functions of education towards nation

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

16.2 Sociological Perspectives on Education

Learning objectives.

List the major functions of education.
Explain the problems that conflict theory sees in education.
Describe how symbolic interactionism understands education.

The major sociological perspectives on education fall nicely into the functional, conflict, and symbolic interactionist approaches (Ballantine & Hammack, 2009). Table 16.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes what these approaches say.

Table 16.1 Theory Snapshot

The Functions of Education

Functional theory stresses the functions that education serves in fulfilling a society’s various needs. Perhaps the most important function of education is socialization . If children need to learn the norms, values, and skills they need to function in society, then education is a primary vehicle for such learning. Schools teach the three Rs, as we all know, but they also teach many of the society’s norms and values. In the United States, these norms and values include respect for authority, patriotism (remember the Pledge of Allegiance?), punctuality, individualism, and competition. Regarding these last two values, American students from an early age compete as individuals over grades and other rewards. The situation is quite the opposite in Japan, where, as we saw in Chapter 4 “Socialization” , children learn the traditional Japanese values of harmony and group belonging from their schooling (Schneider & Silverman, 2010). They learn to value their membership in their homeroom, or kumi , and are evaluated more on their kumi ’s performance than on their own individual performance. How well a Japanese child’s kumi does is more important than how well the child does as an individual.

A second function of education is social integration . For a society to work, functionalists say, people must subscribe to a common set of beliefs and values. As we saw, the development of such common views was a goal of the system of free, compulsory education that developed in the 19th century. Thousands of immigrant children in the United States today are learning English, U.S. history, and other subjects that help prepare them for the workforce and integrate them into American life. Such integration is a major goal of the English-only movement, whose advocates say that only English should be used to teach children whose native tongue is Spanish, Vietnamese, or whatever other language their parents speak at home. Critics of this movement say it slows down these children’s education and weakens their ethnic identity (Schildkraut, 2005).

A third function of education is social placement . Beginning in grade school, students are identified by teachers and other school officials either as bright and motivated or as less bright and even educationally challenged. Depending on how they are identified, children are taught at the level that is thought to suit them best. In this way they are prepared in the most appropriate way possible for their later station in life. Whether this process works as well as it should is an important issue, and we explore it further when we discuss school tracking shortly.

Social and cultural innovation is a fourth function of education. Our scientists cannot make important scientific discoveries and our artists and thinkers cannot come up with great works of art, poetry, and prose unless they have first been educated in the many subjects they need to know for their chosen path.

Figure 16.1 The Functions of Education

The Functions of Education: social integration, social placement, socialization, social and cultural innovation

Schools ideally perform many important functions in modern society. These include socialization, social integration, social placement, and social and cultural innovation.

Education also involves several latent functions, functions that are by-products of going to school and receiving an education rather than a direct effect of the education itself. One of these is child care . Once a child starts kindergarten and then first grade, for several hours a day the child is taken care of for free. The establishment of peer relationships is another latent function of schooling. Most of us met many of our friends while we were in school at whatever grade level, and some of those friendships endure the rest of our lives. A final latent function of education is that it keeps millions of high school students out of the full-time labor force . This fact keeps the unemployment rate lower than it would be if they were in the labor force.

Education and Inequality

Conflict theory does not dispute most of the functions just described. However, it does give some of them a different slant and talks about various ways in which education perpetuates social inequality (Hill, Macrine, & Gabbard, 2010; Liston, 1990). One example involves the function of social placement. As most schools track their students starting in grade school, the students thought by their teachers to be bright are placed in the faster tracks (especially in reading and arithmetic), while the slower students are placed in the slower tracks; in high school, three common tracks are the college track, vocational track, and general track.

Such tracking does have its advantages; it helps ensure that bright students learn as much as their abilities allow them, and it helps ensure that slower students are not taught over their heads. But, conflict theorists say, tracking also helps perpetuate social inequality by locking students into faster and lower tracks. Worse yet, several studies show that students’ social class and race and ethnicity affect the track into which they are placed, even though their intellectual abilities and potential should be the only things that matter: white, middle-class students are more likely to be tracked “up,” while poorer students and students of color are more likely to be tracked “down.” Once they are tracked, students learn more if they are tracked up and less if they are tracked down. The latter tend to lose self-esteem and begin to think they have little academic ability and thus do worse in school because they were tracked down. In this way, tracking is thought to be good for those tracked up and bad for those tracked down. Conflict theorists thus say that tracking perpetuates social inequality based on social class and race and ethnicity (Ansalone, 2006; Oakes, 2005).

Social inequality is also perpetuated through the widespread use of standardized tests. Critics say these tests continue to be culturally biased, as they include questions whose answers are most likely to be known by white, middle-class students, whose backgrounds have afforded them various experiences that help them answer the questions. They also say that scores on standardized tests reflect students’ socioeconomic status and experiences in addition to their academic abilities. To the extent this critique is true, standardized tests perpetuate social inequality (Grodsky, Warren, & Felts, 2008).

As we will see, schools in the United States also differ mightily in their resources, learning conditions, and other aspects, all of which affect how much students can learn in them. Simply put, schools are unequal, and their very inequality helps perpetuate inequality in the larger society. Children going to the worst schools in urban areas face many more obstacles to their learning than those going to well-funded schools in suburban areas. Their lack of learning helps ensure they remain trapped in poverty and its related problems.

Conflict theorists also say that schooling teaches a hidden curriculum , by which they mean a set of values and beliefs that support the status quo, including the existing social hierarchy (Booher-Jennings, 2008) (see Chapter 4 “Socialization” ). Although no one plots this behind closed doors, our schoolchildren learn patriotic values and respect for authority from the books they read and from various classroom activities.

Symbolic Interactionism and School Behavior

Symbolic interactionist studies of education examine social interaction in the classroom, on the playground, and in other school venues. These studies help us understand what happens in the schools themselves, but they also help us understand how what occurs in school is relevant for the larger society. Some studies, for example, show how children’s playground activities reinforce gender-role socialization. Girls tend to play more cooperative games, while boys play more competitive sports (Thorne, 1993) (see Chapter 11 “Gender and Gender Inequality” ).

Another body of research shows that teachers’ views about students can affect how much the students learn. When teachers think students are smart, they tend to spend more time with them, to call on them, and to praise them when they give the right answer. Not surprisingly these students learn more because of their teachers’ behavior. But when teachers think students are less bright, they tend to spend less time with them and act in a way that leads the students to learn less. One of the first studies to find this example of a self-fulfilling prophecy was conducted by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968). They tested a group of students at the beginning of the school year and told their teachers which students were bright and which were not. They tested the students again at the end of the school year; not surprisingly the bright students had learned more during the year than the less bright ones. But it turned out that the researchers had randomly decided which students would be designated bright and less bright. Because the “bright” students learned more during the school year without actually being brighter at the beginning, their teachers’ behavior must have been the reason. In fact, their teachers did spend more time with them and praised them more often than was true for the “less bright” students. To the extent this type of self-fulfilling prophecy occurs, it helps us understand why tracking is bad for the students tracked down.

Pre schoolers working on arts and crafts

Research guided by the symbolic interactionist perspective suggests that teachers’ expectations may influence how much their students learn. When teachers expect little of their students, their students tend to learn less.

ijiwaru jimbo – Pre-school colour pack – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Other research focuses on how teachers treat girls and boys. Several studies from the 1970s through the 1990s found that teachers call on boys more often and praise them more often (American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1998; Jones & Dindia, 2004). Teachers did not do this consciously, but their behavior nonetheless sent an implicit message to girls that math and science are not for girls and that they are not suited to do well in these subjects. This body of research stimulated efforts to educate teachers about the ways in which they may unwittingly send these messages and about strategies they could use to promote greater interest and achievement by girls in math and science (Battey, Kafai, Nixon, & Kao, 2007).

Key Takeaways

According to the functional perspective, education helps socialize children and prepare them for their eventual entrance into the larger society as adults.
The conflict perspective emphasizes that education reinforces inequality in the larger society.
The symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on school playgrounds, and at other school-related venues. Social interaction contributes to gender-role socialization, and teachers’ expectations may affect their students’ performance.

For Your Review

Review how the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives understand and explain education. Which of these three approaches do you most prefer? Why?

American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. (1998). Gender gaps: Where schools still fail our children . Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.

Ansalone, G. (2006). Tracking: A return to Jim Crow. Race, Gender & Class, 13 , 1–2.

Ballantine, J. H., & Hammack, F. M. (2009). The sociology of education: A systematic analysis (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Battey, D., Kafai, Y., Nixon, A. S., & Kao, L. L. (2007). Professional development for teachers on gender equity in the sciences: Initiating the conversation. Teachers College Record, 109 (1), 221–243.

Booher-Jennings, J. (2008). Learning to label: Socialisation, gender, and the hidden curriculum of high-stakes testing. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29 , 149–160.

Grodsky, E., Warren, J. R., & Felts, E. (2008). Testing and social stratification in American education. Annual Review of Sociology, 34 (1), 385–404.

Hill, D., Macrine, S., & Gabbard, D. (Eds.). (2010). Capitalist education: Globalisation and the politics of inequality . New York, NY: Routledge; Liston, D. P. (1990). Capitalist schools: Explanation and ethics in radical studies of schooling . New York, NY: Routledge.

Jones, S. M., & Dindia, K. (2004). A meta-analystic perspective on sex equity in the classroom. Review of Educational Research, 74 , 443–471.

Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom . New York, NY: Holt.

Schildkraut, D. J. (2005). Press “one” for English: Language policy, public opinion, and American identity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Schneider, L., & Silverman, A. (2010). Global sociology: Introducing five contemporary societies (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play: Girls and boys in school . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

16.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Education

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

Define manifest and latent functions of education
Explain and discuss how functionalism, conflict theory, feminism, and interactionism view issues of education

While it is clear that education plays an integral role in individuals’ lives as well as society as a whole, sociologists view that role from many diverse points of view. Functionalists believe that education equips people to perform different functional roles in society. Conflict theorists view education as a means of widening the gap in social inequality. Feminist theorists point to evidence that sexism in education continues to prevent women from achieving a full measure of social equality. Symbolic interactionists study the dynamics of the classroom, the interactions between students and teachers, and how those affect everyday life. In this section, you will learn about each of these perspectives.

Functionalism

Functionalists view education as one of the more important social institutions in a society. They contend that education contributes two kinds of functions: manifest (or primary) functions, which are the intended and visible functions of education; and latent (or secondary) functions, which are the hidden and unintended functions.

Manifest Functions

There are several major manifest functions associated with education. The first is socialization. Beginning in preschool and kindergarten, students are taught to practice various societal roles. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who established the academic discipline of sociology, characterized schools as “socialization agencies that teach children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles” (Durkheim 1898). Indeed, it seems that schools have taken on this responsibility in full.

This socialization also involves learning the rules and norms of the society as a whole. In the early days of compulsory education, students learned the dominant culture. Today, since the culture of the United States is increasingly diverse, students may learn a variety of cultural norms, not only that of the dominant culture.

School systems in the United States also transmit the core values of the nation through manifest functions like social control. One of the roles of schools is to teach students conformity to law and respect for authority. Obviously, such respect, given to teachers and administrators, will help a student navigate the school environment. This function also prepares students to enter the workplace and the world at large, where they will continue to be subject to people who have authority over them. Fulfillment of this function rests primarily with classroom teachers and instructors who are with students all day.

Education also provides one of the major methods used by people for upward social mobility. This function is referred to as social placement . College and graduate schools are viewed as vehicles for moving students closer to the careers that will give them the financial freedom and security they seek. As a result, college students are often more motivated to study areas that they believe will be advantageous on the social ladder. A student might value business courses over a class in Victorian poetry because she sees business class as a stronger vehicle for financial success.

Latent Functions

Education also fulfills latent functions. As you well know, much goes on in a school that has little to do with formal education. For example, you might notice an attractive fellow student when he gives a particularly interesting answer in class—catching up with him and making a date speaks to the latent function of courtship fulfilled by exposure to a peer group in the educational setting.

The educational setting introduces students to social networks that might last for years and can help people find jobs after their schooling is complete. Of course, with social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, these networks are easier than ever to maintain. Another latent function is the ability to work with others in small groups, a skill that is transferable to a workplace and that might not be learned in a homeschool setting.

The educational system, especially as experienced on university campuses, has traditionally provided a place for students to learn about various social issues. There is ample opportunity for social and political advocacy, as well as the ability to develop tolerance to the many views represented on campus. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement swept across college campuses all over the United States, leading to demonstrations in which diverse groups of students were unified with the purpose of changing the political climate of the country.

Functionalists recognize other ways that schools educate and enculturate students. One of the most important U.S. values students in the United States learn is that of individualism—the valuing of the individual over the value of groups or society as a whole. In countries such as Japan and China, where the good of the group is valued over the rights of the individual, students do not learn as they do in the United States that the highest rewards go to the “best” individual in academics as well as athletics. One of the roles of schools in the United States is fostering self-esteem; conversely, schools in Japan focus on fostering social esteem—the honoring of the group over the individual.

In the United States, schools also fill the role of preparing students for competition in life. Obviously, athletics foster a competitive nature, but even in the classroom students compete against one another academically. Schools also fill the role of teaching patriotism. Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and take history classes where they learn about national heroes and the nation’s past.

Another role of schools, according to functionalist theory, is that of sorting , or classifying students based on academic merit or potential. The most capable students are identified early in schools through testing and classroom achievements. Such students are placed in accelerated programs in anticipation of successful college attendance.

Functionalists also contend that school, particularly in recent years, is taking over some of the functions that were traditionally undertaken by family. Society relies on schools to teach about human sexuality as well as basic skills such as budgeting and job applications—topics that at one time were addressed by the family.

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists do not believe that public schools reduce social inequality. Rather, they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Where functionalists see education as serving a beneficial role, conflict theorists view it more negatively. To them, educational systems preserve the status quo and push people of lower status into obedience.

The fulfillment of one’s education is closely linked to social class. Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status, no matter how great their academic ability or desire to learn. Picture a student from a working-class home who wants to do well in school. On a Monday, he’s assigned a paper that’s due Friday. Monday evening, he has to babysit his younger sister while his divorced mother works. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works stocking shelves after school until 10:00 p.m. By Thursday, the only day he might have available to work on that assignment, he’s so exhausted he can’t bring himself to start the paper. His mother, though she’d like to help him, is so tired herself that she isn’t able to give him the encouragement or support he needs. And since English is her second language, she has difficulty with some of his educational materials. They also lack a computer and printer at home, which most of his classmates have, so they have to rely on the public library or school system for access to technology. As this story shows, many students from working-class families have to contend with helping out at home, contributing financially to the family, poor study environments and a lack of support from their families. This is a difficult match with education systems that adhere to a traditional curriculum that is more easily understood and completed by students of higher social classes.

Such a situation leads to social class reproduction, extensively studied by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He researched how cultural capital , or cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency that helps us navigate a culture, alters the experiences and opportunities available to French students from different social classes. Members of the upper and middle classes have more cultural capital than do families of lower-class status. As a result, the educational system maintains a cycle in which the dominant culture’s values are rewarded. Instruction and tests cater to the dominant culture and leave others struggling to identify with values and competencies outside their social class. For example, there has been a great deal of discussion over what standardized tests such as the SAT truly measure. Many argue that the tests group students by cultural ability rather than by natural intelligence.

The cycle of rewarding those who possess cultural capital is found in formal educational curricula as well as in the hidden curriculum , which refers to the type of nonacademic knowledge that students learn through informal learning and cultural transmission. This hidden curriculum reinforces the positions of those with higher cultural capital and serves to bestow status unequally.

Conflict theorists point to tracking , a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced versus low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities. While educators may believe that students do better in tracked classes because they are with students of similar ability and may have access to more individual attention from teachers, conflict theorists feel that tracking leads to self-fulfilling prophecies in which students live up (or down) to teacher and societal expectations (Education Week 2004).

To conflict theorists, schools play the role of training working-class students to accept and retain their position as lower members of society. They argue that this role is fulfilled through the disparity of resources available to students in richer and poorer neighborhoods as well as through testing (Lauen and Tyson 2008).

IQ tests have been attacked for being biased—for testing cultural knowledge rather than actual intelligence. For example, a test item may ask students what instruments belong in an orchestra. To correctly answer this question requires certain cultural knowledge—knowledge most often held by more affluent people who typically have more exposure to orchestral music. Though experts in testing claim that bias has been eliminated from tests, conflict theorists maintain that this is impossible. These tests, to conflict theorists, are another way in which education does not provide opportunities, but instead maintains an established configuration of power.

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory aims to understand the mechanisms and roots of gender inequality in education, as well as their societal repercussions. Like many other institutions of society, educational systems are characterized by unequal treatment and opportunity for women. Almost two-thirds of the world’s 862 million illiterate people are women, and the illiteracy rate among women is expected to increase in many regions, especially in several African and Asian countries (UNESCO 2005; World Bank 2007).

Women in the United States have been relatively late, historically speaking, to be granted entry to the public university system. In fact, it wasn’t until the establishment of Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972 that discriminating on the basis of sex in U.S. education programs became illegal. In the United States, there is also a post-education gender disparity between what male and female college graduates earn. A study released in May 2011 showed that, among men and women who graduated from college between 2006 and 2010, men out-earned women by an average of more than $5,000 each year. First-year job earnings for men averaged $33,150; for women the average was $28,000 (Godofsky, Zukin, and van Horn 2011). Similar trends are seen among salaries of professionals in virtually all industries.

When women face limited opportunities for education, their capacity to achieve equal rights, including financial independence, are limited. Feminist theory seeks to promote women’s rights to equal education (and its resultant benefits) across the world.

Sociology in the Real World

Grade inflation: when is an a really a c.

In 2019, news emerged of a criminal conspiracy regarding wealthy and, in some cases, celebrity parents who illegally secured college admission for their children. Over 50 people were implicated in the scandal, including employees from prestigious universities; several people were sentenced to prison. Their activity included manipulating test scores, falsifying students’ academic or athletic credentials, and acquiring testing accommodations through dishonest claims of having a disability.

One of the questions that emerged at the time was how the students at the subject of these efforts could succeed at these challenging and elite colleges. Meaning, if they couldn’t get in without cheating, they probably wouldn’t do well. Wouldn’t their lack of preparation quickly become clear?

Many people would say no. First, many of the students involved (the children of the conspirators) had no knowledge or no involvement of the fraud; those students may have been admitted anyway. But there may be another safeguard for underprepared students at certain universities: grade inflation.

Grade inflation generally refers to a practice of awarding students higher grades than they have earned. It reflects the observation that the relationship between letter grades and the achievements they reflect has been changing over time. Put simply, what used to be considered C-level, or average, now often earns a student a B, or even an A.

Some, including administrators at elite universities, argue that grade inflation does not exist, or that there are other factors at play, or even that it has benefits such as increased funding and elimination of inequality (Boleslavsky 2014). But the evidence reveals a stark change. Based on data compiled from a wide array of four-year colleges and universities, a widely cited study revealed that the number of A grades has been increasing by several percentage points per decade, and that A’s were the most common grade awarded (Jaschik 2016). In an anecdotal case, a Harvard dean acknowledged that the median grade there was an A-, and the most common was also an A. Williams College found that the number of A+ grades had grown from 212 instances in 2009-10 to 426 instances in 2017-18 (Berlinsky-Schine 2020). Princeton University took steps to reduce inflation by limiting the number of A’s that could be issued, though it then reversed course (Greason 2020).

Why is this happening? Some cite the alleged shift toward a culture that rewards effort instead of product, i.e., the amount of work a student puts in raises the grade, even if the resulting product is poor quality. Another oft-cited contributor is the pressure for instructors to earn positive course evaluations from their students. Finally, many colleges may accept a level of grade inflation because it works. Analysis and formal experiments involving graduate school admissions and hiring practices showed that students with higher grades are more likely to be selected for a job or a grad school. And those higher-grade applicants are still preferred even if decision-maker knows that the applicant’s college may be inflating grades (Swift 2013). In other words, people with high GPA at a school with a higher average GPA are preferred over people who have a high GPA at a school with a lower average GPA.

Ironically, grade inflation is not simply a college issue. Many of the same college faculty and administrators who encounter or engage in some level of grade inflation may lament that it is also occurring at high schools (Murphy 2017).

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism sees education as one way that labeling theory is seen in action. A symbolic interactionist might say that this labeling has a direct correlation to those who are in power and those who are labeled. For example, low standardized test scores or poor performance in a particular class often lead to a student who is labeled as a low achiever. Such labels are difficult to “shake off,” which can create a self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton 1968).

In his book High School Confidential , Jeremy Iversen details his experience as a Stanford graduate posing as a student at a California high school. One of the problems he identifies in his research is that of teachers applying labels that students are never able to lose. One teacher told him, without knowing he was a bright graduate of a top university, that he would never amount to anything (Iversen 2006). Iversen obviously didn’t take this teacher’s false assessment to heart. But when an actual seventeen-year-old student hears this from a person with authority over her, it’s no wonder that the student might begin to “live down to” that label.

The labeling with which symbolic interactionists concern themselves extends to the very degrees that symbolize completion of education. Credentialism embodies the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications. These certificates or degrees serve as a symbol of what a person has achieved, and allows the labeling of that individual.

Indeed, as these examples show, labeling theory can significantly impact a student’s schooling. This is easily seen in the educational setting, as teachers and more powerful social groups within the school dole out labels that are adopted by the entire school population.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-introduction

Authors: Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang
Publisher/website: OpenStax
Book title: Introduction to Sociology 3e
Publication date: Jun 3, 2021
Location: Houston, Texas
Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-introduction
Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/16-2-theoretical-perspectives-on-education

© Jan 18, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

Why education is the key to development

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Børge Brende

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Education is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:.

Education is a human right. And, like other human rights, it cannot be taken for granted. Across the world, 59 million children and 65 million adolescents are out of school . More than 120 million children do not complete primary education.

Behind these figures there are children and youth being denied not only a right, but opportunities: a fair chance to get a decent job, to escape poverty, to support their families, and to develop their communities. This year, decision-makers will set the priorities for global development for the next 15 years. They should make sure to place education high on the list.

The deadline for the Millennium Development Goals is fast approaching. We have a responsibility to make sure we fulfill the promise we made at the beginning of the millennium: to ensure that boys and girls everywhere complete a full course of primary schooling.

The challenge is daunting. Many of those who remain out of school are the hardest to reach, as they live in countries that are held back by conflict, disaster, and epidemics. And the last push is unlikely to be accompanied by the double-digit economic growth in some developing economies that makes it easier to expand opportunities.

Nevertheless, we can succeed. Over the last 15 years, governments and their partners have shown that political will and concerted efforts can deliver tremendous results – including halving the number of children and adolescents who are out of school. Moreover, most countries are closing in on gender parity at the primary level. Now is the time to redouble our efforts to finish what we started.

But we must not stop with primary education. In today’s knowledge-driven economies, access to quality education and the chances for development are two sides of the same coin. That is why we must also set targets for secondary education, while improving quality and learning outcomes at all levels. That is what the Sustainable Development Goal on education, which world leaders will adopt this year, aims to do.

Addressing the fact that an estimated 250 million children worldwide are not learning the basic skills they need to enter the labor market is more than a moral obligation. It amounts to an investment in sustainable growth and prosperity. For both countries and individuals, there is a direct and indisputable link between access to quality education and economic and social development.

Likewise, ensuring that girls are not kept at home when they reach puberty, but are allowed to complete education on the same footing as their male counterparts, is not just altruism; it is sound economics. Communities and countries that succeed in achieving gender parity in education will reap substantial benefits relating to health, equality, and job creation.

All countries, regardless of their national wealth, stand to gain from more and better education. According to a recent OECD report , providing every child with access to education and the skills needed to participate fully in society would boost GDP by an average 28% per year in lower-income countries and 16% per year in high-income countries for the next 80 years.

Today’s students need “twenty-first-century skills,” like critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and digital literacy. Learners of all ages need to become familiar with new technologies and cope with rapidly changing workplaces.

According to the International Labour Organization, an additional 280 million jobs will be needed by 2019. It is vital for policymakers to ensure that the right frameworks and incentives are established so that those jobs can be created and filled. Robust education systems – underpinned by qualified, professionally trained, motivated, and well-supported teachers – will be the cornerstone of this effort.

Governments should work with parent and teacher associations, as well as the private sector and civil-society organizations, to find the best and most constructive ways to improve the quality of education. Innovation has to be harnessed, and new partnerships must be forged.

Of course, this will cost money. According to UNESCO, in order to meet our basic education targets by 2030, we must close an external annual financing gap of about $22 billion. But we have the resources necessary to deliver. What is lacking is the political will to make the needed investments.

This is the challenge that inspired Norway to invite world leaders to Oslo for a Summit on Education for Development , where we can develop strategies for mobilizing political support for increasing financing for education. For the first time in history, we are in the unique position to provide education opportunities for all, if only we pull together. We cannot miss this critical opportunity.

To be sure, the responsibility for providing citizens with a quality education rests, first and foremost, with national governments. Aid cannot replace domestic-resource mobilization. But donor countries also have an important role to play, especially in supporting least-developed countries. We must reverse the recent downward trend in development assistance for education, and leverage our assistance to attract investments from various other sources. For our part, we are in the process of doubling Norway’s financial contribution to education for development in the period 2013-2017.

Together, we need to intensify efforts to bring the poorest and hardest to reach children into the education system. Education is a right for everyone. It is a right for girls, just as it is for boys. It is a right for disabled children, just as it is for everyone else. It is a right for the 37 million out-of-school children and youth in countries affected by crises and conflicts. Education is a right regardless of where you are born and where you grow up. It is time to ensure that the right is upheld.

This article is published in collaboration with Project Syndicate . Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter .

Author: Erna Solberg is Prime Minister of Norway. Børge Brende is Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Image: Students attend a class at the Oxford International College in Changzhou. REUTERS/Aly Song.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Education .chakra .wef-17xejub{-webkit-flex:1;-ms-flex:1;flex:1;justify-self:stretch;-webkit-align-self:stretch;-ms-flex-item-align:stretch;align-self:stretch;} .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

How universities can use blockchain to transform research

Scott Doughman

March 12, 2024

Empowering women in STEM: How we break barriers from classroom to C-suite

Genesis Elhussein and Julia Hakspiel

March 1, 2024

Why we need education built for peace – especially in times of war

February 28, 2024

These 5 key trends will shape the EdTech market upto 2030

Malvika Bhagwat

February 26, 2024

With Generative AI we can reimagine education — and the sky is the limit

Oguz A. Acar

February 19, 2024

How UNESCO is trying to plug the data gap in global education

February 12, 2024

The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions pp 629–637 Cite as

Higher Education and National Development, Meanings and Purposes

Nico Cloete 3 , 4 ,
Peter Maassen 5 &
Pundy Pillay 6
Reference work entry
First Online: 01 January 2020

130 Accesses

Nation state ; Postsecondary education ; Socio-economic progress ; Tertiary education

The contributions of higher education to social and economic progress in a national context.

Functions of Higher Education

Higher education institutions perform four basic functions, which form the foundation for their social contract (or “pact”) with society (Gornitzka et al. 2007 ). These functions, and their contradictions, have been discussed extensively in the academic literature: producing values and social legitimation , selecting the elite, training of the labor force, and producing new knowledge (see Castells 1993 , 2001 ; Cloete et al. 2015 ; Trow 1970 ). Specifically in relation to development, the last two functions, namely training the labor force (the education function) and producing new knowledge (the research function), are of relevance.

In the long history of higher education, the close relationship and mutual reliance of the two main functions of education and research...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

Available as PDF
Read on any device
Instant download
Own it forever
Available as EPUB and PDF
Durable hardcover edition
Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Ashenfelter, O., C. Harmon, and H. Oosterbeek. 1999. Empirical estimation of the school/earnings relationship-a review. Labour Economics 6: 453–470.

Google Scholar

Bloom, D., D. Canning, and K. Chan. 2006. Higher education and economic development in Africa . Cambridge: World Bank.

Bils, M. and P.J. Klenow. 1998. Does Schooling Cause Growth or the Other Way Around? NBER Working Paper , No. 6393. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Carnoy, M., P. Loyalka, M. Dobryakova, R. Dossani, I. Froumin, K. Kuhns, J. Tilak, and R. Wang. 2013. University expansion in a changing global economy: Triumph of the BRICs? Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Castells, M. 1993. The university system: Engine of development in the new world economy. In Improving higher education in developing countries , ed. A. Ransom, S.-M. Khoo, and V. Selvaratnam, 65–80. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Castells, M. 2001. Universities as dynamic systems of contradictory functions. In Challenges of globalisation: South African debates with Manuel Castells , ed. J. Muller, N. Cloete, and S. Badat, 206–223. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.

Castells, M. 2009. The role of universities in development, the economy and society: Transcript of a lecture on higher education . Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation. http://www.chet.org.za/papers/role-universities-development-economy-and-society

Cloete, N., and A. Gillwald. 2014. South African informational development and human development: Rights vs. capabilities. In Reconceptualising development in the global information age , ed. M. Castells and P. Himanen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cloete, N., P. Maassen, and T. Bailey (eds.). 2015. Knowledge production and contradictory functions in African higher education . Cape Town: African Minds.

De Meulemeester, J., and D. Rochat. 1995. A causality analysis of the link between higher education and economic development. Economics of Education Review 14(4): 351–361.

Douglass, J.A. 2007. The conditions for admission: Access, equity and the social contract of public universities . Redwood City: Stanford University Press.

Gornitzka, Å., and P. Maassen. 2007. An instrument for national political agendas: The hierarchical vision. In University dynamics and European integration, ed. P. Maassen and J.P. Olsen, 81–98. Dordrecht: Springer.

Gornitzka, Å., P. Maassen, J.P. Olsen and B. Stensaker. 2007. Europe of Knowledge: Search for the new Pact. In University Dynamics and European Integration , eds. P. Maassen and J.P. Olsen, 181–214. Dordrecht: Springer.

Hanushek, E.A., and L. Woessmann. 2008. The role of cognitive skills in economic development. Journal of Economic Literature 46: 607–668.

Hayward, F.M., and D.J. Ncayiyana. 2014. Confronting the challenges of graduate education in Sub-Saharan Africa and prospects for the future. International Journal of African Higher Education 1(1): 173–216.

IHEP. 1998. Reaping the benefits: Defining the public and private value of going to college . Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Irwin, N. 2015. Why more education won’t fix economic inequality. New York Times , no. 31 March 2015 (March). http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/upshot/why-more-education-wont-fix-economic-inequality.html?_r=0

Kerr, C. 1991. The great transformation in higher education, 1960–1980 . Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kimenyi, M.S. 2011. Contribution of higher education to economic development: A survey of international evidence. Journal of African Economies 20(AERC Supplement 3): iii14–iii49.

Krueger, A.B.., and M. Lindahl. 2001. Education for growth: Why and for whom? Journal of Economic Literature 39(4): 1101–1136.

Maassen, P. 2012. Separated connectedness: Institutional anchoring of networks aimed at stimulating economic development and innovation. In International conference on higher education and economic development. Pointe-Aux-Piments, Mauritius, 3–5 September 2012 .

Maassen, P. 2014. A new social contract for higher education? In Higher education in societies. A multi scale perspective , ed. G. Goastellec and F. Picard, 33–51. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Mattes, R., and T.M. Luescher-Mamashela. 2012. The roles of higher education in the democratisation of politics in Africa: Reports of HERANA studies. Journal of Higher Education in Africa 10(1): 139–170.

Montenegro, C.E., and H.A. Patrinos. 2014. Human development reports comparable estimates of returns to schooling around the world . Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Nybom, T. 2007. A Rule-governed Community of Scholars: The Humboldt Vision in the History of the European University. In University Dynamics and European Integration , eds. P. Maassen and J.P. Olsen, 55–80. Dordrecht: Springer.

Patrinos, H.A. 2015. Higher education: Returns are high but we need to fund it better. Education for Global Development , no. 21 October 2015. http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/higher-education-returns-are-high-we-need-fund-it-better

Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Pillay, P. 2011. Higher education and economic development: A review of the literature . Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation.

Powell, W.W., and K. Snellman. 2004. The knowledge economy. Annual Review of Sociology 30: 199–220.

Psacharopoulos, G. 1985. Returns to education: A further international update and implications. Journal of Human Resources 20(4): 583–604.

Psacharopoulos, G. 1995. The profitability of investment in education . Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Psacharopoulos, G., J.-P. Tan, and E. Jimenez. 1986. Financing education in developing countries: An exploration of policy options . Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Rüegg, W. 2004. Themes. In A history of the university in Europe. Vol. 3: Universities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (1800–1945) , ed. W. Rüegg, 3–35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tilak, J. 2003. Higher education and development in Asia. Journal of Educational Planning and Administration 17(2): 151–173.

Trow, M. 1970. Reflections on the transition from mass to universal higher education. Daedalus 99(1): 1–42.

Watson, P. 2010. The German genius. Europe’s third renaissance, the second scientific revolution and the twentieth century . London: Simon & Schuster.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Centre for Higher Education Trust (CHET), Wynberg, South Africa

Nico Cloete

Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation (DST-NRF) Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science Technology and Innovation Policy (SciSTIP), University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Peter Maassen

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Pundy Pillay

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nico Cloete .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

CIPES - Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies and Faculty of Economics - U., Porto, Portugal

Pedro Nuno Teixeira

Department of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

Jung Cheol Shin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Cloete, N., Maassen, P., Pillay, P. (2020). Higher Education and National Development, Meanings and Purposes. In: Teixeira, P.N., Shin, J.C. (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8905-9_18

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8905-9_18

Published : 19 August 2020

Publisher Name : Springer, Dordrecht

Print ISBN : 978-94-017-8904-2

Online ISBN : 978-94-017-8905-9

eBook Packages : Education Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Education

Share this entry

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Find a journal
Track your research

What are the functions of education towards individual, society and country?

Education is essential for every society and individual. It is life itself but not a preparation for life. Man has various qualities. These qualities of the individual should be developed for the improvement of the country. So education plays a complementary role for overall individual, social and national development. It enables an individual to realize his highest self and goal. The key functions and roles of education towards individual, society and country are listed below.

Functions of education towards individual:

(1) Development of inborn potentialities- Education helps the child to develop the inborn potentialities of child providing scope to develop.

(2) Modifying behavior- Education helps to modify the past behavior through learning and through different agencies of education.

(3) All-round development- Education aims at the all round development of child-physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(4) Preparing for the future- After completion of education the child can earn its livelihood getting proper education, which has productivity. The education should be imparted according to the own interest of the child.

(5) Developing personality- The whole personality of the child is developed physically, intellectually, morally, socially, aesthetically and spiritually. He is recognized in the society.

(6) Helping for adjustability- Man differs from beast. Man has reasoning and thinking power. Man tries his best to adjust with his own environment through education.

Functions of education towards society:

(1) Social change and control:

The society is never station. It is progressive and dynamic. The child lives in society. It is the social environment where the personality of the child can be developed. The old traditions, customs are preserved and transmitted with the situations, which are ever changing. We should not think or believe in the blind beliefs, which are hindrances towards our development. Education helps to walk with the development of science and technology.

(2) Reconstruction of experiences:

Education is life-long process. Life is education and education is life. Life is full of experiences. One cannot live with his past experiences which are unable to adjust in the society. So education helps the individual to reconstruct the experience and adjust with the environment.

(3) Development of social and moral value:

Society is always in tension with narrowism. There is no social or moral value. Now the man is behaving like an animal. Animality can be changed with moral education. Education teaches the moral value and social value like co-operation, tolerance, sympathy, fellow feelings, love affection, respect towards elder, helping the poor and needy persons.

(4) Providing opportunity or equality:

Indian Constitution has introduced the term ‘equality’ because we are not getting equal opportunities in all aspects. Education teaches us to give equal opportunities in all aspects irrespective of caste, creed, color, sex and religion.

Functions of education towards nation:

(1) Inculcation of civic and social responsibility- Education helps to make rising generation to understand its rights and duties as citizens of a democratic country.

(2) Training for leadership- The leadership quality of the individual is developed when he participates in all spheres of social, political, religious and educational activities.

(3) National integration- We are living in one country having diversities in respect of color, caste, language, diet, dress, habits and physical environment.

Educational integration leads to emotional integration. Education trains people for unity, not for locality, for democracy and not for dictatorship.

Education serves the most important end of educating the man.

(4) Total national development- Education helps for bringing about total national development by developing its all aspects i.e. social, economic, cultural, spiritual, moral, educational, etc.

Therefore, really education is an essential ingredient for all ages and stages of the life of an individual, society as well as the nation. Education can be a real panacea for all social evils.

What are the functions of education towards the society?
Notes on Synthesis of Individual and Social Aims of Education
What are the social and individual aims of Education?
Notes on the individual and social aims of Education

Functions of Education
November 1, 2022

Education has three main functions, t hey are as follows:

FUNCTION TOWARDS INDIVIDUAL.
FUNCTION TOWARDS SOCIETY.
FUNCTION TOWARDS NATION.
FUNCTION TOWARDS INDIVIDUAL

EDUCATION FOR GROWTH

At first, every learner is immature.
He will be deliberately prepared for adulthood.
Through instruction, discipline, and harmonious development, education deliberately and systematically influences a mature influence of the teacher.
Harmonious development includes the development of human beings’ physical, intellectual, aesthetic, social, and spiritual powers in accordance with the needs of society.
Education provides such guidance through a pre-planned educational programs. The educational programs will modify and re-direct the child’s instincts to desirable ends, resulting in a worthwhile progressive and harmonious growth.

EDUCATION AS DIRECTION

Direction is the conversion of an activity into a correct response by eliminating unnecessary and confusing movements.
Every learner is endowed with innate abilities and powers.
His physical and social environment stimulates the learner’s activity.
Much of the learner’s constructive energy is wasted at first because he responds to the stimulus in an immature manner.
This waste can be avoided if the learner is properly guided toward a goal.
Education provides this sense of direction, and the learner’s activities become purposeful.

2. FUNCTION TOWARDS SOCIETY

SOCIALIZATION

Education is a powerful tool for positive socialization and has the ability to reconstruct life experiences for the overall growth of society.
Man is a social being.
A person is the sum of his interactions with his social environment.
The elders of the society pass on to the younger generation their experiences, interests, discoveries, conclusions, traditions, and attitudes.
All of these have a significant impact on the growth and development of future generations.
The continuity of the societal function is thus successfully maintained.

RE-CONSTRUCTION OF EXPERIENCES

Education, like growth, is a continuous process that occurs throughout an individual’s life.
Education provides the learner with a wealth of resources to help shape his life, personality, character, outlook, experiences, and interactions in society. Thus, education aids the learner in the reconstruction and reorganization of one’s personal and societal life.

3. FUNCTION TOWARDS NATION

CIVIC & SOCIAL R E SPONS I BI L ITY

The promotion of civic responsibility is regarded as the most important function of education.
True education encourages students to understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
A nation’s very existence and progress is dependent on the state’s educational system.

TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP

The quality of education determines how well people function in all areas, including social, political, religious, and educational activities.
As a result, the function of a good educational system is to instil such qualities in students in order to promote the overall development of the individual and the state.

EMOTIONAL INTEGRATION

The educational system aims to promote unity in diversity, including unity in religion, language, diet, dress, habit, and physical environment.

NATIONAL INTEGRATION

True education aims to educate individuals to overcome narrow prejudices of caste, community, and region and to look to a broader national perspective.

Important Pages

SDG4 coordination
Global Education Monitoring Report
Global Coalition for Education
UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks
Global network of technical and vocational education and training institutions
Global network of learning cities
Right to education
Education in emergencies
Inclusion in education
Early childhood care and education
Higher education
Literacy and adult learning
Technical and vocational education and training
Education and gender equality
Girls’ and women’s education in science and technology
Teacher education
Education policies and strategies
Education management, monitoring and evaluation
Assessment for improved learning outcomes
Curriculum development
Global citizenship education
Education about the Holocaust and genocide
Countering hate speech
Education for sustainable development
Health and education
Digital learning and transformation of education
Futures of Education
Education stories
All UNESCO news on education
Subscribe to the Education monthly newsletter
Publications
Databases and tools
National education profiles

About education

UNESCO believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched by quality. The Organization is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education. It has been entrusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda through Sustainable Development Goal 4 . The roadmap to achieve this is the Education 2030 Framework for Action (FFA).

UNESCO provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens education systems worldwide and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with gender equality an underlying principle.

Its work encompasses educational development from pre-school to higher education and beyond. Themes include global citizenship and sustainable development, human rights and gender equality, health and HIV and AIDS, as well as technical and vocational skills development.

How we work

UNESCO leads the coordination and monitoring of the Global Education 2030 Agenda through Sustainable Development Goal 4 and using the Education 2030 Framework for Action as a roadmap.

The UNESCO Education Strategy 2014-2021 has three strategic objectives:

The education sector is shifting and evolving towards a more explicit, active commitment to addressing gender-related barriers within and beyond the education system. This shift is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with more NGOs, local governments as well as national governments recognizing the role education has in promoting gender-transformative change. Many are responding to this shift with innovations that aim to address the persistent challenges faced by girls and women in education. By highlighting these key practices through the Prize, we can contribute to inspiring more action for girls and women.

We speak about the importance of gender-transformative change both in and beyond education. Can you define what this means for you?

Gender-transformative education aims not only to respond to gender disparities within the education system but also to harness the full potential of education to transform attitudes, practices and discriminatory gender norms. Education can support critical changes for gender equality, such as promoting women’s leadership, preventing gender-based violence, and catalyzing boys' and men's engagement to embrace gender equality.

I have been very impressed by the capacity shown by many organizations and individuals nominated to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they could maintain the delivery of their programmes. We know that fewer girls and women have access to and use the internet, and the digital gender gap is growing, particularly in developing countries. Many found new ways of delivering educational content and finding solutions to conduct fully online or blended approaches to learning, often in low-resource settings where access to the internet is extremely limited.

United Nations system-wide strategic approach for achieving inclusive, equitable and innovative education and learning for all

Education is a right for all . Education and learning are critical in preparing countries and their people for the changes resulting from the accelerated development and spread of technological innovations. There is a need to transform educational systems so that they better serve the needs of society now and in the future, with emphasis on the changing demands for employment and decent work. Indeed, developments in artificial intelligence have significant implications for the future of work, and these require educational systems to provide people of all ages with appropriate learning opportunities to acquire the skills necessary for gainful employment. It is also crucial that people gain the critical and social capabilities necessary to understand the interests underlying the development and spread of such technologies and to have the acuity of mind to appreciate their role in shaping a sustainable world in which everyone can live peaceful, just, safe and fulfilled lives. It is imperative that systems be put in place to ensure that the poorest and most marginalized are empowered through the use of new digital technologies and that the potential negative impacts of such technologies are mitigated, while also realizing the potential benefits.

It was in recognition of these new realities that the “ United Nations system-wide strategic approach for achieving inclusive, equitable and innovative education and learning for all ” (CEB/2019/1/Add.4) was produced through the High-level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) to provide a framework for the UN system to support Member States in delivering future-oriented learning for all. Developed under the leadership of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), it provides a holistic approach to mobilize joint United Nations system-wide actions to support Member States in meeting the evolving challenges of the future, and thus to ameliorate conditions related to many of these challenges to deliver inclusive, equitable and innovative education and learning for all in changing societies. Five key challenges and four cross-cutting objectives are laid out, and concrete practical UN system actions to address to each of them are recommended. Responding to challenges posed by new technologies and the changing nature of work, the approach is closely linked to both the UN system strategies on AI capacity- building and the future of work .

UNESCO and UNICEF continue to play a leadership role in translating the strategic approach into action, in partnership with relevant United Nations entities and mechanisms to ensure its coordinated implementation and impact.

The importance of scientific and technological innovation for meeting many sustainable development challenges and for accelerating human progress is widely noted throughout the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . The General Assembly, in its resolutions 72/242 and 73/17 , also recognizes that the pace and scope of rapid technological change can have far-reaching implications – both positive and negative – for the achievement of sustainable development, requiring international and multi-stakeholder cooperation in order to benefit from opportunities and address challenges.

Under the chairmanship of Secretary-General António Guterres, the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) and its subsidiary machinery have considered a selection of “frontier issues” to ensure that the United Nations system is positioned to provide timely and informed support and advice to Member States in today's quickly evolving technological context.

At its session in November 2017, CEB launched a process examining the risks and opportunities for sustainable development associated with new and emerging technologies and related developments, specifically considering artificial intelligence, cyberspace, biotechnology, and the peace and security implications of emerging technologies. The aim was to identify appropriate areas for engagement by the UN system on frontier technologies in support of Member States. The discussions were informed by analyses produced by HLCP, which was then tasked by CEB to conduct further policy and programme analysis regarding the impact of frontier technologies for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

HLCP presented three interlinked system-wide strategies on key frontier topics – artificial intelligence (AI), the future of work and innovative education – to the Board, which endorsed them in May 2019.

Artificial Intelligence
Future of Work

High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP)

Towards a United Nations system-wide strategic approach for achieving inclusive, equitable and innovative education and learning for all.pdf

PDF | 688.64 KB

Related resources

Chief Executives Board (CEB)High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP)

Towards a United Nations System-wide Strategic Approach for Achieving Inclusive, Equitable and Innovative Education and Learning for All

Session report, ceb statement of commitment: bringing the un system together to support conflict prevention and peacebuilding within the broader 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

October 2015

Chief Executives Board (CEB)

CEB Statement to the 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

November 2014

Entrepreneurship

Youth system-wide action plan (swap).

Understanding Culture, Society and Politics

Education and civic awareness in the philippines – citizenship.

Teaching Resources

Author: Ma. Theresa C. Carlos

“Mabuti nang well-mannered kaysa educated.” This view has been circulating on social media particularly during and after the 2022 National Elections in the Philippines. A considerable number of Filipino citizens have used social media for civic and political engagement in the recent elections and online interactions can somewhat be heated and intense. It has come to the point that a false dichotomy is being presented, “better be well-mannered than be well educated.”

In this module, learners will explore the relationship of education and civic awareness by learning about the functions of education in society as well as the different education reforms conducted in support of raising the quality of education and civic awareness in the country.

Most Essential Learning Competencies

Explain the forms and functions of state and non-state institutions;
Examine the functions and importance of education in the society;
Explain government programs and initiatives in addressing social inequalities e.g. local, national, global;
Suggest ways to address social inequalities (local, national, and global); and
Examine human responses to emerging challenges in contemporary societies.

Content Standards

By the end of this module, learners are expected to demonstrate an understanding of:

Cultural, social, and political institutions as sets of norms and patterns of behavior that relate to major social interests
Social stratification as the ranking of individuals according to wealth, power, and prestige
Social and political inequalities as features of societies and the global community
The agents/institutions, processes, and outcomes of cultural, political, and social change.

Performance Standards

By the end of this module, learners are expected to:

Analyze aspects of social organization
Identify one’s role in social groups and institutions
Recognize other forms of economic transaction such as sharing, gift exchange, and redistribution in his/her own society
Evaluates factors causing social, political, and cultural change
Advocate how human societies should adapt to such changes

Lesson 1: Functions of Education in Society

Lesson objectives.

At the end of the lesson, the student is able to:

Differentiate formal, non-formal education and formal education in the Philippines;
Explain the functions of education in society;
Reflect on their own reasons and motivations for studying; and
Identify activities, routines, and/or behavior in formal education that fall within the different functions of education.

Lesson Overview

“Education is a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms.” Across the world, nations and societies have educational systems which offer formal education and informal education. According to McGivern, formal education is viewed as ”the learning of academic facts and concepts through a formal curriculum” and informal education is viewed as “the learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors by participating in a society.” (McGivern, R, n.d.)

Education is an important social institution as it serves several functions — functions towards the individual, functions towards society, and function towards the Nation.

Key Concepts

Citizen is an individual given legal rights in a state.
Citizenship refers to membership of a citizen with relation to a state.
Civic Education provides the necessary information and learning experiences to equip and empower citizens to participate in democratic processes.
Education is an organized system of learning.
Functional Theory stresses the functions that education serves in fulfilling a society’s various needs
Learning is the process of acquiring new skills and understanding.
School is a community of learners: a group that comes together to learn with and from each other.
Training is a type of education that is focused on learning specific skills.

Self-Evaluation Form (Part I)

Answer the following questions.

1. Make a mind map of the word: “education.”

Note: a mind map is a visualization and note-taking tool that allows students to visualize their thinking. It helps them organize their thoughts about a certain topic or concept. To read more about how to use mind maps, check this article .

2. Based on your own understanding, why is education important?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is Education?

The concept “ EDUCATION ” is broad and can mean differently to individuals. “Education” is usually explored alongside other terms such as “learning” ,”training”, “school.” These terms are somehow used interchangeably but there are important differences in these terms. ( Robinson, S.K., & Robinson, K, 2022) .
For this module we define Education as “the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, provoke or acquire knowledge, values, attitudes, skills or sensibilities as well as any learning that results from the effort” (Cremin, 1976).
“Education” is the broader term that encompasses “learning,” “training”, and “school” where LEARNING is the process of acquiring new skills and understanding; TRAINING is a type of education that is focused on learning specific skills; and SCHOOL is a community of learners: a group that comes together to learn with and from each other ( Robinson, S.K., & Robinson, K, 2022) .

What is the purpose of Education?

What are the Functions of Education?

Development of inborn potentialities: Education helps the child to develop the inborn potentialities of the child providing scope to develop.
All around development: Education aims at the holistic development of child-physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual.
Preparing for the future: after the completion of education the child can earn its livelihood getting proper education, which has productivity. The education should be imparted according to the own interest of the child.
Development of social and moral value: Something that sets humans apart from other species is the capacity to have morals. (Rejlander, 2010) . Education teaches moral values and social values like cooperation, tolerance, sympathy, love, affection, respect towards elders, and helping the marginalized.
Providing opportunity or equality: Education teaches indidviudals to give equal opportunities in all aspects regarldess of social standing, creed, ethnicity, sex and religion.
Social change and control: Education becomes a tool to transmit traditions and customs. It also helps society adapt with the development of science and technology.
Inculcation of civic and social responsibility : Education introduces the next generation of citizens to understand their rights and duties as citizens of a democratic country.
Training for Leadership : The leadership quality of an individual is developed when they participate in all spheres of social, political, religious, and educational activities.

National Integration: Education trains people for unity, for democracy and not for dictatorship.

What’s an Educational Institution?

An EDUCATION INSTITUTION refers to the established normative system of providing and receiving education and training. The schools and centers for skills training and development are the organizations responsible for this institutional function and purpose (Solo, 2020) .
It is defined as entities that provide instructional services to individuals or education-related services to individuals and other educational institutions (OECD, 2001) .
Institution that provides education as its main purpose, such as a school, college, university or training center. Such institutions are normally accredited or sanctioned by the relevant national education authorities or equivalent authorities. Educational institutions may also be operated by private organizations, such as religious bodies, special interest groups or private educational and training enterprises, both for profit and non-profit. (UNESCO UIS, n.d.) .
Examples of educational institutions: schools, college, universities, training centers

What do Education Institutions do?

DepEd – SOCCSKSARGEN (2020). UCSP Quarter 2 – Module 8 Education in the Present Society, First Edition.

Knowledge Acquisition: education institutions lay down the foundations for structured learning and providing students with a range of learning tools, materials, and interactive learning experience.
Skills Development : education institutions bring out from the students their hidden potentials, skills, and talents that are developed through sport and training, and participation in co-curricular and extracurricular activities.
Values Formation : education institutions mold the character of students by imbibing in them the values integrated in the courses or subjects that they take up, as well as the core values that the school promotes through discipline and habit.
Socialization : education institutions offer a new environment, a second home, a second family with peer groups, a second parents with teachers. The student learns to establish rapport, relations, and attains status recognition.
Life Preparation : education institutions prepare the student for a life of independence, self- reliance, and competence for an occupation or a job. Students learn about task responsibilities and hardship in the pursuit of goals.

What are the types of Education?

Based on Republic Act No. 9155 or the “Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001”, there are three types of education in the Philippines. These are the following:

Formal Education : Systematic and deliberate process of hierarchically structured and sequential learning corresponding to the general concept of elementary and secondary level of schooling.
Non-Formal Education: Any organized, systematic educational activity carried outside the framework of the formal system to provide a selected type of learning to a segment of the population e.g. ALS.

Informal Education : Lifelong process of learning by which every person acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes, and insights from daily experiences at home, at play, and from life itself e.g. Zumba/fitness class, sports, etc.

Self-Evaluation Form (Part 2)

1. In what ways do you think education can influence your life?

List of Activities

Lesson 2: Education as a Human Right

At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to be able to:

Explain why education is a fundamental human right
Appreciate the different education reforms that support the right to education in the country

Education is a fundamental human right. In this lesson, students continue their exploration of education and civic awareness by analyzing how education is recognized as a universal human right. Students also get to read, analyze, and discuss recent education reforms in the Philippines that support the right to education.

Basic Education is the education intended to meet basic learning needs which lays the foundation on which subsequent learning can be based. It encompasses early childhood, elementary and high school education as well as alternative learning systems for out-of-school youth and adult learners and includes education for those with special needs.
Higher Education refers to tertiary level education (colleges, universities).
Quality Education is the appropriateness, relevance and excellence of the education given to meet the needs and aspirations of an individual and society.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) refer to the education process designed at post-secondary and lower tertiary levels, officially recognized as non-degree programs aimed at preparing technicians, para-professionals and other categories of middle-level workers by providing them with a broad range of general education, theoretical, scientific and technological studies, and related job skills training.

Self-Evaluation Form (Part 1)

1. In your own understanding, should basic education be free for all? Why or why not?

Education as Basic Human Right

International and National Policies

Article 26.1: “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”
Article 26.2: “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.”
Article 26. 3: “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
In the Philippines, the 1987 Philippine Constitution , under Article XIV, says that the state “shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels…”

“Why is education a fundamental human right?”

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) explains that education is a fundamental human right because it is “ indispensable for the exercise of other human rights.”

Quality education aims to ensure the development of a fully-rounded human being.
It is one of the most powerful tools in lifting socially excluded children and adults out of poverty and into society. UNESCO data shows that if all adults completed secondary education, globally the number of poor people could be reduced by more than half.
It narrows the gender gap for girls and women. A UN study showed that each year of schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5 to 10 per cent.
For this human right to work there must be equality of opportunity, universal access, and enforceable and monitored quality standards.

“What does the right to education entail?”

From: UNESCO

“Primary education that is free, compulsory and universal”
“Secondary education, including technical and vocational, that is generally available, accessible to all and progressively free
“Higher education, accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity and progressively free”
“Fundamental education for individuals who have not completed education”
“Professional training opportunities”
“Equal quality of education through minimum standards”
“Quality teaching and supplies for teachers”
“Adequate fellowship system and material condition for teaching staff”
“Freedom of choice”

Structure of the Education Sector in the Philippines

Basic Education is the education intended to meet basic learning needs which lays the foundation on which subsequent learning can be based. It encompasses early childhood, elementary and high school education as well as alternative learning systems for out-of-school youth and adult learners and includes education for those with special needs. Basic Education is under the Department of Education (DepEd). https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DO_s2022_024.pdf
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) refer to the education process designed at post-secondary and lower tertiary levels, officially recognized as non-degree programs aimed at preparing technicians, para-professionals and other categories of middle-level workers by providing them with a broad range of general education, theoretical, scientific and technological studies, and related job skills training. TVET is under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA); https://pcw.gov.ph/republic-act-7796-tesda-act-of-1994/
Higher Education refers to tertiary level education. It is under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Challenges and Issues to Basic Education in the Philippines

Reports from DepEd

Based on the Department of Education’s Basic Education Development Plan (BEDP 2030) , there are three major challenges to basic education in the Philippines:

Challenges to Access and Efficiency: “ Incremental increase in participation that is yet to reach universal access, the prevalence of out-of-school children and youth, and the lack of data on the universe of groups in situations of disadvantage.”
Challenges to Quality: “ Issues that involve the quality of education are highlighted by the tests conducted at various stages of K to 12, particularly on the results on reading and numeracy, the inadequate coverage of 21st century skills in teaching affecting test performance results, and girls outperforming boys in attendance and learning proficiency. Both access to education and quality of education are also affected by the learning environment and the learners’ experience of joy in this environment.”
Challenges to Governance: In the governance aspect, vertical and horizontal integration in program management at the different levels of DepEd (Central Office, Regional Office, Schools Division Office, Schools) need to be strengthened, including the need to build the capacity of DepEd field units on contextualization of program implementation and strategy execution involving quality assurance, technical assistance provision, education planning, monitoring and evaluation, and program management. There is also a need to strengthen the complementarity between public and private schools and strengthen support to the private sector.

Reports from International Organizations

In 2021, the World Bank Report (2021) released a report entitled, “Improving student learning outcomes and well-being in the Philippines: What are international assessments telling us?” This report analyzed the country’s performance to the three cross-national large-scale assessments: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2019 and the first cycle of the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) in 2019. The following are the nine (9) key findings from the World Bank Report:

Finding 1: Most students in the Philippines are unable to reach minimum standards of proficiency in reading, mathematics, and science expected for their respective grades.
Finding 2: Overall poor performance across grades and subjects are deeply rooted in students’ limited proficiency in the languages of instruction.
Finding 3: Poor classroom discipline, a weak sense of student belonging, and student bullying consistently emerge as key issues in Philippine schools, but teachers and principals may not be fully aware of these problems.
Finding 4: Early childhood education and development makes a difference.
Finding 5: Parents’ emotional support and engagement in learning at home, which are positively associated with performance, is more limited in the Philippines than on average across countries in the three assessments.
Finding 6: There are persistent inequities in Philippine education, which appear to widen as students get older. Yet, even students from advantaged groups perform poorly.
Finding 7: The teaching profession does not seem to attract high performers. Majoring in primary education and attending in-service training seem to make little difference to student achievement.
Finding 8: Philippines’ intended instructional time is relatively long and curriculum coverage is relatively high compared to most countries, but they may not be helping to improve student performance.
Finding 9: The availability of school resources, which is often positively related with performance, appeared to be relatively limited in the Philippines, compared to most other participating countries in the three assessments.

Education Reform in the Philippines

RA 10157 : Kindergarten Education Act

This law was enacted in 2012, by the Fifteenth (15th) Congress, under the administration of the late former President Benigno S. Aquino III. This law contains the following key features:

Kindergarten will now be an integral part of the basic education system of the country.
Kindergarten education is vital to the academic and technical development of the Filipino child for it is the period when the young mind’s absorptive capacity for learning is at its sharpest. It is also the policy of the State to make education learner-oriented and responsive to the needs, cognitive and cultural capacity, the circumstances and diversity of learners, schools and communities through the appropriate languages of teaching and learning.
Intended impact to education: Strengthen early childhood education in the country by mandating kindergarten.

RA 10533: Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (K to 12 Law)

This law was enacted in 2013, also by the Fifteenth (15th) Congress, under the administration of the late former President Benigno S. Aquino III. This law contains the following key features:

Key Features

Enhanced Basic Education Program: The enhanced basic education program encompasses at least one (1) year of kindergarten education, six (6) years of elementary education, and six (6) years of secondary education, in that sequence. Secondary education includes four (4) years of junior high school and two (2) years of senior high school education.
Use of Mother Tongue: For kindergarten and the first three (3) years of elementary education, instruction, teaching materials and assessment shall be in the regional or native language of the learners. Mother language or first Language (LI) refers to language or languages first learned by a child, which he/she identifies with, is identified as a native language user of by others, which he/she knows best, or uses most. This includes Filipino sign language used by individuals with pertinent disabilities. The regional or native language refers to the traditional speech variety or variety of Filipino sign language existing in a region, area or place.
Intended Impact on education: Expanding the options for basic education graduates to (a) higher education (b) employment (c) business and entrepreneurship.

RA 10931 : Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act

This law was enacted in 2017, by the Seventeenth (17th) Congress, under the administration of former President Rodirgo Roa Duterte. This law contains the following key features:

Key Features:

Free higher education in SUCs and LUCs: All Filipino students who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree, certificate egress, or any comparable undergraduate degree in any State University and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) are exempted from paying tuition and other school fees for units enrolled in.
Free TVET in Post-Secondary TIVs. All Filipino students who are enrolled in any post-secondary TVET leading to non-degree certificate or diploma programs offered by any stat run TVI under the TESDA shall be exempt from paying tuition and other school fees.
Intended impact on education: Increase access to quality tertiary education in the country.

1. Do you think the right to primary basic education is upheld in the Philippines? Explain your answer.

Lesson 3: Challenges to Education in the New Normal

Reflect on the current challenges to basic education amidst the pandemic
Understand the context of the education challenges experienced by education stakeholders amidst the pandemic
Ideate possible solutions to address the education challenges experienced by education stakeholders amidst the pandemic

In 2020, the world experienced an unprecedented healthy crisis that has impacted all aspects of human life. The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely affected the education sector. Globally, schools for around 168 million children were affected for being closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns (UNICEF, 2021) .

In the Philippines, which imposed the world’s longest lockdown (Balagtas, 2021) , schools were closed for face-to-face classes for more than 20 months Cruz, Lema & Petty, 2021) . Schools had to drastically shift to alternative delivery methods in response to the physical distancing measures and policies.

This sudden shift to alternative delivery methods, predominantly online distance learning, has amplified existing education challenges in the country as well as introduced a new set of challenges. What can students do to proactively address challenges to education in the new normal in their respective communities?

Face-to-face .This refers to a learning delivery modality where the students and the teacher are both physically present in the classroom, and there are opportunities for active engagement, immediate feedback, and socio-emotional development of learners.
Modular Distance Learning involves individualized instruction that allows learners to use self-learning modules (SLMs) in print or digital format, whichever is applicable in the context of the learner, and other learning resources like learner’s materials, textbooks, activity sheets, study guides, and other study materials.
Online Distance Learning features the teacher as facilitator, engaging learners’ active participation through the use of various technologies accessed through the internet while they are geographically remote from each other during instruction. The internet is used to facilitate learner-teacher and peer-to-peer communication. Online learning allows live synchronous instruction. It requires participants to have a good and stable internet connection. It is more interactive than the other types of distance learning and the responses are in real-time.
TV/Radio-Based Instruction utilizes SLMs converted to video lessons for Television-Based Instruction and SLMs converted to radio scripts for Radio-Based Instruction.
Blended Learning. This refers to a learning delivery that combines face-to-face with any or a mix of online distance learning, modular distance learning, and TV/ Radio-based Instruction. Blended learning will enable the schools to limit face-to-face learning, ensure social distancing, and decrease the volume of people outside the home at any given time.
Homeschooling. This is an Alternative Delivery Model (ADM) that aims to provide learners with quality basic education that is facilitated by qualified parents, guardians, or tutors who have undergone relevant training in a home-based environment. It allows families to educate according to their personal faith, philosophy, and values, and to adjust learning schedules around family schedules and circumstances.

1. Survey: What is the learning delivery modality have you experienced during the pandemic? You may check all that apply.

Face-to-face
Modular Distance Learning
Online Distance Learning
TV/Radio-Based Instruction
Blended Learning

2. Based on your answer in the previous question, reflect on your current experiences with education in the time of the pandemic. Use the Roses and Thorns as a guide to your reflection.

Education Stakeholders

A “stakeholder” is defined as an individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organization (ISO, n.d.) . In the Philippine basic education sector, the Department of Education sees the following as its stakeholders: students, teachers, administrators and staff, family, community, and other stakeholders. From DepEd’s Mission Statement, the aspirations for these stakeholders are as follows:

Students who learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe, and motivating environment;
Teachers who facilitate learning and constantly nurture every learner;
Administrators and staff , who serve as stewards of the institution, ensure an enabling and supportive environment for effective learning to happen; and
Family, community, and other stakeholders who are actively engaged and share responsibility for developing life-long learners.

All these stakeholders play a unique role in protecting and promoting the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education ( DepEd Order 24, series of 2022) .

Challenges of Education Stakeholders During the Pandemic

During the pandemic, education stakeholders have experienced different challenges in the education sector. Students, teachers, administrators and staff, and families alike were all adversely affected by the shift to a different learning delivery modality.

Here are some of the challenges experienced by these stakeholders.

Students’ online learning challenges during the pandemic

Students have a hard time regulating themselves for online learning. Self-regulation challenges (SRC) refers to a set of behaviors by which students exercise control over their emotions, actions, and thoughts to achieve learning objectives. Students experienced difficulties with participating in online learning as well as staying engaged and motivated to study. (Barrot et. al, 2021) .
Students feel isolated from their learning community. Student Isolation Challenges (SIC) relates to the emotional discomfort that students experience as a result of being lonely and secluded from their peers. Students have experienced feeling disconnected and/or isolated with their teachers and classmates during the pandemic (Barrot et. al, 2021) .
Students do not have access to technology necessary for online learning. Technological Sufficiency Challenges (TSC) refers to a set of challenges that students experience when accessing available online technologies for learning. A lot of students have insufficient access to learning technology such as poor internet access, lack of gadgets, low bandwidth and slow processing speeds, etc. (Barrot et. al, 2021) .
Students do not have access to learning resources. Learning Resource Challenges (LRC) refers to a set of challenges that students face relating to their use of library resources and instructional material. Students have insufficient access to library and learning resources such as textbooks, worksheets, laboratory equipment and other instructional materials. (Barrot et. al, 2021) .
Students have poor home learning environments. Learning Environment Challenges ( LEC) is a set of challenges that students experience related to the condition of their learning space that shapes their learning experiences, beliefs, and attitudes. Students have difficulties in finding a conducive home learning environment during the pandemic. (Barrot et. al, 2021) .

Teachers’ online learning challenges during the pandemic

Teachers also lack access to technology and learning resources. Just like students, teachers also experienced challenges when it comes to accessing technology and learning resources during the pandemic. A number of teachers do not have access to stable internet, computers, printers, and other equipment that are necessary to support the different learning delivery modalities (Robosa et. al, 2021) .
Teachers are struggling with handling students. Given the shift to distance learning, teachers experienced challenges in handling students, from motivating them to ensuring that students participate in their lessons and create their outputs. (Robosa et. al, 2021) .
Teachers carry a lot of administrative workload on top of teaching load. Other than their tasks of preparing lessons and delivering them to their students, teachers also need to accomplish a number of administrative workloads such as grades and school records (Robosa et. al, 2021) .
Teachers’ mental health were also adversely affected. From the fear of getting the virus, to managing anxiety, to navigating the blurred boundaries of work and home, teachers’ mental health and overall all wellbeing were also affected by the pandemic. (Rabacal et. al, 2021)

Parents and Guardians’ online learning challenges during the pandemic

Parents and guardians also experienced a lot of stress. Parents and guardians experienced emotional instability in learning as they also experienced a lot of stress with the shift to different learning modalities. They also struggled with keeping their children motivated and engaged with their classes during the pandemic (Agaton & Cueto, 2021) .
Parents and guardians had to learn a lot of skills to support distance learning. Parents and guardians had a more active role in ensuring that students study at home. They had to learn the online tools and learning management systems as well as refresh their knowledge on different academic subjects to help students with their modules (Agaton & Cueto, 2021) .

Parents and guardians had to spend a bit more to finance distance learning. Online distance learning is expensive as it requires gadgets and access to a stable internet connection. (Agaton & Cueto, 2021) .

Challenges of Education Sector During the Pandemic

According to the Basic Education Development Plan of 2022, Access and Quality are two of DepEd’s pillars to ensure that “All Filipinos are able to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to a cohesive nation.” Let’s see how these two pillars were affected during the pandemic.

Access : Access means that “All school-age children, out-of-school youth and adults accessed relevant basic learning opportunities.” This is the intermediate outcome of DepEd when it comes to “Access.” During the pandemic, the goal to reach universal access to basic education was further aggravated, Most schools were forced to move to distance learning modalities and this has affected enrolment and participation of students. Further, there is still a prevalence of out-of-school children and youth (BEDP, 2022) . The table below: “Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) and Net Enrollment Rate (NER) by Education Level, SY 2017-2020”

Possible guide questions:

What are your observations about the trends in the GER and NER through the years?
How do you think the pandemic has affected the enrollment rate of students in basic education? Did it increase/decrease? Explain your answer.
Quality: Quality means that “Learners complete K-12 basic education, having successfully attained all learning standards that equip them with the necessary skills and attributes to pursue their chosen paths.” This is the intermediate outcome of DepEd when it comes to “Quality.” During the pandemic, affected by the changes in the learning environment, the basic education sector experienced more challenges in ensuring reading and numeracy of learners as well as challenges in developing 21st century skills in an online or blended learning environment (BEDP, 2022) .
In your own experience and observations, how do you think the pandemic has affected the quality of education you are experiencing? Was it enriched? Diminished? Changed? In what aspect?

1. After this module, describe what a “better normal” for education looks like for you.

Agaton, C. B., & Cueto, L. (2021, September). Learning at home: Parents’ lived experiences on distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. ERIC. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1313094.pdf

Balagtas, A. (2021, March 15). Inside One of the World’s Longest COVID-19 Lockdowns. Time. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://time.com/5945616/covid-philippines-pandemic-lockdown/

Barrot, J.S., Llenares, I.I. & del Rosario, L.S. Students’ online learning challenges during the pandemic and how they cope with them: The case of the Philippines. Educ Inf Technol 26, 7321–7338 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10589-x

Basic Education Development Plan (BEDP 2030). (2022). DepEd. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DO_s2022_024.pdf

Branson, M. S. (n.d.). The Role of Civic Education. Center for Civic Education. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.civiced.org/papers/articles_role.html

Campbell, D. E. (2006). 3. What is education’s impact on civic and social engagement? OECD. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/37425694.pdf

Chazan, B. (2021, April 19). What Is “Education”? https://link.springer.com/. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-83925-3_3

Civic Education | YouthPower. (2018, July 9). | YouthPower. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.youthpower.org/resources/civic-education

Cruz, E. D., Lema, K., & Petty, M. (2021, November 15). Philippines starts to reopen schools after 20-month coronavirus closure. Reuters. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-starts-reopen-schools-after-20-month-coronavirus-closure-2021-11-15/

DepEd. (2022). Untitled. DepEd. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DO_s2022_024.pdf

How to Use the 5 Whys Technique for a Root Cause Analysis – 2022. (2021, June 7). MasterClass. Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-use-the-5-whys-technique-for-a-root-cause-analysis#what-is-the-5-whys-technique

Instructional educational institution | UNESCO UIS. (n.d.). UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/instructional-educational-institution

ISO. (n.d.). What are Stakeholders? Stakeholder Definition. ASQ. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://asq.org/quality-resources/stakeholders

JAIKUMAR, M. (2019). FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATION. SlideShare. Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://www.slideshare.net/maheswarijaikumar/functions-of-education-177832869

Johnson, A. (n.d.). (PDF) EDUCATION AS SELF-ACTUALIZATION | Andrew Johnson. Academia.edu. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/32599592/EDUCATION_AS_SELF_ACTUALIZATION

McGivern, R. (n.d.). Chapter 16. Education – Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition. BC Open Textbooks. Retrieved July 28, 2022, from https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter16-education/

OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms – Educational institution Definition. (2003, March 4). OECD Statistics. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=743

Rabacal, J., Oducado, R. M., & Tamdang, K. (2022). COVID-19 Impact on the Quality of Life of Teachers: A Cross-sectional Study | Published in Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research. Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.ajpor.org/article/17801-covid-19-impact-on-the-quality-of-life-of-teachers-a-cross-sectional-study

Rejlander, O. G. (2010). The Difference of Being Human: Morality – In the Light of Evolution. NCBI. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK210003/

Republic Act 10931. (2017). CHED. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/20170803-RA-10931-RRD.pdf

Republic Act No. 9155. (2001, August 11). Official Gazette. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2001/08/11/republic-act-no-9155/

Republic Act No. 10533. (2013, May 15). Official Gazette. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2013/05/15/republic-act-no-10533/

Robinson, S. K., & Robinson, K. (2022, March 2). 4 Core Purposes of Education, According to Sir Ken Robinson. Edutopia. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-education

Robosa, J., Paras, N. E., Perante, L., & Alvez, T. (2021, April 19). The Experiences and Challenges Faced of the Public School Teachers Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study in the Philippines. ResearchGate. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349310396_The_Experiences_and_Challenges_Faced_of_the_Public_School_Teachers_Amidst_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_A_Phenomenological_Study_in_the_Philippines

16.2 Sociological Perspectives on Education – Sociology. (n.d.). Publishing Services. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/16-2-sociological-perspectives-on-education/

Solo, L. B. (2020). UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS. Fatima National High School. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://fnhs.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SHS_UCSP_Q2_LC8-1.pdf

A STUDY ON FILIPINO VALUES (A Primer). (2021, April 21). National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://ncca.gov.ph/2021/04/21/filipino-values-primer/

UNICEF. (2021). COVID-19: Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost a full year, says UNICEF. UNICEF. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/covid-19-schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed

Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations. (n.d.). the United Nations. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

What you need to know about the right to education. (2021). UNESCO. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://en.unesco.org/news/what-you-need-know-about-right-education

Introduction

What Is The Function Of Education?

Apr 01 2024

1 What is the most important function of education
2.1 What is education function essay?
2.2 What are the 6 function of education?
2.3 What is education defination?
2.4.1 What is the real definition of education?

What is the most important function of education

The Functions of Education – Functional theory stresses the functions that education serves in fulfilling a society’s various needs. Perhaps the most important function of education is socialization, If children are to learn the norms, values, and skills they need to function in society, then education is a primary vehicle for such learning.

Schools teach the three Rs (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic), as we all know, but they also teach many of the society’s norms and values. In the United States, these norms and values include respect for authority, patriotism (remember the Pledge of Allegiance?), punctuality, and competition (for grades and sports victories).

A second function of education is social integration, For a society to work, functionalists say, people must subscribe to a common set of beliefs and values. As we saw, the development of such common views was a goal of the system of free, compulsory education that developed in the nineteenth century.

Thousands of immigrant children in the United States today are learning English, US history, and other subjects that help prepare them for the workforce and integrate them into American life. A third function of education is social placement, Beginning in grade school, students are identified by teachers and other school officials either as bright and motivated or as less bright and even educationally challenged.

Depending on how they are identified, children are taught at the level that is thought to suit them best. In this way, they are presumably prepared for their later station in life. Whether this process works as well as it should is an important issue, and we explore it further when we discuss school tracking later in this chapter.

Social and cultural innovation is a fourth function of education.
Our scientists cannot make important scientific discoveries and our artists and thinkers cannot come up with great works of art, poetry, and prose unless they have first been educated in the many subjects they need to know for their chosen path.

Figure 11.6 The Functions of Education Schools ideally perform many important functions in modern society. These include socialization, social integration, social placement, and social and cultural innovation. Education also involves several latent functions, functions that are by-products of going to school and receiving an education rather than a direct effect of the education itself.

One of these is child care : Once a child starts kindergarten and then first grade, for several hours a day the child is taken care of for free. The establishment of peer relationships is another latent function of schooling. Most of us met many of our friends while we were in school at whatever grade level, and some of those friendships endure the rest of our lives.

A final latent function of education is that it keeps millions of high school students out of the full-time labor force, This fact keeps the unemployment rate lower than it would be if they were in the labor force. Because education serves so many manifest and latent functions for society, problems in schooling ultimately harm society. View complete answer

What is the function of education in human life

Educated person has a better understanding of society – Proper education improves people’s understanding of the world around them, making them less susceptible to the influence of others. Proper interpretation of information requires education, as it improves knowledge.

An educated person better understands their own and others’ purpose in society, and their rights. This leads to a better understanding of people, fewer conflicts and more tolerance for differences. Educated persons are harder to manipulate, which is conducive to the development of a more responsible society with fewer conflicts.

All this creates an environment where social justice can thrive, which entails:

Equal rights Equal opportunity Equal treatment

Education in society helps people to be more active in their struggle for a better quality of life. As the citizens’ understanding of the world around them grows, the entire society strives towards more efficient solutions to problems and the advancement of everyday life. View complete answer

What is education function essay?

Education certainly determines the quality of an individual’s life. Education improves one’s knowledge, skills and develops the personality and attitude. Most noteworthy, Education affects the chances of employment for people. A highly educated individual is probably very likely to get a good job. View complete answer

What are the 6 function of education?

Six Manifest Functions Of Education There are six manifest functions of education namely socialization, social control, social placement, transmitting culture, promoting social and political integration and as an agent of change (Javier et al, 2002).

Education also serves as an agent of social control. Schools teach us certain values such as, obedience, discipline, perseverance, respect and punctuality. Schools also teach us conformity; it encourages us to be good and to be a law abiding citizen. Education also serves s an agent in transmitting culture.

As an educational institution, schools perform conservable function in order to transmit the dominant culture. In going to school, the young generation is exposed to the belief, norms and values that had long been exist on a particular culture. Education also serves as an agent of change.

Educational institution promotes social change, serving as meeting ground where the society’s distinctive belief as well as tradition is shared; thus, education stimulates and bring about desired social change in society.
Education is one of the agents of socialization.
In every one’s school years, he or she socialized as what the school institution urges to do.

In the primary and secondary school years, the students are taught about specific subject natters that are appropriate to the student’s age, level of skills, as well as their previous education experience. In the college years, more detailed knowledge of subjects are being focused with students; these are the subjects that they have previously studied while they are exposed into new areas of studies and research.

From the kindergarten up to college, the school institution teaches the students about their roles as students, about specific academic subjects and about political socialization. Education also serves as an agent of social placement.Schools identify the most qualified people that are suited for the particular positions in society Education also serves to promote social and political integration.

Educational institutions transfer the population that is composed of diverse ethnic and religious groups into a kind of society with people sharing at least a common identity. : Six Manifest Functions Of Education View complete answer

What is education defination?

Education | Definition, Development, History, Types, & Facts Education refers to the discipline that is concerned with methods of and in schools or school-like environments, as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of, Beginning approximately at the end of the 7th or during the 6th century, became the first city-state in ancient Greece to renounce education that was oriented toward the future duties of soldiers.

The evolution of Athenian education reflected that of the city itself, which was moving toward increasing democratization.
Research has found that education is the strongest determinant of individuals’ occupational status and chances of success in adult life.
However, the correlation between family socioeconomic status and school success or failure appears to have increased worldwide.

Long-term trends suggest that as societies industrialize and modernize, becomes increasingly important in determining educational outcomes and occupational attainment. Alternative forms of education have developed since the late 20th century, such as,, and many parallel or supplementary systems of education often designated as “nonformal” and “popular.” Religious institutions also instruct the young and old alike in sacred knowledge as well as in the values and skills required for participation in local, national, and transnational societies.

School vouchers have been a hotly debated topic in the United States. Some parents of voucher recipients reported high levels of satisfaction, and studies have found increased voucher student graduation rates. Some studies have found, however, that students using vouchers to attend private schools instead of public ones did not show significantly higher levels of academic achievement.

education, that is concerned with methods of and in schools or school-like as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships). Education can be thought of as the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of a society.

In this sense, it is equivalent to what social scientists term or enculturation. Children—whether conceived among tribespeople, the Florentines, or the middle classes of Manhattan—are born without, Education is designed to guide them in learning a, molding their behaviour in the ways of, and directing them toward their eventual role in society.

In the most primitive, there is often little formal learning—little of what one would ordinarily call school or classes or, Instead, the entire and all activities are frequently viewed as school and classes, and many or all adults act as teachers. As societies grow more complex, however, the quantity of knowledge to be passed on from one generation to the next becomes more than any one person can know, and, hence, there must evolve more selective and efficient means of cultural transmission.

The outcome is formal education—the school and the specialist called the teacher.
As society becomes ever more complex and schools become ever more institutionalized, educational experience becomes less directly related to daily life, less a matter of showing and learning in the of the workaday world, and more abstracted from practice, more a matter of distilling, telling, and learning things out of context.

This concentration of learning in a formal atmosphere allows children to learn far more of their culture than they are able to do by merely observing and imitating. As society gradually attaches more and more importance to education, it also tries to formulate the overall objectives, content, organization, and strategies of education.

Literature becomes laden with advice on the rearing of the younger generation. In short, there develop philosophies and theories of education. This article discusses the history of education, tracing the evolution of the formal teaching of knowledge and skills from prehistoric and ancient times to the present, and considering the various philosophies that have inspired the resulting systems.

functions of education

Other aspects of education are treated in a number of articles. For a of education as a discipline, including educational organization, teaching methods, and the functions and training of teachers, see ; ; and, For a description of education in various specialized fields, see ; ; ;,

For an analysis of educational philosophy, see, For an examination of some of the more important aids in education and the dissemination of knowledge, see ; ; ; ; ;, Some restrictions on educational freedom are discussed in, For an analysis of pupil attributes, see ; ;, The term education can be applied to primitive cultures only in the sense of, which is the process of cultural transmission.

A primitive person, whose culture is the totality of his universe, has a relatively fixed sense of cultural and timelessness. The model of life is relatively static and absolute, and it is transmitted from one generation to another with little deviation.

As for prehistoric education, it can only be inferred from educational practices in surviving primitive cultures. The purpose of primitive education is thus to guide children to becoming good members of their or band. There is a marked emphasis upon training for, because primitive people are highly concerned with the growth of individuals as tribal members and the thorough comprehension of their way of life during passage from prepuberty to postpuberty.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Because of the variety in the countless thousands of primitive cultures, it is difficult to describe any standard and uniform characteristics of prepuberty education. Nevertheless, certain things are practiced commonly within cultures.

Children actually participate in the social processes of adult activities, and their participatory learning is based upon what the American anthropologist called, identification, and,
Primitive children, before reaching puberty, learn by doing and observing basic technical practices.
Their teachers are not strangers but rather their immediate,

In contrast to the spontaneous and rather unregulated imitations in prepuberty education, postpuberty education in some cultures is strictly standardized and regulated. The teaching personnel may consist of fully initiated men, often unknown to the initiate though they are his relatives in other clans.

The may begin with the initiate being abruptly separated from his familial group and sent to a secluded camp where he joins other initiates.
The purpose of this separation is to deflect the initiate’s deep attachment away from his and to establish his emotional and social anchorage in the wider web of his culture.

The initiation “curriculum” does not usually include practical subjects. Instead, it consists of a whole set of cultural values, tribal religion,, philosophy, history, rituals, and other knowledge. Primitive people in some cultures regard the body of knowledge the initiation curriculum as most essential to their tribal membership. View complete answer

What is the real definition of education?

What is the real definition of education? As per Albert Einstein’s educational philosophy, education is not about learning facts, but training the mind for thinking about ideas, It is what remains after one has forgotten what he has learned in school.

The ideal purpose of education should be to create the capacity of integrated learning and an ability to use the knowledge intelligently. If we talk about the bigger picture, education works as a catalyst in reducing poverty, improving health, providing employment, eliminating gender inequality, and overall creating a sustainable planet.

Along with skill development, education also helps in inculcating human values. Though the million-dollar question is – Are schools enough to bring the ideal purpose into reality? As students, as parents, as educators, do we strongly feel so? Educational Psychology is vital in today’s complex education system as this branch designs new methods of learning for students (Sir Johann Herbart is the father of this field). View complete answer

When New Education Policy Will Be Implemented In Gujarat?

Devin clark, rytisygutabazhefa.jpg, brandon baker, which state has the best education in india, patrick white, which country has the hardest education system, harry ramirez, what are the methods of health education, abraham powell, what is ddo code in education department, hayden nelson, directorate of distance education annamalai university, fred williams, constitutional provisions for education b.ed notes, caleb garcia, who is the education minister of odisha, donald mitchell, define physical education class 11, john thomas, how many regional institute of education are there under ncert, nathaniel howard, when will new education policy be implemented, charles ross, where does india rank in education system in the world, william ross, what are the causes of lack of education, nathan gray, why medical education is costly in india, jesse jenkins, essay on importance of education, walter allen, what is tournament in physical education class 12, how to introduce yourself as a teacher in a new school, philip morgan, michael ward, what is the role of education in social change.

Enter your email for registration

IMAGES

Functions Of Education Towards: Individual, Society and Nation.....@dr
Functions of Education Towards Nation
PPT
PPT
Education Role in Nation Building
How leading education nations develop and reform their curriculum

VIDEO

Functions of the Society
Functions Of Education Towards: Individual, Society and [email protected]
Speeches on the topic of: Students are the pillers of the nation
International Day of Education dedicated to lasting peace
role and functions of education in individual and Nation life for b.ed,m.ed& net education
BLESSED MOVEMENT APPS TUTORIALS

COMMENTS

16.2 Sociological Perspectives on Education
Table 16.1 Theory Snapshot. Education serves several functions for society. These include (a) socialization, (b) social integration, (c) social placement, and (d) social and cultural innovation. Latent functions include child care, the establishment of peer relationships, and lowering unemployment by keeping high school students out of the full ...
Education, Curriculum and Nation-Building: Contributions of Comparative
Lastly, more recent theories explore the functions of education as part of the nation-state. The nine chapters of comparative studies feature evidence from various countries and historical decades. Each chapter demonstrates how the theoretical paradigms shape the methods and types of data employed in their research. For example, with the ethno ...
UNESCO's action in education
Education is everyone's right throughout life. Education is a basic human right and a global public good with the power to transform individual lives, communities and the planet for the better over generations. UNESCO's Education Sector provides global and regional leadership to ensure every child, youth and adult has access to quality education throughout life while keeping two priorities ...
The Transformation of the Nation-States and Education
Traditional functions of the mass and mandatory education systems of the nation-state would be listed under three basic headings: social, political, and economic. As mentioned above, the functions of national unity, development, and urbanization that nation-states expect from education have also deeply transformed.
16.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Education
Figure 16.5 The teacher's authority in the classroom is a way in which education fulfills the manifest functions of social control. (Credit: US Department of Education/flickr) Education also provides one of the major methods used by people for upward social mobility. This function is referred to as social placement.
The Role of Education in Development
First, it assesses the role of education as a driver of development, including aspects of economic growth, basic needs and political participation. Second, it looks at the constitutive perspective, involving education as national status, human right and human development.
The turning point: Why we must transform education now
Accelerating progress toward SDG 4 and transforming education require that there is an adequate number of teachers to meet learners' needs, and all education personnel are trained, motivated, and supported. This can only be possible when education is adequately funded, and policies recognize and support the teaching profession, to improve ...
Why education is the key to development
Education is a human right. And, like other human rights, it cannot be taken for granted. Across the world, 59 million children and 65 million adolescents are out of school. More than 120 million children do not complete primary education. Behind these figures there are children and youth being denied not only a right, but opportunities: a fair ...
Higher Education and National Development, Meanings and Purposes
In the long history of higher education, the close relationship and mutual reliance of the two main functions of education and research only emerged towards the end of the eighteenth century in Germany, which saw the development of a new type of university, that is, the "research university" (Watson 2010: 225-226). In the emergence of the ...
How does education function?
Abstract. Niklas Luhmann speaks of the function of education in relation to modern society. Only within modern society, he argues, is it possible to speak of the differentiation of a specific function system of education. It is, more particularly, the differentiation of other function systems that leads to the question about the function of ...
What are the functions of education towards individual, society and
Education teaches us to give equal opportunities in all aspects irrespective of caste, creed, color, sex and religion. Functions of education towards nation: (1) Inculcation of civic and social responsibility- Education helps to make rising generation to understand its rights and duties as citizens of a democratic country.
Functions of Education
Education provides the learner with a wealth of resources to help shape his life, personality, character, outlook, experiences, and interactions in society. Thus, education aids the learner in the reconstruction and reorganization of one's personal and societal life. 3. FUNCTION TOWARDS NATION.
The Role of Education in Shaping Youth's National Identity
Main purpose of education is to educate individuals within society, to prepare and qualify them for work in economy as well as to integrate people into society and teach them values and morals of society. Role of education is means of socializing individuals and to keep society smoothing and remain stable.
About education
The education sector is shifting and evolving towards a more explicit, active commitment to addressing gender-related barriers within and beyond the education system. This shift is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with more NGOs, local governments as well as national governments recognizing the role education has in promoting gender ...
The Role of Education in Nation-building
1. Promotion of National Identity: Education helps instill a sense of national pride and identity by teaching students about the country's history, culture, traditions, and values. It helps create ...
The Function of Education toward Society
Conclusion. The function of education toward society is to provide individuals with the tools and knowledge they need to engage fully in the social, economic, and political life of their community. It is important that education be accessible to all, and that it equips individuals with the skills and knowledge they need to make an impact on ...
Education and Learning
United Nations system-wide strategic approach for achieving inclusive, equitable and innovative education and learning for all Education is a right for all. Education and learning are critical in preparing countries and their people for the changes resulting from the accelerated development and spread of technological innovations. There is a need to transform educational systems so that they ...
PDF The social functions of education in a developing country: The case of
· identity function: to create social solidarity towards nation-building by developing a sense of national identity; · strati" cation function: to select the more able from the population as a ...
Education: A Powerful Weapon for Delivering Social Change
The notion of language education can be defined by focussing on two aspects: the first one is the nature of language education, i.e., the voluntary act of helping a human faculty (the faculty of ...
Education and Civic Awareness in the Philippines
Education is an important social institution as it serves several functions — functions towards the individual, functions towards society, and function towards the Nation. Key Concepts. Citizen is an individual given legal rights in a state. Citizenship refers to membership of a citizen with relation to a state.
Functions of Education in National Life
In short, education plays a significant role in national development, peace, progress and prosperity. If a democracy like ours is to survive, education must perform the following functions-. (1) National Development- Education is the most important means for the development of a nation. The national development of our country is dependent upon ...
Functions of Education Towards Nation
(1)Inculcation of civic and social responsibility- (2) Training for leadership- (3) National integration-. (4) Total national development-
What Is The Function Of Education?
The Functions of Education - Functional theory stresses the functions that education serves in fulfilling a society's various needs. Perhaps the most important function of education is socialization, If children are to learn the norms, values, and skills they need to function in society, then education is a primary vehicle for such learning.
Indiana National Guard- It's easier than ever to use your education
Contact Email. [email protected]. As a member of the Indiana National Guard, you've earned your way to higher education for yourself and your family, and we've improved the way we help you navigate those benefits. Our website now has more information than ever about tuition assistance, the GI Bill, online services and much more.