy. It cannot carry on with handful of
education and mass illiteracy. The technological advancement has necessitated the re-
orientation of education.
The environmental effect of the education of child is now given special stress and
attention. J.W.B. Douglas, in The Home and the School has specially developed this
aspect of child education.
The advantages which first children have over latter siblings in Douglass study, are best
understood in terms of the greater degree of attention and responsibility which most first
children are likely to receive from their parents as well as the greater responsibilities they
have to shoulder. Likewise, children from smaller families generally have higher
educational attainment, since they are also likely to receive more parental attention than
children in large families.
Focussing on parental attention in this way helps us understand why apparently
unconnected factors all tend to work in the same direction. They also affect the childs
behaviour at school as well as within the home. The amount and quality of child-adult
interactions influence the development of the childs linguistic capacity, e.g., the range of
his vocabulary.
Likewise, the childs own interest in schooling, as distinct from that of this parents, and
his sense of being at ease when at school, are affected both directly and indirectly by his
awareness of the importance and value his parents explicitly and implicitly place on
schooling.
The family itself thus constitutes a learning situation for the child. Nor is the child
simply moulded by the family environment. He or she is an active agent who has to
learn to interpret that environment Consequently, when considering the effects of the
home on educational attainment. It is not enough to see this simply as the result of the
occupation and education of the parents. Family insecurity, for example, is not only
produced by poverty but also results when professional parents with busy lives spend
little time with their children. Resentments built up through such family interactions may
undermine the good intentions of parents to help their children perform well in school.
In USA, there does not exist a national system of education. It is not a Federal subject. It
is left entirely to the care of the local administration. There, therefore, exists diversity of
institutions and of standards. Even within the same State, educational standards and the
quality of schools varies.
The American elementary and high school education is comprehensive, and in the schools
are conducted commercial, vocational and college preparatory programmes. There are
schools, which exclusively conduct college preparatory courses. In England, there are
elementary schools for the working class, Grammar schools for middle class children,
and public school education, for the children of the upper class.
This pattern has remained more or less unchanged, since long time. The Education Act of
1944, did not bring about any change in this differentiation. There is, however, effort
being made to bring about the changes in the system, to develop comprehensive school
system. Education in our country under the British Raj did not make much progress.
In 1939, literacy did not cover more than 10 per cent of the population. Since
independence much extension has been given to education and literacy. Efforts are afoot
to extend education both at the primary and adult levels.
In the five decades since independence much advance has been made in education at
secondary, college and university levels. Under the new pattern Ten plus Two system at
the secondary and senior secondary levels, emphasis is now being laid on vocational and
technical education.
In the traditional society, teacher was taken to symbolise the best in social values. He was
accepted as a moral authority. But this position has now undergone a distinct change.
Teacher in an educated society is not the only person who can be said to have intellectual
competence and school too is not the only institution to impart education.
The normative aspect of education is not attended to. In fact it has remained neglected.
The emphasis in learning is on the accumulation of knowledge or acquiring a
qualification, vocational or otherwise.
Equality of Educational Opportunity:
The equalisation of educational opportunities is essentially linked with the notion of
equality in the social system. In a social system if all the individuals are treated as equal,
they get equal opportunities for advancement. Since education is one of the most
important means of upward mobility, it is through an exposure to education one can
aspire to achieve higher status, position and emoluments.
But for getting education he must have equal opportunities like other members of the
society. In case educational opportunities are unequally distributed, the inequalities in the
social structure continue to be perpetuated, it is in this light the quality of educational
opportunity has been visualised.
The need for emphasising the equality of opportunity in education arise due to number of
reasons. Some of these reasons are enumerated below:
(a) It is needed because it is through the education to all the people in a democracy; the
success of democratic institutions is assured.
(b) The equality of educational opportunities will ensure rapid development of a nation.
(c) A closer link between the manpower needs of a society and the availability of a skilled
personnel will develop.
(d) People with specialised talents for specialised jobs in a large number will be available
and the society will be benefited.
A society which hold high promise of Equality of status and of opportunity for all and
assures the dignity of individual and the unity and integrity of the Nations, has to attend
to the mass spreading of learning much in the interest of creating the appropriate ground
work for the social advancement. Education is supposed to eliminate social and economic
inequality.
The relationship between education and inequality is a result of the historical particulars
of the educational system. There are two factors in this (1) the available opportunities
which structure individual choices and (2) the social and economic process which
structure individual choices while the above factors point out that the educational system
is a product of the social structure it must be remembered that it is not a one-way process
because the educational system itself and the values it stands for influences individual
decisions.
Educational Inequality:
The major problem with respect to the equality of educational opportunity is the
perpetuation of inequalities through education. It is through a system of education in
which elite control is predominant that the inequalities are perpetuated. In an elite
controlled system the schools practise segregation. This segregation may be on the basis
of caste, colour or class etc. In South Africa schools practise segregation on the basis of
colour.
Equality of educational opportunity is more talked about, than really believed. In all
modern industrially advanced countries there is the total inequality of educational
opportunity. Educational opportunities for a child are determined by his family, class,
neighborhood consideration.
A comprehensive school system free from these considerations is the demand all over the
world. There is a move to this effect in U.S.A., France and Britain, and among the East
European countries, especially in (Zechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Sweden, where
comprehensive school system is followed. But the movement is comparatively weak in
Britain and France.
The size of the family and the parental attitude makes a lot of difference to the
educational career of a child. The educated parents give due attention to the education of
the children. The family influence determines the educational goal of the children.
Inequality of educational opportunity also occurs due to the poverty of a large section of
the population and the relative affluence of small minority. The poor cannot pay the fees
and their children do not find chances of continuing in schools. Children from the
families that cannot provide the economic support and other perquisite, suffer badly.
From this group, there is the maximum number of dropouts.
Education and social status have close connection. Social class position includes income,
occupation and life style. These have impact on the upbringing of the child.
In the U.S.A. Negros make up a disproportionately high percentage of school dropouts
and their educational level is below that of whites. Under the segregated schooling that
long prevailed in the United States, officially in the South and informally elsewhere,
Negroes received an inferior education. Racially segregated schools have simply been
poorer schools and children in these schools are not given the same opportunity to learn
to the same level as white schools.
The neighborhood environment has much to do with the education of the children. Low
income families concentrate in the inner city, live in old and decaying houses. Families
with similar level of income, and similar vocation live in neighborhood. This sort of
inequality is found everywhere in the West. The residential segregation is a factor that
produces class structures. Neighborhood has its impact on the school, and on the peer
group.
The attitude of the teacher has much to do with education of the children. The very real
measurable differences between middle class and lower class children in tests, as well as
the differences between white and Negro children, are to be accounted for, not by innate
differences in ability, but by differences of cultural exposure and bearing opportunities.
The children in rural areas studying in poorly equipped schools have to compete with the
children in urban areas where there are well-equipped schools and more informative
environment for getting admission to the schools for higher bearing on professional
colleges.
In Indian situation educational inequality due to sex is also very much visible. Girls
education at all stages of education is not given the same encouragement as boys. The
social customs and taboos hinder the progress of girls education. They are given inferior
position in the family and their education is neglected.
Educational inequality is due to the system itself and also on account of conditions
prevailing in society. It is multi-sided affair and is continuing both in developed and
developing societies. In many societies it finds expression in the form of public schools.
Some of the societies including our own, run public schools which provide much better
education than the type of education provided by State run and controlled educational
institutions. The education in the former institutions being much costly as compared with
the latter and admission obviously open to only few privileged. This creates educational
inequality in its own way.
It is a paradox that education which should be the catalyst of change very often reflects
the structured inequalities present in the social system. It is really strange that education
aimed at social transformation reflects the structured inequalities in our social system.
Education is supposed to eliminate social and economic inequality. Educational
institutions are in a sense closed systems since opportunities that elite has for excellent
educational system is not available for the unfortunate masses. Obviously this system
breeds inequality of opportunities.
In many cities there is a definite status hierarchy in primary education and to a large
extend, the choice of a primary school determines career opportunities. Top priority is
given to English medium schools sponsored by missionaries since they offer the best
education. Next in the hierarchy are non-English medium schools run by religious
organisations and charitable trusts.
At the bottom of the hierarchy are the schools run by the Government. Naturally the
choice of English medium schools is the forerunner for lucrative and prestigious careers
for a particular segment of society. Various State Governments provide primary education
free of cost, but since such education is in regional language medium, where the standard
of instruction is on par with that of private-schools the rates of drop-outs are high in such
schools.
We have at present a stratified society and a stratified pattern of schooling and they
compete each other. Dual system of education has to be done away with through
legislation and thereby evolve a common pattern of schooling to build a strong and
unified democratic system in India. Educational privileges must reach down to the poor
and particularly it should benefit members of the Scheduled Castes.
Rapid expansion of education among women is achieved although they are still at a
disadvantage compared to men. To some extent education has proved to be a source of
social mobility for the depressed groups.
Education is a double-edged instrument which can eliminate the effects of socio-
economic inequalities but it can also introduce a new kind of inequality.
Education can influence the process of social change among the weaker sections of
society. Persistent and planned efforts by the Government and voluntary agencies will go
a long way toward elimination of educational inequalities.
Education as Medium of Cultural Reproduction, Indoctrination:
The enduring function of education is the cultural reproduction. It has been recognised to
be its main role. It is by education that the newborn is initiated in the social ways. It
transmits culture to him. At the early stages the aim is to introduce the child to the
normative order of his group. In the traditional society kinship group worked for the child
to this end. In complex modern industrial society of the West, this work is undertaken by
specialized agencies such as school.
In traditional society, cultural reproduction may take place by oral teaching of heritage
and culture; history and legend, and in a practical way by participating in the celebration
of festivals. One may at a successive stage be introduced to culture through books. Yet
one may not be in a position to appreciate it. It is only after one has been initiated and
motivated that one gets cultivated in the cultural ways. As indicated above it is a lifelong
educational process.
But in present times family, school and teachers are no longer the only institutions that
influence the growing generations. The movies, radio, record industry, and the television
are strong instruments to impart education. Their appeal is direct. But these are not bound
to any normative standard. Their basic standard is the marketability. The cultivated
morality is challenged; established values are disregarded; mockery is made of humility
and decency.
With the disregarding of the traditional values, the growing children find themselves like
the waves in the boundless sea, and the older feel to have been left high and dry. Perhaps
nothing disturbs the basic function of cultural transmission by the institution of education
as does this growth of a mass media that is not normatively regulated, and indeed that has
not been consciously assigned such a function within the society. It throws into critical
relief the whole issue of whether the culture is to be transmitted effectively within the
frame work of recognized institutions or whether a disparate set of unlinked and
unregulated structures and processes are to carry out competitive even contradictory
cultural transmission, and whatever unanticipated consequences.
The role of education as an agent of the transmission of culture is thus diminishing. It is
becoming a specialized process.
Indoctrination:
Education is a process of indoctrination. It has been so and it shall remain so. A child is
trained in the accepted values to fit in the social milieu. The training of child has been
such down the ages. Education and the class room have been used for the perpetuation of
the values, beliefs and faith in East and West alike. Pulpit throughout the Christiandom,
has been the great instrument of indoctrination. Ecclesiastical order, which for long
controlled the education, had generally been fanatic. They had vested interest in
perpetuating fanaticism.
The French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, held that school has always been used
as an ideological apparatus. The ruling ideology thus determines the dominated culture
of society, influencing what is taught in school and universities and determining through
education and the mass media what types of thought and language are seen as normal and
are rewarded by society.
In France the Third Republic took church to be its worst enemy, since in the church
schools was conducted anti-republican propaganda. Gambetta observed, Clericalism,
that is our enemy. This position was further elaborated by Premier Waldeck Rousseau, a
follower of Gambetta. He said that the real peril was the growing power of religious
orders of monks and nuns and from the character of the teaching given by them in the
religious schools they were conducting.
They were doing their best to make the children hostile to the Republic. In 1902,
Combos, the successor of Waldeck Rousseau observed. Clericalism is, in fact to be
found at the bottom of every agitation and every intrigue from which Republican France
has suffered during the last thirty five years.
The present day educational institutions are not free from it. But the role of education in
India was regarded humanist. In ancient Indian schools, emphasis was laid on pure
values. It is worth quoting. The aim of learning are settled to be Sraddha (faith), Praja
(progeny), dhana (wealth), ayuh (longevity), and amritatva (immortality).
Education and Social Change:
Education is considered the most powerful instrument of social change. It is through
education that the society can bring desirable changes and modernise itself. Various
studies have revealed the role of education in bringing about social changes.
The relation between education and changes in social structure has been examined in
rural contexts. Allen R. Holmberg and Dobyns jointly as well as separately reported the
Vicos action research project. The project was a study of the role of enlightenment in
social development. The findings of this project were that education became enmeshed in
wider social changes as knowledge became the means to status and effective
participation.
It was also found that the most modernised citizens in the community were the
youngsters, who had attended school. In another study by Daniel Lerner, it was found that
the key to modernisation lies in the participant society, i.e. one in which people go to
school, red newspapers, participate politically through elections. It is important to note
that literacy not only proved to be key variable in moving from a traditional to a
transitional society but also the pivotal agent in the transition to a fully participant
society.
The studies of Philip Foster in Ghana and Edward Shils in India have also revealed the
role of education in social change. According to Foster it was formal Western Schooling
in Ghana that created a cultural environment in which innovations could take place. Shils
making a study of the intellectuals in India came to conclusion that if there is to be any
successful bridging in the gap between tradition and modern societies, it is the Western
educated intellectual who must perform the task.
James S. Coleman, Foster, Lipset and many others have shown that education plays a
very vital role in political change. It is held that political development is largely
dependent on education. It provides the skills required by modern political bureaucracies,
in many emergent nations it has provided a common language, it helps to recruit elite and
provides a central force in movements for independence.
It may be said that social change may be brought about by political situation, economic
development, technological development etc. By whatever mans the change may be
brought about; education always plays an import role in its propagation.
The political situation may lead to democratic or totalitarian form of Government. The
changes in keeping with the form of the government in the society can only be brought
about through education. Even the acceptance of the form of Government by the majority
will be dependent on how it is being educated.
The economic growth leads to social change. It is however, education which leads to
economic growth. The development in science and technology are also dependent on
education. Education is a condition for economic change.
It is an important means of attaining economic standard of society. It is essential for the
economy. Change in the educational system result in social and economic changes,
greater social mobility and more skilled and well-trained manpower for technologically
based industries.
Education has been playing in important role in getting occupations which are key
determinants of general social status. Therefore, the schools are agent in realisation of the
desire for upward mobility. The schools are instrumental in transforming the occupational
structure as well as class structure. In most developing countries education is regarded as
the gateway to an improved social status.
Education increases political awareness and political participation of the people. This
brings about wider political changes with the increasingly organised participation of the
people in national politics.
Education is expected to contribute to progress. In modern societies educational
organisations act as innovators. These organisations disseminate new knowledge and
ideas and promote the processes of social change.
According to Alex Inkeles, different levels of education have different levels of effects. In
the developing countries primary education is enabling the people to do things they
would never have been able to do before. Basic literacy brings a society into world.
Higher education is not only an aid for individual development, but also for the all-round
development of the society. In addition, university students movements have often been
the major force demanding social change in many societies. In China, India, Japan,
America and many other countries students agitation have resulted in vast changes.
In some cases, the students movements are found to discredit, transform or topple
governments. As Drucker has pointed out, highly educated man has become the central
resource of todays society and the supply of such men are the true measure of its
economic, military and even its political potential.
Modern Education changes our attitude and values. It affects our customs, traditions,
beliefs and manners. It removes our superstitious beliefs and irrational fear about the
supernatural things. Now education aims at imparting knowledge about science,
technology and other secular knowledge. It has been universally acknowledged that
through the promotion of education modern values in social, economic, political and
cultural fields can be inculcated.
Education has contributed to the improvement in the status of women. So far as the
importance of modern education is concerned, according Inkeles, it helps them in moving
away from traditionalism to modernity. It has helped them to seek employment and to
come out of the family.
To conclude, education is the driving force behind the phenomenon of social change. The
role of education as a factor or instrument of social change and development is
universally recognised today. Education can initiate and accelerate the process of change
by changing the attitude and values of man. It can change man and his style of living and
hence can change the society.
But education follows social changes. Changes in education take place due to the impact
of social changes. Changes in content and methods of education become a necessity for
education to be relevant and effective. When changes occur in needs of the society.
Technology and values of society, education also undergoes changes.
Society has various needs and these need are subject to change. The changing needs of
the society bring changes in the educational system. It means that educational changes
occur because of social needs and aspirations. Universal education, adult education,
vocational and scientific education are the various forms and varieties of education which
have been brought about by the needs of modern Indian society.
Many changes occur in education because of cultural changes.
To conclude, education and social change are very intimately related. They influence each
other mutually.
Education and Modernisation:
Modernisation denotes total transformation of traditional or pre-modern society into the
types of technology and associated social organisation that characterise the advanced
economically prosperous and relatively politically stable nations of the West.
Modernisation is defined as a conscious set of plans and policies pursued by the leaders
or elites of developing countries for changing their societies in the direction of modern
developed societies.
Modernisation is the process of transforming the old traditional societies and nations to
modernity in the fields of economic, technological, industrial and social advancement. It
is to bring a less advanced nation at par with the advanced country. It is the result of the
growing recognition of the need for global harmonisation in the larger interests of
humanity.
The process modernisation is viewed as one time historical process which was started by
the Industrial Revolution in England and the political Revolution in France.
Modernisation first occurred in the West through the twin process of commercialization
and industrialisation. Early in the twentieth century Japan, the first Asian country, joined
the race for industrialisation. Latter U.S.S.R. as well as other countries tried to achieve
different degree of modernisation.
The process is to be viewed as an all-in-all process but not a compartmentalised one.
Hence, technical, economic, social, industrial and political orders are to be changed
radically. Modernisation takes place in different spheres political, economic, social and
educational.
Industrialisation, urbanisation, secularisation, rapid growth of transport and
communication, educational revolutions etc. are the steps in the progressive direction of
modernisation of a nation.
Modernisation involves not only changes at structural level but also fundamental changes
at the personal level, a change in modes of thinking, beliefs, opinion, attitudes and action.
Several interacting transformations are involved in the process of modernisation.
Education is a great force in modernisation. It plays a crucial role in various spheres of
modernisation. Education has been recognised as the most important factor connected
with rise and growth of modernisation process of a society irrespective of cultural milieu
in which it finds itself.
It has been universally acknowledged that through the promotion of education, modern
values in social economic, political and cultural fields can be inculcated. Rationality and
scientific temper being the preponderant characteristics of modernisation can be acquired
through constant learning.
Emphasis has been given on education as an instrument for social reconstruction and
modernisation. It is particularly the Western education that enabled many to develop and
inculcate the sense of modern outlook. Such an evidence was visible enough when India
was under British rule.
It was educated population who took the leadership and contributed in bringing many
policies and programmes that were sought after before the British. They inculcated the
values of patriotism, nativism, humanitarianism only through education and these ideas
were employed as tools against the British.
Highly productive economies, distributive justice, peoples participation in decision-
making bodies, adoption of scientific technology in industry, agriculture and other
professions are accepted as the goals of for modernising a society. These goals are to be
achieved through education.
Education prepares the mentality of the people to accept changes. It creates conducive
environment for modernisation. By promoting democratic values and progressive
attitudes in the people, education makes them capable to participate and strengthen the
process of modernisation. It teaches them to fight against social evils, blind beliefs and
superstitions.
Education is not only aid for individual development, but also for the all-round
development of society and the country. It helps for the development of the qualities of an
individual such as mental and emotional makeup as well as his temperament and
character. For the individual it provides rational and scientific thinking, reasoning, skills
and capabilities to adjust to new situations. Modern education helps people in moving
away from traditionalism to modernity.
Education is considered the most powerful instrument of modernisation. It is through
education that the society can bring desirable change and modernise itself. Learner says
that the key to modernisation lies in the participant society; that is one in which people go
through school, read newspapers, are in the wage and market economy, participate
politically through elections and change opinions on matters of public business.
The importance of education as an instrument of modernisation needs no special
reiteration. Similarly, none can deny the fact that modernisation has its significance to
education. They influence mutually. There is a close relationship between education and
modernisation.
Modernisation takes place in educational sphere for the effectiveness of education in a
society. This involves change in content and methods of education. Modern society is
characterised by very rapid and extensive changes. In such a changing society, education
aims at communicating empirical knowledge, that is knowledge about science,
technology and other types of such specialised knowledge.
In -keeping with the demands of changing society, there has been a corresponding
transformations in the contents and methods of instruction. The inclusion of heavy study
materials on modern science and technology into the syllabus makes it imperative that
course of study on classical language and literature should be abridged or altogether
drooped.
In educational sphere, modernisation involves growing specialisation of educational roles
and organisations, growing unification and interrelation of different educational activities
within the frameworks of one common system.
According to S.N. Isenstadt, perhaps the best starting point for analysis of the
characteristics in the educational institutions in modern societies is the pattern of
demands for and the supply of educational services that tended to develop with
modernisation.
In the field of demand we can distinguish between the demand for the products and the
rewards of education. Among the most important products of education are, first,
various skills, be they general skill such as of occupations or more specific professional
and vocational skills, the number of which has continually increased and become
diversified with growing economic, technical and scientific development.
A second major product of education is identification with various cultural, socio-
political symbols and values and relatively active commitment to various cultural, social
and political groups and organisations.
The supply side of educational services also become greatly diversified. According to him
it includes the supply of manpower to be educated at different levels of educational
system and adequate motivation and preparation for education and it includes the supply
of various schooling facilities -schools at different levels, ranging from kinder garden to
universities, of technical personnel (greatly dependent on fluctuation in the labour
market) and of various facilities for the maintenance of such institutions and
organisations.
Education plays a crucial role in the process, of modernisation in various fields and
modernisation in these fields really enhances the evolvement of education technically
which calls for in great need for imparting modern education and for producing capable
and resourceful manpower.
It can rightly be concluded that education and modernisation are the two sides of the
same coin and these mutually influence each other.