IMPACT OF EDUCATION

ON CARIBBEAN PEOPLE

WHAT ARE SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS?

Societal institutions are tangible social organizations that satisfy basic

and specific needs of their members. Societal institutions exhibit
widely held beliefs and norms engendered by socialization of members
in particular ways. These institutions occur over several generations
and have an order that is indefinite.

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general

knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and
generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

EDUCATION AS IT RELATES TO
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Education impacts on the culture of the Caribbean in that primary and
secondary socialization, which are forms of socio-cultural education,
stimulate academic education as a core value that every person should
emulate. This results in education becoming a way in which people
structure their lives and how they behave.
How education actually works or is manifested in society is known as the
real standpoint. In the real standpoint education is a superstructure of
social mobility, status and a means of attaining wealth.

IMPACTS OF EDUCATION ON
CARIBBEAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE
INDIVIDUALS
Education is expected to confer social mobility on individuals. Many
Caribbean students have moved through the different levels of education
in order to obtain professional occupations in the field of their choice.
Those with lower qualifications have been able to access technical,
industrial and clerical jobs. It is the belief of many individuals that the
dominant ideas in the institution of education were successful in
overcoming their obstacles and securing credentials in order to obtain a
suitable job.

IMPACTS OF EDUCATION ON CARIBBEAN SOCIETY

AND CULTURE - INDIVIDUALS (contd)

INDIVIDUALS
These credentials however have engendered feelings of low self esteem in
those who have failed to acquire them. Education also demoralizes
students who fail to achieve the expected grades and forces them into a
life of degradation. The institution of education is very competitive
rewarding those with academic ability and the necessary social and
cultural resources. An individual without these qualities has fewer options
to lay a foundation for his/ her life for achievement.

IMPACTS OF EDUCATION ON CARIBBEAN SOCIETY

AND CULTURE - GROUPS

GROUPS
Many people believe that schools have a middle class bias and are set up to
reward children who have the necessary cultural capital to succeed in the
academic world. This is because the lives of the middle class children
composes of various experiences because of their involvement in extracurricular activities and their interaction with different groups. These
children therefore bring considerable linguistic competence to their
schooling as opposed to lower class/ lower income students who are more
competent in using dialect than formal language. The social institution of
education therefore confers more challenges on children of lower socioeconomic groups than on those of the middle class because of their
background.

IMPACTS OF EDUCATION ON CARIBBEAN SOCIETY

AND CULTURE INSTITUTIONS

INSTITUTIONS
The social institution of education in the Caribbean is its historic
interaction with the social institution of religion. Denominational groups
have made serious attempts to provide education and parents preferred
to send their children to religious schools. These religious elite schools
soon became in high demand where only the very talented were
accepted. The Parents recognized the importance of socialization, and
they felt that the values taught in religious schools will help their children
to become better people.

IMPACTS OF EDUCATION ON CARIBBEAN

SOCIETY AND CULTURE INSTITUTIONS (contd)
INSTITUTIONS
This preference for religious schools had an impact on non-religious state
schools as these schools tend to be seen as less legitimate than
denominational schools in the business of socially educating children. The
dilemma for the state is that it is concerned with equity for all and not
primarily promoting religious values. That includes all the children no
matter the religion or academic ability.

FUNCTIONALISM

Also called structural functionalism, is a theoretical orientation that

views society as a system of interdependent parts whose functions
contribute to the stability and survival of the system.

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
The functionalist theory focuses on the ways that universal education
serves the needs of society. Functionalists first see education in its
manifest role: conveying basic knowledge and skills to the next
generation. Durkheim (the founder of functionalist theory) identified the
latent role of education as one of socializing people into society's
mainstream. This moral education, as he called it, helped form a morecohesive social structure by bringing together people from diverse
backgrounds.

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY

Functionalists point to other latent roles of education such as transmission

of core values and social control. The core values in a student's education
reflect those characteristics that support the political and economic
systems that originally fueled education. Therefore, students will receive
rewards for following schedules, following directions, meeting deadlines,
and obeying authority.

FUCNTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE OF
EDUCATION AS A MEANS OF SOCIAL
MOBILITY
From the functionalist perspective, the theory of social mobility put
forward can be validated, as the lower classes of a previously alienated
people have now risen to hold powerful status positions in society through
the empowerment of education. Afro Caribbean ad Indo- Caribbean people
can now be recognized worldwide because of their intellectual ability.
Education is associated not only with status but with stratification as well
as occupation. It can therefore be noted that education is a tool to
achieve status but unlike the historical notion, education is not based on
colour or ethnicity, and that it is based entirely upon the attainment of
education.

MARXISM
The system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx
along with Friedrich Engels, especially the doctrine that the state
throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses
by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of
historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first
the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the
dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a
classless society.

THE MARXIST THEORY

The Marxist theory states that education is the main tool of the oppressor
which continues the separation of economic and cultural society. The
position claims that education is a means of continuing the False
consciousness scenario, thus it is the continuation of an inferiority
complex directed towards the lower classes. Historically, the education
system in a colonial society encouraged the importance and superiority of
the metropole and its social and cultural institutions.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARXIST

AND FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES
Functionalist
division of labour Education provides society with a 'division of labor', this
means schools help identify who will become a 'garbage collector/janitor'
and who will become the 'solicitor/lawyer'.
socialisation Education socializes children with society's shared norms and
values. This process of socialization moves children away from the
particularistic values of their home life to towards the universalistic values
of society and helps establish what functionalists term a value consensus.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARXIST AND

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES

Functionalist
hidden curriculum The hidden curriculum helps to integrate future citizens
into societies by 'teaching' and reinforcing them with society's norms and
values in order to establish a value consensus.
meritocracy Education helps provide the means for people to make
themselves upwardly mobile. Therefore if you make the effort you will be
rewarded - meritocracy. This process legitimizes social inequalities as
functionalists believe everyone has the opportunity to get qualifications.
Education/school is a level playing field, if you fail to achieve at school it is
nobody's fault but your own!

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARXIST AND

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES

Marxist
social class Unlike fuctionalists positive division of labour, Marxists stress
that education helps meet the needs of society by dividing it into distinct
social classes - the ruling (bosses/directors/managers) and working class
(workers/underlings).
socialisation Unlike fuctionalists, Marxists stress that education doesn't
socialise in an optimistic way like functionalists believe to create a value
consensus, but the opposite is true. Education socialises children into
becoming obedient workers as school simply passes on ruling class' norms
and values. In other words, schools pass on the dominant ideology of the
ruling class! Marxist

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARXIST AND

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES
Marxist
hidden curriculum Unlike functionists' positive view of the hidden curriculum as
helping establish a social consensus, instead Marxists argue the hidden
curriculum is a tool or instrument of the ruling class. It is argued that it teaches
the children to accept that society is unequal and exploitative.
social restrictions Though functionalists see schools as a place of opportunity
for social mobility through individual effort, Marxists point out that schools
simply reproduces social inequalities as meritocracy is a myth.The ruling class
benefit from an education system which meets their needs by limiting the
opportunities of the working- classes and thereby legitimizes social-class
inequalities. For example, few working class children go to grammar school (a
secondary education institution) and then go to Oxbridge (University of Oxford
and University of Cambridge)!