The Study of Schools and Social Dimensions 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. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12.  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.

13. “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.”