Education and Society

Education
 Education is the social institution for transmitting knowledge and skills, as
well as teaching cultural norms and values.
 The word ‘education’ comes from the Latin word ‘educare’ which means to
bring up: The genuine idea of education is not merely to lead pupil in the
acquisition of knowledge and experience but also to bring up, develop in him
those habits and attitudes with which he may successfully face the future.
 Every society has some form of educational institution: culturally defined
standardized form of deliberate instruction.
 In our ancient societies, we had the ‘Gurukula’ system; but now in modern
societies, this system of instruction is replaced by formal institutions such as
schools, colleges, etc.
Education and schooling
• Education is the social institution through which society provides its members
with important knowledge including basic facts, jobs skills and cultural norms
and values.
• Education can takes place in many social institutions.
• Schooling is a formal process through which certain types of knowledge and
skills are delivered, normally via predesigned curriculum in a specialized setting:
school.
• Industrial societies develop formal systems of schooling to educate their
children
• Differences in schooling in societies around the world today reflect both cultural
values and each country’s economic development.
• Some sociologists argue that education is not confined to or defined by that
which is delivered in schools
 Functions of Education
• Eminent French sociologist Emile Durkheim assumed that one of the
major functions of education is the transmission of society’s norms and
values through the process of socialization.
• According to Durkheim, the formal education imparted by schools cannot
be provided either by family or peer groups.
• In the words of Durkheim “It is by respecting the school rules that the
child learns to respect rules in general, that he develops the habit of self-
control and restrains himself”.
• Another sociologist Talcott Parsons argued that a central function of
education was to instil in pupils the value of individual achievement
• This value was crucial to the functioning of industrial societies, but it
could not be learned in the family.
• According to Parsons, the function of education is to enable children to
move from the particularistic standard of the family (ascribed status) to
the universal standards (achieved status) needed in a modern society.
• But some scholars opine that schools are not only involved in
socialization but also produce the right kind of workers for capitalist
companies.
• Austrian scholar Ivan Illich (1926-2002) opined that modern education
system deskilling the population as they come to rely more and more on
the requirement of industry and less on their creativity and knowledge.
Universalization of Primary Education and mass education

• Universalization of primary education simply refers to ensure primary

education facility to all section, group, gender, caste, and class etc., of
the society.
• The need for universalization of primary education in India was pointed
out a century ago by Sri Dadabai Navaroji
• Later, during 1912-14, Sri Gopal Krishna Gokhale took up the cause
• His efforts were supported by Sri R.V. Parulekhar
• The Gokhale-Parulkhar Model of primary education was limited to the
attainment of universal literacy through four years of compulsory
schooling
Universalization of Primary Education….
• Universalization of primary education has been accepted as a national goal
since independence
• The government has taken responsibility of providing elementary or basic
education to all.
• In Independent India Article 45 of the constitution provided a framework in
this direction
• Afterwards various commissions and committees appointed by the
Government of India also gave recommendations to universalize elementary
education and lots of programmes such as Shiksha Karmi Project, District
Primary Education Project (DPEP), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) were
initiated in this direction
Universalization of Primary Education….
• Both DPEP and SSA are externally funded programmes towards
achieving the long cherished goal of universalization of primary
education through time bound integrated approach
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE)
2009 is a detailed and comprehensive piece of legislation which
includes the provision related to free and compulsory education to all
children in the age group of 6-14 years as fundamental right
• This Act also shifted the constitutional obligation towards free and
compulsory education from the state to the parents/guardians by
making it their fundamental duty under article 51 A (K).
Mass education
• Mass education generally meant that the spread of formal and informal education to
the common people.
• The need of mass education was first felt in England during the industrial revolution
when they needed skilful person to handle the complex task related to science and
technology, economic management etc.
• Some of the social aspects of mass education are as follows.
• 1. Promotion of scientific and technical knowledge
• 2. Helpful in eradication of poverty and unemployment
• 3. Promotion of secular values
• 4. Democratisation of society
• 5. Economic and social development
Higher Education in India: The current scenario

• Indian higher education system is the third largest after China and United states
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher education in India is 24.5% which is calculated for 18-23
years of age group.
• GER for male population is 25.4% and for females, it is 23.5%. For Scheduled Castes, it is 19.9%
and for Scheduled Tribes, it is 14.2% as compared to the national GER of 24.5%

• The Indian higher education faces four broad challenges. It include supply-demand gap, low
quality of teaching and learning, constrains on research capacity and innovation, and uneven
growth and access to opportunity.
• There are three main types of tertiary educational institutions in India. They are universities and
university level institutions, colleges and diploma awarding institutions.
• There is only 2.6 percent of the Indian students enrolled in central universities and Institutes of
National Importance such as IITs, IIMs, and ISERs.
• There are799 Universities, 39071 colleges and 11923 Stand Alone
Institutions listed on AISHE web portal