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

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To perform its functions every society sets up various institutions. Five major complexes of institutions are identified: familial institutions, religious institutions, educational institutions, economic institutions and political institutions. These institutions form sub-systems within social system or larger society.

Education as a Sub-System:

Education is a sub-system of the society. It is related to other sub-systems. Various institutions or sub-systems are a social system because they are interrelated. Education as a sub-system performs certain functions for the society as whole. There are also functional relations between education and other sub-systems. For example, Education trains the individuals in skills that are required by economy. Similarly education is conditioned by the economic institutions.

The effectiveness of organised activities of a society depends onthe interaction and inter relationships of these institutions which constitute the whole. Now we will examine the role of education for the society and the relationship between education and other sub-system of society in terms of functionalist perspective. The functionalist view of education tends to focus on the positive contributions made by education to the maintenance of social system.

Emile Durkheim says that the major function of education is the transmission of society’s norms and values. He maintains that, “society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by fixing in the child from the beginning the essential similarities which collective life demands”. Without these essential similarities, cooperation, social solidarity and therefore social life would be impossible. The vital task of all society is the creation of solidarity.

This involves a commitment to society, a sense of belonging and feeling that the social unit is more important than the individual. Durkheim argues that to become attached to society the child must feel in it something that is real, alive and powerful, which dominates the person and to which he also owes the best part of himself.

Education in particular the teaching of history, provides this link between the individual and society. If the history of his society is brought alive to the child, he will come to see that he is a part of something larger than himself, he will develop a sense of commitment to the social group.

Durkheim argues that in complex industrial societies, the school serves a function which cannot be provided either by family or peer groups. Membership of the family is based on kinship relationship, membership of the poor group on the personal choice.

Membership of society as a whole is based neither of these principles. Individuals must learn to cooperate with those who are neither their kin nor their friends. The school provides a context where these skills can be learned. As such, it is societyin miniature, a model of the social system. In school, the child must interact with other members of the school in terms of fixed set of rules.

Drawing on Durkheim’s ideas, Talcott Parsons argues that after primary socialisation within the family, the school takes over asthe ‘focal socialising agency’. School acts a bridge between the family and society as a whole, preparing the child for his adult role. Within the family, the child is judged and treated largely in terms of ‘particularistic’ standards.

In the wider society the individual is treated and judged in terms of ‘Universalistic’ standards. Within the family the child’s status is ascribed, it is fixed by birth. However, in advanced industrial society, status in adult life is largely achieved. Thus, the child must move from particularistic

standards and ascribed status of the family to universalistic standards and achieved status of adult society.

The school prepares young people for this transition. Schools operates on meritocratic principle, status is achieved on the basis of merit. Like Durkheim, Parsons also argue that the schoolrepresents society in miniature. By reflecting the operation of society as a whole, the school prepares young people for their adult roles.

As part of this process, schools socialise young people into the basic values of society. These values have important functions insociety as a whole.

Finally, Parsons sees the educational system as an important mechanism for the selection of individuals for their future role in society. In his words, it “functions to allocate these human resources within the role structure of adult society”. Thus, schools, by testing and evaluating students, match their talents,skills and capacities to the jobs for which they are best suited.The school is therefore seen as the major mechanism for role allocation.

Like Parsons, Davis and Moore see education as means of role allocation. But they link the educational system more directly with the system of social stratification. According Davis and Moore social stratification is a mechanism for ensuring that mosttalented and able members of society are allocated to those positions which are functionally most important for the society. High rewards which act as incentives are attached to these positions which means that all will win through. The education system is one important part of this process.

Scholars have also analysed the relationship of education and society in terms of ‘Marxian perspective’. Chief among them are Louis Althusser, Samuel Bowels and Herbert Gintis. According to Althusser, a French philosopher, as a part of the superstructure,the educational system is ultimately shaped by infrastructure. Itwill therefore reflect the relations of production and serve the interests of the capitalist ruling class.

For the ruling class to survive and prosper, the reproduction of labour power is essential. He argues that the reproduction of labour involves two processes. First, the reproduction of the skills necessary for an efficient labour force. Second, the reproduction of ruling class ideology and the socialisation workers in terms of it.

These processes combine to reproduce a technically efficient and submissive and obedient work force. The role of education in capitalist society is the reproduction of such a work force. Althusser argues that the reproduction of labour power requires not only reproduction of its skills, but also, at the same time areproduction of its submission to the ruling ideology.

The submission is reproduced by a number of ideological State Apparatuses”, such as mass media, law, religion and education. Ideological State Apparatus transmit ruling class ideology thereby creating false class consciousness.

Education not only transmits a general ruling class ideology which justifies and legitimates the capitalist system. It also reproduces the attitudes and behaviour required by the major groups in the division of labour. It teaches workers to accept and submit to their exploitation, it teaches the agents of ‘exploitation and repression’, the managers, administrators and politicians, how to practise their crafts and rule the work forceas agents of ruling class.

Like Althusser, the American economists Bowels and Gintis argue that the major role of education in capitalist society is the reproduction of labour power. In particular, they maintain that education contributes to the reproduction of workers with the kind of personalities, attitudes and outlooks which will fit themfor their exploited status. They argue that social relationships in schools replicate the hierarchical division of labour in theirwork place.

It can be stated here that education performs certain role for the society. At the same time education is also conditioned by the social structure. Society crates educational institutions

such as schools, colleges and universities to perform certain functions in accomplishing its end. The educational system may beviewed as a part of the total social system.

It reflects and influences the social and cultural order of whichit is a part. The class system, the cultural values, the power structure, the balance between individual freedom and social control, the degree of urbanisation and industrialisation all these factors exercise a profound influence on school system of any society.

Functional Relationships between Education and other Sub-Systems:

What are the functional relationships between education and othersub-systems of society. Many functionalists have argued that there is functional relationship between different sub-systems. For example there is a functional relationship between education and economic system. Skills and values learned in education are directly related to the way in which the economy and the occupational structure operate. Education trains the individuals in skills that are required by the economy. Similarly, education is also influenced by economy.

Throughout the twentieth century, the rapid expansion of the tertiary occupation in industrial societies has produced an increasing demand for clerical, technical’, professional and managerial skills. Education reflects these changes in the economy.

In this context Halsey and Floud argue that, the educational system is bent increasingly to the service of the labour force. This can be seen from the steady increase in the school leaving age, the increasing specialisation of educational provision and the rapid expansion of higher and vocational education.

Various institutions or sub-Systems – familial, political, economic, educational institutions – may be viewed as a ‘whole cluster of institutions’. These institutions are social system because they are interrelated. A social system reveals a balance

between its parts which facilitates its operation. Occasionally it may reveal imbalance, but it tends towards equilibrium.

In a changing society the interdependence of social institutions has a good deal of significance, to quote Ogburn and Nimkoff, fora change in one institution may affect other institutions”. For example, when a country changes its Constitution, the change is never confined to its political institutions. Corresponding changes take place in economic relationships, in the educational system, in the class structure and so on. All the social institutions would be in balance, each being adjusted to other, forming a single unified scheme.

Social Origins and Orientation of Students and Teachers:

Education is a social concern. It is a social process. Its objective is to develop and awaken in the child those physical, intellectual and moral states which are acquired of the individual by his society as a whole and the milieu for which he is specially destined. It is the significant means of socialisation. The function of education is to socialise the young by imparting to them norms and values, culture and heritage, and to provide them with skills and placement. This is traditionally, the accepted role of education.

In the West, for long, literacy was not considered essential for all. It remained confined to the priests, ruling classes and to commercial class. The education imparted was literary and religious. The valuation of education was not very high. In the Indian social milieu, education has been traditionally given significant importance.

Education has been given greater prominence in India than in Western or Islamic societies or in China. Referring to eighteenthcentury education in France, Helvelius observed that men “are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.” InEngland, where, there did not exist a well organized education system, there were the public schools for the higher strata of the society.

But in these schools, “nothing worked except flogging.” In our country too, education suffered great fall and decline down the centuries. Eighteenth century, witnessed the total disruption of educational system. The British introduced their “own language gradually and eventually the language of public business throughout the country.”

In fulfillment of the provisions of Charter Act 1833, the resolution of Governor General’s Council, provided that educationbe imparted in English ‘alone’. In this Macarlays’ aim was, “to form a class who may be… Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes.” It ultimately arrested Indian intellectuality, alienated the educated from their mooring and gave to the societyan educational system not representing the educational personality.

The modern industrial society with its advance technology, division of labour, job differentiation, assumes a general standard of literacy. It cannot carry on with handful of education and mass illiteracy. The technological advancement has necessitated the re-orientation of education.

The environmental effect of the education of child is now given special stress and attention. J.W.B. Douglas, in The Home and theSchool has specially developed this aspect of child education.

“The advantages which first children have over latter siblings inDouglas’s study, are best understood in terms of the greater degree of attention and responsibility which most first children are likely to receive from their parents as well as the greater responsibilities they have to shoulder. Likewise, children from smaller families generally have higher educational attainment, since they are also likely to receive more parental attention than children in large families.”

“Focussing on parental attention in this way helps us understand why apparently unconnected factors all tend to work in the same direction. They also affect the child’s behaviour at school as well as within the home. The amount and quality of child-adult

interactions influence the development of the child’s linguistic capacity, e.g., the range of his vocabulary.

Likewise, the child’s own interest in schooling, as distinct fromthat of this parents, and his sense of being at ease when at school, are affected both directly and indirectly by his awareness of the importance and value his parents explicitly and implicitly place on schooling.

“The family itself thus constitutes a learning situation for the child. Nor is the child simply ‘moulded’ by the family environment. He or she is an active agent who has to learn to interpret that environment… Consequently, when considering the effects of the home on educational attainment. It is not enough to see this simply as the result of the occupation and education of the parents. Family insecurity, for example, is not only produced by poverty but also results when professional parents with busy lives spend little time with their children. Resentments built up through such family interactions may undermine the good intentions of parents to help their children perform well in school”.

In USA, there does not exist a national system of education. It is not a Federal subject. It is left entirely to the care of the local administration. There, therefore, exists diversity of institutions and of standards. Even within the same State, educational standards and the quality of schools varies.

The American elementary and high school education is comprehensive, and in the schools are conducted commercial, vocational and college preparatory programmes. There are schools,which exclusively conduct college preparatory courses. In England, there are elementary schools for the working class, Grammar schools for middle class children, and public school education, for the children of the upper class.

This pattern has remained more or less unchanged, since long time. The Education Act of 1944, did not bring about any change in this differentiation. There is, however, effort being made to bring about the changes in the system, to develop comprehensive

school system. Education in our country under the British Raj didnot make much progress.

In 1939, literacy did not cover more than 10 per cent of the population. Since independence much extension has been given to education and literacy. Efforts are afoot to extend education both at the primary and adult levels.

In the five decades since independence much advance has been madein education at secondary, college and university levels. Under the new pattern Ten plus Two system at the secondary and senior secondary levels, emphasis is now being laid on vocational and technical education.

In the traditional society, teacher was taken to symbolise the best in social values. He was accepted as a moral authority. But this position has now undergone a distinct change. Teacher in an educated society is not the only person who can be said to have intellectual competence and school too is not the only institution to impart education.

The normative aspect of education is not attended to. In fact it has remained neglected. The emphasis in learning is on the accumulation of knowledge or acquiring a qualification, vocational or otherwise.

Equality of Educational Opportunity:

The equalisation of educational opportunities is essentially linked with the notion of equality in the social system. In a social system if all the individuals are treated as equal, they get equal opportunities for advancement. Since education is one of the most important means of upward mobility, it is through an exposure to education one can aspire to achieve higher status, position and emoluments.

But for getting education he must have equal opportunities like other members of the society. In case educational opportunities are unequally distributed, the inequalities in the social

structure continue to be perpetuated, it is in this light the quality of educational opportunity has been visualised.

The need for emphasising the equality of opportunity in educationarise due to number of reasons. Some of these reasons are enumerated below:

(a) It is needed because it is through the education to all the people in a democracy; the success of democratic institutions is assured.

(b) The equality of educational opportunities will ensure rapid development of a nation.

(c) A closer link between the manpower needs of a society and theavailability of a skilled personnel will develop.

(d) People with specialised talents for specialised jobs in a large number will be available and the society will be benefited.

A society which hold high promise of “Equality of status and of opportunity” for all and assures” the dignity of individual and the unity and integrity of the Nations”, has to attend to the mass spreading of learning much in the interest of creating the appropriate ground work for the social advancement. Education is supposed to eliminate social and economic inequality.

The relationship between education and inequality is a result of the historical particulars of the educational system. There are two factors in this (1) the available opportunities which structure individual choices and (2) the social and economic process which structure individual choices while the above factors point out that the educational system is a product of thesocial structure it must be remembered that it is not a one-way process because the educational system itself and the values it stands for influences individual decisions.

Educational Inequality:

The major problem with respect to the equality of educational opportunity is the perpetuation of inequalities through education. It is through a system of education in which elite control is predominant that the inequalities are perpetuated. In an elite controlled system the schools practise segregation. Thissegregation may be on the basis of caste, colour or class etc. InSouth Africa schools practise segregation on the basis of colour.

Equality of educational opportunity is more talked about, than really believed. In all modern industrially advanced countries there is the total inequality of educational opportunity. Educational opportunities for a child are determined by his family, class, neighborhood consideration.

A comprehensive school system free from these considerations is the demand all over the world. There is a move to this effect in U.S.A., France and Britain, and among the East European countries, especially in (Zechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Sweden, where comprehensive school system is followed. But the movement is comparatively weak in Britain and France.

The size of the family and the parental attitude makes a lot of difference to the educational career of a child. The educated parents give due attention to the education of the children. The family influence determines the educational goal of the children.

Inequality of educational opportunity also occurs due to the poverty of a large section of the population and the relative affluence of small minority. The poor cannot pay the fees and their children do not find chances of continuing in schools. Children from the families that cannot provide the economic support and other perquisite, suffer badly. From this group, there is the maximum number of dropouts.

Education and social status have close connection. Social class position includes income, occupation and life style. These have impact on the upbringing of the child.

In the U.S.A. “Negros make up a disproportionately high percentage of school dropouts and their educational level is

below that of whites. Under the segregated schooling that long prevailed in the United States, officially in the South and informally elsewhere, Negroes received an inferior education. Racially segregated schools have simply been poorer schools and children in these schools are not given the same opportunity to learn to the same level as white schools.

The neighborhood environment has much to do with the education ofthe children. Low income families concentrate in the inner city, live in old and decaying houses. Families with similar level of income, and similar vocation live in neighborhood. This sort of inequality is found everywhere in the West. The residential segregation is a factor that produces class structures. Neighborhood has its impact on the school, and on the peer group.

The attitude of the teacher has much to do with education of the children. The very real measurable differences between middle class and lower class children in tests, as well as the differences between white and Negro children, are to be accountedfor, not by innate differences in ability, but by differences of cultural exposure and bearing opportunities.

The children in rural areas studying in poorly equipped schools have to compete with the children in urban areas where there are well-equipped schools and more informative environment for getting admission to the schools for higher bearing on professional colleges.

In Indian situation educational inequality due to sex is also very much visible. Girls’ education at all stages of education isnot given the same encouragement as boys. The social customs and taboos hinder the progress of girls’ education. They are given inferior position in the family and their education is neglected.

Educational inequality is due to the system itself and also on account of conditions prevailing in society. It is multi-sided affair and is continuing both in developed and developing societies. In many societies it finds expression in the form of public schools.

Some of the societies including our own, run public schools whichprovide much better education than the type of education providedby State run and controlled educational institutions. The education in the former institutions being much costly as compared with the latter and admission obviously open to only fewprivileged. This creates educational inequality in its own way.

It is a paradox that education which should be the catalyst of change very often reflects the structured inequalities present ‘in the social system. It is really strange that education aimed at social transformation reflects the structured inequalities in our social system.

Education is supposed to eliminate social and economic inequality. Educational institutions are in a sense closed systems since opportunities that elite has for excellent educational system is not available for the unfortunate masses. Obviously this system breeds inequality of opportunities.

In many cities there is a definite status hierarchy in primary education and to a large extend, the choice of a primary school determines career opportunities. Top priority is given to Englishmedium schools sponsored by missionaries since they offer the best education. Next in the hierarchy are non-English medium schools run by religious organisations and charitable trusts.

At the bottom of the hierarchy are the schools run by the Government. Naturally the choice of English medium schools is theforerunner for lucrative and prestigious careers for a particularsegment of society. Various State Governments provide primary education free of cost, but since such education is in regional language medium, where the standard of instruction is on par withthat of private-school’s the rates of drop-outs are high in such schools.

We have at present a stratified society and a stratified pattern of schooling and they compete each other. Dual system of education has to be done away with through legislation and thereby evolve a common pattern of schooling to build a strong and unified democratic system in India. Educational privileges

must reach down to the poor and particularly it should benefit members of the Scheduled Castes.

Rapid expansion of education among women is achieved although they are still at a disadvantage compared to men. To some extent education has proved to be a source of social mobility for the depressed groups.

Education is a double-edged instrument which can eliminate the effects of socio-economic inequalities but it can also introduce a new kind of inequality.

Education can influence the process of social change among the weaker sections of society. Persistent and planned efforts by theGovernment and voluntary agencies will go a long way toward elimination of educational inequalities.

Education as Medium of Cultural Reproduction, Indoctrination:

The enduring function of education is the cultural reproduction. It has been recognised to be its main role. It is by education that the newborn is initiated in the social ways. It transmits culture to him. At the early stages the aim is to introduce the child to the normative order of his group. In the traditional society kinship group worked for the child to this end. In complex modern industrial society of the West, this work is undertaken by specialized agencies such as school.

In traditional society, cultural reproduction may take place by oral teaching of heritage and culture; history and legend, and ina practical way by participating in the celebration of festivals.One may at a successive stage be introduced to culture through books. Yet one may not be in a position to appreciate it. It is only after one has been initiated and motivated that one gets cultivated in the cultural ways. As indicated above it is a lifelong educational process.

But in present time’s family, school and teachers are no longer the only institutions that influence the growing generations. Themovies, radio, record industry, and the television are strong

instruments to impart education. Their appeal is direct. But these are not bound to any normative standard. Their basic standard is the marketability. The cultivated morality is challenged; established values are disregarded; mockery is made of humility and decency.

With the disregarding of the traditional values, the growing children find themselves like the waves in the boundless sea, andthe older feel to have been left high and dry. “Perhaps nothing disturbs the basic function of cultural transmission by the institution of education as does this growth of a mass media thatis not normatively regulated, and indeed that has not been consciously assigned such a function within the society. It throws into critical relief the whole issue of whether the culture is to be transmitted effectively within the frame work ofrecognized institutions or whether a disparate set of unlinked and unregulated structures and processes are to carry out competitive even contradictory cultural transmission, and whatever unanticipated consequences.”

The role of education as an agent of the transmission of culture is thus diminishing. It is becoming a specialized process.

Indoctrination:

Education is a process of indoctrination. It has been so and it shall remain so. A child is trained in the accepted values to fitin the social milieu. The training of child has been such down the ages. Education and the class room have been used for the perpetuation of the values, beliefs and faith in East and West alike. Pulpit throughout the Christiandom, has been the great instrument of indoctrination. Ecclesiastical order, which for long controlled the education, had generally been fanatic. They had vested interest in perpetuating fanaticism.

The French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, held that school has always been used as an ideological apparatus. “The ruling ideology thus determines the dominated culture of society, influencing what is taught in school and universities and determining through education and the mass media what types of

thought and language are seen as normal and are ‘rewarded’ by society.”

In France the Third Republic took church to be its worst enemy, since in the church schools was conducted anti-republican propaganda. Gambetta observed, “Clericalism, that is our enemy.” This position was further elaborated by Premier Waldeck Rousseau,a follower of Gambetta. He said that the real peril was the growing power of religious orders of monks and nuns and from the character of the teaching given by them in the religious schools they were conducting.

They were doing their best to make the children hostile to the Republic. In 1902, Combos, the successor of Waldeck Rousseau observed. “Clericalism is, in fact to be found at the bottom of every agitation and every intrigue from which Republican France has suffered during the last thirty five years.”

The present day educational institutions are not free from it. But the role of education in India was regarded humanist. In ancient Indian schools, emphasis was laid on pure values. It is worth quoting. “The aim of learning are settled to be Sraddha (faith), Praja (progeny), dhana (wealth), ayuh (longevity), and amritatva (immortality).

Education and Social Change:

Education is considered the most powerful instrument of social change. It is through education that the society can bring desirable changes and modernise itself. Various studies have revealed the role of education in bringing about social changes.

The relation between education and changes in social structure has been examined in rural contexts. Allen R. Holmberg and Dobynsjointly as well as separately reported the Vicos action research project. The project was a study of the role of enlightenment in social development. The findings of this project were that education became enmeshed in wider social changes as knowledge became the means to status and effective participation.

It was also found that the most modernised citizens in the community were the youngsters, who had attended school. In another study by Daniel Lerner, it was found that the key to modernisation lies in the participant society, i.e. one in which people go to school, red newspapers, participate politically through elections. It is important to note that literacy not onlyproved to be key variable in moving from a traditional to a transitional society but also the pivotal agent in the transitionto a fully participant’ society.

The studies of Philip Foster in Ghana and Edward Shils in India have also revealed the role of education in social change. According to Foster it was formal Western Schooling in Ghana thatcreated a cultural environment in which innovations could take place. Shils making a study of the intellectuals in India came toconclusion that if there is to be any successful bridging in the gap between tradition and modern societies, it is the Western educated intellectual who must perform the task.

James S. Coleman, Foster, Lipset and many others have shown that education plays a very vital role in political change. It is heldthat political development is largely dependent on education. It provides the skills required by modern political bureaucracies, in many emergent nations it has provided a common language, it helps to recruit elite and provides a central force in movements for independence.

It may be said that social change may be brought about by political situation, economic development, technological development etc. By whatever mans the change may be brought about; education always plays an import role in its propagation.

The political situation may lead to democratic or totalitarian form of Government. The changes in keeping with the form of the government in the society can only be brought about through education. Even the acceptance of the form of Government by the majority will be dependent on how it is being educated.

The economic growth leads to social change. It is however, education which leads to economic growth. The development in

science and technology are also dependent on education. Educationis a ‘condition’ for economic change.

It is an important means of attaining economic standard of society. It is essential for the economy. Change in the educational system result in social and economic changes, greatersocial mobility and more skilled and well-trained manpower for technologically based industries.

Education has been playing in important role in getting occupations which are key determinants of general social status. Therefore, the schools are agent in realisation of the desire forupward mobility. The schools are instrumental in transforming theoccupational structure as well as class structure. In most developing countries education is regarded as the ‘gateway’ to animproved social status.

Education increases political awareness and political participation of the people. This brings about wider political changes with the increasingly organised participation of the people in national politics.

Education is expected to contribute to ‘progress’. In modern societies educational organisations act as innovators. These organisations disseminate new knowledge and ideas and promote theprocesses of social change.

According to Alex Inkeles, different levels of education have different levels of effects. In the developing countries primary education is enabling the people to do things they would never have been able to do before. Basic literacy brings a society intoworld.

Higher education is not only an aid for individual development, but also for the all-round development of the society. In addition, university student’s movements have often been the major force demanding social change in many societies. In China, India, Japan, America and many other countries students agitationhave resulted in vast changes.

In some cases, the students movements are found to discredit, transform or topple governments. As Drucker has pointed out, “highly educated man has become the central resource of today’s society and the supply of such men are the true measure of its economic, military and even its political potential”.

Modern Education changes our attitude and values. It affects our customs, traditions, beliefs and manners. It removes our superstitious beliefs and irrational fear about the supernatural things. Now education aims at imparting knowledge about science, technology and other secular knowledge. It has been universally acknowledged that through the promotion of education modern values in social, economic, political and cultural fields can be inculcated.

Education has contributed to the improvement in the status of women. So far as the importance of modern education is concerned,according Inkeles, it helps them in moving away from traditionalism to modernity. It has helped them to seek employment and to come out of the family.

To conclude, education is the driving force behind the phenomenonof social change. The role of education as a factor or instrumentof social change and development is universally recognised today.Education can initiate and accelerate the process of change by changing the attitude and values of man. It can change man and his style of living and hence can change the society.

But education follows social changes. Changes in education take place due to the impact of social changes. Changes in content andmethods of education become a necessity for education to be relevant and effective. When changes occur in needs of the society. Technology and values of society, education also undergoes changes.

Society has various needs and these need are subject to change. The changing needs of the society bring changes in the educational system. It means that educational changes occur because of social needs and aspirations. Universal education, adult education, vocational and scientific education are the

various forms and varieties of education which have been brought about by the needs of modern Indian society.

Many changes occur in education because of cultural changes.

To conclude, education and social change are very intimately related. They influence each other mutually.

Education and Modernisation:

Modernisation denotes total transformation of traditional or pre-modern society into the types of technology and associated socialorganisation that characterise the advanced economically prosperous and relatively politically stable nations of the West.Modernisation is defined as a conscious set of plans and policiespursued by the leaders or elites of developing countries for changing their societies in the direction of modern developed societies.

Modernisation is the process of transforming the old traditional societies and nations to modernity in the fields of economic, technological, industrial and social advancement. It is to bring a less advanced nation at par with the advanced country. It is the result of the growing recognition of the need for global harmonisation in the larger interests of humanity.

The process modernisation is viewed as one time historical process which was started by the Industrial Revolution in Englandand the political Revolution in France. Modernisation first occurred in the West through the twin process of commercialization and industrialisation. Early in the twentieth century Japan, the first Asian country, joined the race for industrialisation. Latter U.S.S.R. as well as other countries tried to achieve different degree of modernisation.

The process is to be viewed as an all-in-all process but not a compartmentalised one. Hence, technical, economic, social, industrial and political orders are to be changed radically. Modernisation takes place in different spheres – political, economic, social and educational.

Industrialisation, urbanisation, secularisation, rapid growth of transport and communication, educational revolutions etc. are thesteps in the progressive direction of modernisation of a nation.

Modernisation involves not only changes at structural level but also fundamental changes at the personal level, a change in modesof thinking, beliefs, opinion, attitudes and action. Several interacting transformations are involved in the process of modernisation.

Education is a great force in modernisation. It plays a crucial role in various spheres of modernisation. Education has been recognised as the most important factor connected with rise and growth of modernisation process of a society irrespective of cultural milieu in which it finds itself.

It has been universally acknowledged that through the promotion of education, modern values in social economic, political and cultural fields can be inculcated. Rationality and scientific temper being the preponderant characteristics of modernisation can be acquired through constant learning.

Emphasis has been given on education as an instrument for social reconstruction and modernisation. It is particularly the Western education that enabled many to develop and inculcate the sense ofmodern outlook. Such an evidence was visible enough when India was under British rule.

It was educated population who took the leadership and contributed in bringing many policies and programmes that were sought after before the British. They inculcated the values of patriotism, nativism, humanitarianism only through education and these ideas were employed as tools against the British.

Highly productive economies, distributive justice, people’s participation in decision-making bodies, adoption of scientific technology in industry, agriculture and other professions are accepted as the goals of for modernising a society. These goals are to be achieved through education.

Education prepares the mentality of the people to accept changes.It creates conducive environment for modernisation. By promoting democratic values and progressive attitudes in the people, education makes them capable to participate and strengthen the process of modernisation. It teaches them to fight against socialevils, blind beliefs and superstitions.

Education is not only aid for individual development, but also for the all-round development of society and the country. It helps for the development of the qualities of an individual such as mental and emotional makeup as well as his temperament and character. For the individual it provides rational and scientificthinking, reasoning, skills and capabilities to adjust to new situations. Modern education helps people in moving away from traditionalism to modernity.

Education is considered the most powerful instrument of modernisation. It is through education that the society can bringdesirable change and modernise itself. Learner says that the key to modernisation lies in the participant society; that is one in which people go through school, read newspapers, are in the wage and market economy, participate politically through elections andchange opinions on matters of public business.

The importance of education as an instrument of modernisation needs no special reiteration. Similarly, none can deny the fact that modernisation has its significance to education. They influence mutually. There is a close relationship between education and modernisation.

Modernisation takes place in educational sphere for the effectiveness of education in a society. This involves change in content and methods of education. Modern society is characterisedby very rapid and extensive changes. In such a changing society, education aims at communicating empirical knowledge, that is knowledge about science, technology and other types of such specialised knowledge.

In -keeping with the demands of changing society, there has been a corresponding transformations in the contents and methods of

instruction. The inclusion of heavy study materials on modern science and technology into the syllabus makes it imperative thatcourse of study on classical language and literature should be abridged or altogether drooped.

In educational sphere, modernisation involves growing specialisation of educational roles and organisations, growing unification and interrelation of different educational activitieswithin the frameworks of one common system.

According to S.N. Isenstadt, “perhaps the best starting point foranalysis of the characteristics in the educational institutions in modern societies is the pattern of demands for and the supply of educational services that tended to develop with modernisation.

In the field of demand we can distinguish between the demand for ‘the products’ and the ‘rewards’ of education. Among the most important products of education are, first, various skills, be they general skill such as of occupations or more specific professional and vocational skills, the number of which has continually increased and become diversified with growing economic, technical and scientific development.

“A second major product of education is identification with various cultural, socio-political symbols and values and relatively active commitment to various cultural, social and political groups and organisations.”

The supply side of educational services also become greatly diversified. According to him it includes the supply of manpower to be educated at different levels of educational system and adequate motivation and preparation for education and it includesthe supply of various schooling facilities -schools at different levels, ranging from kinder garden to universities, of technical personnel (greatly dependent on fluctuation in the labour market)and of various facilities for the maintenance of such institutions and organisations.

Education plays a crucial role in the process, of modernisation in various fields and modernisation in these fields really enhances the evolvement of education technically which calls for in great need for imparting modern education and for producing capable and resourceful manpower.

It can rightly be concluded that education and modernisation are the two sides of the same coin and these mutually influence each other.