Social Dimension of Education

2. “School is the most important
agency of education.”
–Yogendra Sharma

3.  The study of schools has been of essential
interest to many since the earliest times.
 School is universal.
 Schools and education are the best and most
important human inventions.

4.  School is one social agency created by society to
educate its members. It has become the primary
educative agency of society, making it a major and
indispensable social institution in the world.
 “School”- derived from the Greek word skhole,
which means leisure.
 In ancient Greece, leisure places were used for self-
development, where the Greeks discussed matters
related to enriching their knowledge, skills, and
virtues.

5.  “Schools is a special environment, where a certain
quality of life and certain types of activities and
occupations are provided with the object of securing the
child’s development along desirable lines.”
–John Dewey

6.  “Schools are institutions developed by civilized man for
the purpose of aiding in the preparation of the young
to be well adjusted and efficient members of the
society.”
-JS Ross

7.  “Schools are institutions, which require
full-time attendance of specific age
groups in teacher- supervised
classrooms for study of graded
curricula.” -Everette Reimer

8.  Nowadays, new alternative delivery modes of
education are emerging.
 The school has always been regarded as the most
indispensable educative agency in the formation and
transformation of individuals and society.
 “Although school is only one ‘teacher’ among several
that form the social institution of education, it is
indisputable that it is still the primary educative
agency of society.” –Scotter (1991)

9. School is considered as the most
important agency of education on
the basis of the following argument.

10.  1. It is unfounded to call a person educated if he had
never been through school or college. Admittedly, a
person can obtain education through a number of
means – family, internet, mass media, library, and
church.
 2. School is one of the best mediums through which
the national goals for human resource development,
peace, order, eradication of poverty, and progress of
the country can be realized. School is the chief arm
of the state to ensure progress in all aspects of human
life.

11. 3. Without the assistance of school, family cannot by
itself perform task of educating a child, especially along
specialized occupational skills, such as teaching,
engineering, medicine, physics, accountancy, and the
like.
4. School is the only educational agency, which aims to
complete the development of individuals, i.e., the
development of mind, body, morals, spirit, among
others.
5. The school’s extent of contribution to education is
indispensable that no other educative agency can hope
to replace

12.  The discussion about schools has been the favorite
subject of people from different walks of life. For
example, the analysis of school and its role in social,
economic, political, cultural, moral, and global life has
been the interest of social philosophers, reformers,
politicians, economists, policy makers,
developmentalists, scholars, and other professional
groups.

13.  Numerous fields have put interest in schools such as
philosophy, psychology, law, history, economics, and
political science.
 Philosophy looks into the deeper meaning of the existence
as goals of schools in the individuals and society.
 Psychology provides learning theories and principles as
well as development stages of the learners that guide
effective and meaningful teaching and learning process.
 Law provides legal framework to which teaching and
managing schools are practiced.

14.  “There is no single discipline that has sole privilege of
analyzing schools, but all these disciplines bring out a
meaningful and integrated collection of
understanding of schools as a formal educative
institution.”