TOPIC 5: SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Introduction
All human societies from simplest to the most complex have some form of social inequality.
There are families that are classified as rich while other are regarded as poor. This is further
reflected in education, where some schools are termed as those attended by children of the rich
while others are attended by children from poor families .This particular topic is based on social
stratification and school education.

Definition of key terms

Social stratification is the term derived from the word “strata” or layers as used in geology to
refer to the way layers of the rocks are laid on top of each other.

Applied to society, social stratification refers to the division of society into hierarchy of
categories or groups. Individuals within the society are fitted and categorised into each of these
layers. The social grading of the individuals in the society in levels is based on factors like the
status, prestige, education and power.

Social stratification is the term derived from the word “strata” or layers as used in geology to
refer to the way layers of the rocks are laid on top of each other. Applied to society, social
stratification refers to the division of society into hierarchy of categories or groups. Individuals
within the society are fitted and categorised into each of these layers. The social grading of the
individuals in the society in levels is based on factors like the status, prestige, education and
power.
Each layer in the society is known as social class social class consist of a broad group of people
with relatively similar system of behaviour, set of values and way of distinguishing it from those
of other classes.
A further understanding of social class is provided by Karl Marx’s ideas. Based on the
capitalist’s society, Karl Max views social class as a social group whose members share the same
relationship to the means of production. In this setting two main classes emerge:- the
“bourgeoisie” or the capitalist who own the means of production and the ‘proteletarat’ or
working class whose members won their own labour which they hire to the bourgeoisie in return
of wages. Karl max introduces another element of social class when he says that those who own
the means of production control the economy of the society and hence controls the political
power.
However there is no universally accepted method of identifying the social class of person or
family in the view of the diversity in the variables used to show the differences in the social class

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levels depending on the society in question. Nevertheless, the most commonly used but related
factors in classifying the individuals into social classes are occupations income and education.
Occupation that is interrelated to education and income is the main factor used by most societies
to differentiate between social classes. Differentiation of the roles in the society is such that some
of the roles, occupations, are deemed more necessary and are thus given more value and more
rewards. Consequently, sociologists often group together occupations with similar overall levels
of desirability in order to establish a hierarchy of classes.

There are three types of classifications.

 Upper, middle and lower classes.
 Working, middle and lower classes
 Blue (manual) and white (non manual) classes.

The nature of the social classes is such that the high classes are those occupations with the
highest salaries, best working conditions, and the best chances of promotion or greatest
opportunity for personal initiative. In addition, education influences occupation in that, the better
education one has the better has the better the occupation one is likely to join.

The social class individual belong to accords them a certain social status or standing in the
society. Social status is closely related to social class and refers to the amount respect or honour
one is accorded in the society.

Social status may either be achieved or ascribed. Ascribed status is that acquired by individuals
as a result of belonging to or being born into a certain social class. No personal efforts are used
to gain this status. Achieved status from the other hand is that acquired by individuals as a result
of their hard work and personal efforts.
Ascribed status is that acquired by individuals as a result of belonging to or being born into a
certain social class. No personal efforts are used to gain this status. Achieved status from the
other hand is that acquired by individuals as a result of their hard work and personal efforts.
Sociologists have established a line between social status, social class, and educational
achievement.

Social Stratification and Academic Performance

The increasing weight of evidence pointing to the persistence of social class inequalities in
educational performance despite efforts in equalising educational opportunity in many countries

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has necessitated the search for answers from family background, which is closely related to
social class. The consistent tendency of children from lower classes to perform less well in
school and leave school sooner than their upper class counterparts when they are similar in
ability calls for an explanation embedded in the experiences and attitudes of their families. It
seems like parent’s behaviour and attitudes, coupled by the home environment influences the
response of the child to the formal school system.
Some areas of social class differences in formal educational experiences are:
Social stratification and school segregation

The patterns of social stratification in many communities are reflected in separate school systems
for students for different strata. In Africa, other than racially segregated school systems formerly
observed in South Africa, school systems differentiated on socio-economic class lines are
common in many other countries. In Kenya for example, while children from the lower class
mainly attend schools following the local 8-4-4 system of education, those from the upper class
have the option of joining more expensive schools using international curriculum like the British
GCE that has better higher education options. Similarly, the more expensive but better quality
private schools are more accessible to the upper class children than those from lower socio-
economic class backgrounds.
This is in comparison to poor quality but cheaper public schools more likely to be attended by
children from the lower socio-economic class backgrounds. The lack of a cross class motivation
and inferior educational programmes generally provided in such schools increases rather than
decreases the differences in their achievements.
Social Class Background and Education

The social class one belongs to which determines one’s socio-economic status affect the material
environment one is exposed to. In terms of material environment, the social economic status
affects the material environment one is exposed to. In terms of material environment, the social-
economic status of parents influence various important aspects of schooling including whether
the child will attend pre-school or not, the quality of the school they go to, whether they are
provided with the learning materials or not and whether they get a supplementary support in
school through extra tuition or not. Social class affects also school related aspects like
malnutrition and poor housing and overcrowding found in most slum areas can seriously impede
the Childs ability to do the homework and his or her opportunity for reading and constructive
pay.
Non-material environment based on a parent’s social is also viewed in terms of the existences
role models and people who can provide encouragement in schoolwork. Apart from the receiving
encouragement to the work hard in school, children form high social class homes. In Kenya for
example, English, which is the medium of instruction in schools, is spoken at home, in addition
to English storybooks available for such children who tend to build their vocabulary very early in

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life. Lastly, research findings show how those academic aspirations of school children are
positively related to their socio-economic status. On the whole, children from high and middle
social classes do well in the school and as a result have high occupational aspirations. Despite
the bleak picture in existences for children in the lower socio-economic class backgrounds the
next discussion provided an escape route.
Social mobility
Fortunately, the individuals can move from one social class to another in a process known as a
social mobility. Social mobility is a process through which individual can move either up or
down or within one social scale. Social mobility can take the following forms:
Horizontal mobility: here individuals move within the same class. For example, they may move
from the upper class to the lower class and vice versa.
Vertical mobility: here the individuals move up and down the classes i.e. from the lower class to
the upper class.

 Education and social mobility

Education is said to bring about social mobility. How does this occur?
Education equips individuals with the skills and attitudes that enable them to occupy occupations
in the society. Within this process, the children from the lower social classes should be able to
move up the social ladder through hard work in the school and consequently occupy well-paying
jobs. This model of education and social mobility would rest on three assumptions:

 Perfect educational opportunity

 Perfect entry into occupations via educational qualifications
 Perfect promotion via educational qualifications

However, in real life such perfect conditions do not exist. Take educational opportunity for
example, social factors like distance to schools and lack of school provision may hinder access
even where schooling is free and compulsory. Similar, not all educated people get employed.
Cases of educated unemployment are the norm of most developing countries for promotion and
gender may determine whether one gets promoted or not. Based on the above, two types of
mobility therefore emerge:
Sponsored mobility: under this system, whether intelligent or qualified or not individuals due to
their ascribed status are able to access education and consequently occupation with very little
struggle.
Contest mobility: intelligence and hard work in schools enables the individuals to obtain grades
and consequentially good occupations. Therefore, due to several hurdles encountered along the
way like lack of school fees, most individuals drop pout of the contests, the school systems and
only few are able to make it. The above discussion points to the fact that although education

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brings about the same amount of social mobility, most of the time, education systems tend to
reinforce the existing social structure rather than the change it.
Social economic status (s.e.s) and it’s on academic achievement

 Socio-economic status can be defined as the social and economic position of an

individual or a family in any given society determined by such factors as the level of
education, occupation and income.
 The socio-economic status of a family has been acknowledged to affect positively or
negatively the schooling of that family. Experience and research findings show that the
higher the socio-economic status of a family ,the more likely it motivates its children
to learn in school and consequently to succeed in learning (Ezewu,1983).Below are
some of examples of how socio economic status affects schooling in Africa as a whole
and Kenya in particular.

a) Early attendance at school

People of high socio economic status send their children to school than those of low
socio-economic status. This is because they have the means and opportunities of sending
them to nursery schools as early as three years. They also know the importance of taking
their children earlier as they join the labour market and hence occupy jobs before others.
Wealthy and better-educated parents utilize private nursery schools that deploy resources
in a manner that creates pre-school conditions, which are conducive to a successful
school performance. They also provide initial advantages, which are difficult to match
among the poor, uneducated and rural Kenyans.
Families with a high socio economic status prepare their children for school more
adequately than those with low socioeconomic status, as a result, children coming from
wealthy background are often more ready to learn as they enter the primary school level
and consequently stand better chances of succeeding in their studies as compared to
families with low socio-economic.

b) Provision of books and other materials

People of high socio economic status usually earn a higher income and place more value
on school education than those of low socio economic income status. They are likely to
possess financial means and willingness to provide their children with books and
necessary school materials and spend a proportion of their income on books. They
purchase books, educational toys and read to their children at home, while parents from
low socio economic status may lack the money to purchase books and the quest for
survival makes it impossible for them to create time for their children. Children in low
social status schools books and materials and it becomes difficult for teachers give
homework while those from high socio economic status have individual textbooks and
reference books. They can always read ahead of the teacher.

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c) Attendance at the best school available
Some schools are more prestigious than others and attract the best qualified teachers and
receive the attention of the government. Children from high socioeconomic status
families attend prestigious schools. These families in order to maintain their status do
everything possible to ensure that their children attend the best nursery and primary
schools to guarantee admission to highly placed secondary schools ,the entrance to
which is very competitive. The schools have all have all facilities.

Highly educated families ensure that their offspring ‘s are schooled in superior
institutions increasing influence of home background upon access to good schools and
subsequent scholarships .The parents can afford to take their children for private tuition
during weekends and in the evenings after school. Children from poor backgrounds
may lack extra coaching and textbooks. Fees and other amenities in these schools push
children from poor families out of such schools. Parents deliberately demand for extra
facilities thus pushing others out.

d) Encouragement in school education

A family may be supportive, neutral or antagonistic to school education .The value to
Which a family attaches school education determines the motivation with which its
children pursue such education. Children from low socio economic status are involved in
other activities in the home after school or during holidays, such as businesses or manual
labour for survival. These results in constant absenteeism and late coming. This is bound
to have diverse effect on academic achievement. In high socio economic status families,
there are house helps to carry out house chores and therefore, the learners study time is
not interfered with.
Parents reaction to poor performance in school has an impact on performance .High socio
economic status families tend to show more concern over their children’s poor
performance at school. Most teach their children, encourage them and help them
improve in poorly performed subjects or take them tuition classes. On the other hand,
even if low socio economic status families worry over their children poor performance,
they are not always able to coach them. Many are semi illiterate and their low income
cannot enable them to take their children for tuition .To some of these parent’s, basic
survival is given more prominence than education.
In high socio economic families’ parents are very influential and through this influence,
coupled by their high expectation in education in education ,they are able to provide
both support and bring pressure to bear on teachers to perform even better .In low cost
primary schools, parents may not visit the schools unless compelled to do so.Many are
unable to contribute money to be used as motivation for learners and teachers.
Indirectly, poor parents may through talking discourage their children from doing well in
school .They may talk of difficulties in getting school fees and other facilities.

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e) Provision of a good model English
English is the language of instruction in most primary schools. Children from families
with a high socio economic status usually speak English before going to school. This is
so because parents with their own good educational background can provide sound
models of English at home for the children to learn from .These children are provided
with children’s books which stimulate them, greatly fascinating the learning of English
and other subjects. Those from low socio economic backgrounds may use English only
while at school and are at times extremely handicapped .They are usually spoken to at
home in mother tongue .This makes them disadvantaged as they start school at a lower
status than those from high socio economic status.

f) Development of interest in school activities

An all-around education should develop the mental and physical potential of the learner
as well as character. Parents from high socioeconomic status homes show less interests
in school activities than parents from high socio economic families are interested in both
academic subjects and varied school activities .The home and surroundings of pupils
from low socio economic status show interest in what goes on in school. They support
these activities .Parents from high socio economic status scarcely have the facilities or
even space for sporting activities. Parents from high social economic status show interest
in what goes on in school. They support these activities and by extension motivate their
children.

g) Academic and job aspirations

The academic aspirations of school children are positively related to the socio economic
status of their parents. Children tend to imitate their parents and so aspire to be as highly
educated as their parents .more pupils from the high socio economic status groups than
the lower socio economic status groups aspire to those highly rated professions like
medicine ,judges ,architects .Children from low socio economic status lack role models.
They struggle on their own and in most cases cannot advance very far.

h) Home environment
The home environment plays an increasing influence upon academic performance of
pupils in primary schools .While most families in high socio economic status live in
peaceful ,quiet environments conducive for reading ,for learners in most of the low
socio economic families ,the immediate environment is noisy and not conducive to
reading. Congested and poorly lit room make reading and revision most impossible. Due
to the noisy environment, most children do their assignments after others have gone to
sleep.
Besides malnutrition and poor living conditions, most families in low social economic
status encounter disturbances, harassment and violence. This creates worry, tension,
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 phobia, nightmares and nervous breakdowns. These disturbances have a lot of negative
effect on education as the pupil’s concentration span in school is adversely affected.

However there are exceptions. There are those, although they come from high socio economic
status do not perform well in school. Some from low socio economic families perform well and
surpass children from high socio economic status families at school. However, on average, high
socio economic status homes encourage schooling more than low socio economic status homes
and so such children are more likely to achieve better results at school.

Conclusion

Social stratification enhances inequality within the society. The effect is greatly felt within the
education system, where social stratification create unequal access to schooling. In the near
future those benefitting most from education will be those with advantaged parents who are able
to provide the kind of home background needed for studies and then the kind of school, which
enables the child to take most advantage of the educational system .This stratification is
encouraged by charging high fees and levies in a number of a quality schools to keep off the
poor.
The fact that children from higher socio-economic status families are able to attend better
equipped schools with highly motivated teachers, while those in low socio-economic status
attend poorly equipped schools with demoralized teachers, resulting in differences in
performance, with the c children from rich families performing better than those from poor
families indicates that education cannot be regarded as a means of open social mobility,
especially vertical mobility. The high socio-economic status occupiers will monopolize the
highest educational levels, as well as the most prestigious occupations in society.
The ability of education to initiate economic and social change is limited by the fact that it is a
product of the very environment in which change is being sought .Those who should modify the
educational system and create equality are themselves products of it and are very much
influenced by it.Efforts should therefore be made to create equality of opportunities in education
and the role of the school in creating this equality should be expounded..

FURTHER READING

EED 4222 SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

Go to:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277964291_Education_Teaching_and_School_as_A_Social_
Organization

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5th World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership, WCLTA 2014 Education,
Teaching and School as A Social Organization Mimar Turkkahramana.

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