Role of Education in Social Change

1. Assignment
“Role of Education in Social
change”

2. Submitted by
Aswani V G
Roll no 29
Physical
Science

3. Role of Education in Social Change
Social change is the product of many forces in the society
which is the result of many factors- historical, environmental,
technological and scientific. All changes in society are not social
changes. It is meant only such alterations as occur in the structure and
function of social organisations or units. That is variation from the
accepted mode of life, cultural equipments, geographic conditions,
composition of population or ideologies. In fact social change implies
a process in which one finds addition of new things and subtraction of
old things, leading to modifications in social structures, techniques,
behaviour patterns and ways of living. It is believed that when
individuals are concerned with modifications in status roles, the stress
and strain produced in them and thereby social changes take place.
With the decline of authoritarianism and religion, with the rise of
science, technology and industry, with the fast means of
communication and travel, the process of social change has been
accelerated. It can be said that social mobility comes through
education. It is an instrument of social change which uses skills and
knowledge. In general sense, education is a form of learning in which
knowledge, skills and habits of a group of people are transferred from
one generation to next through teaching, training or research. It takes
place frequently under the guidance of others but may be autodidactic.
The relationship between education and social change takes a
dual form- education as an instrument and education as a product.

4. This implies that education as an instrument is used as a means for
bringing about desired changes in the society and in the latter case,
changes in educational structure follows as a consequence of changes
which have already taken place in the society. Education can initiate
social change by bringing about changes in the outlook and attitude of
people. Present education system is totally mechanized. It interrupts
the free thinking of the students. Education is the root cause of social
and cultural changes that takes place within the society. Education has
been and is being played as an agent of socialization of the younger
generations so as to reach the expectations of the society. Education
enriches people’s understanding of themselves and world. It improves
the quality of their lives and leads to broad social benefits to
individuals and society. The role of education in the development of
human resources in particular, requires hardly and emphasis.
Education raises people’s productivity and creativity and promotes
entrepreneurship and technological advances. In addition it plays a
very crucial role in securing economic and social progress. Education
plays a major role in eradicating poverty by granting access to
different employment opportunities. Education system needs to be
upgraded time to time to incorporate desired changes in order to cope
with the present changes in the society.

5. Discussion
Any society which desires reform and progress needs various means
and aids towards attaining this. It is the education that prepares the
mind of people to accept those changes. Education is a conservative
force in the sense that it transmits old culture including knowledge,
tradition and values to the next generation. But at the same time, it is
a liberalizing force which is one of the primary objectives to develop
critical understanding of the objective reality. With the change in
time, education become more and more science and technology
oriented. Absolute values which prevent progress can be changed in
favour of enlightened ideas. Education makes the outlook of man
liberal and wide. It encourages new inventions, discoveries and
researches for the good of people. The axe of education can cut the
thick roots of traditions, superstitions, ignorance, backwardness etc.
Through education new values and desirable attitudes like family
planning, savings & investment, educating children etc are inculcated.
It can bring about equality in society by lifting up the downtrodden in
line with the other classes. The best contribution of education is in
preparing the individual for social change by providing suitable
environment for critical and creative thinking. The relationship
between educational system and society is mutual; sometimes the
society influences changes in educational system and at other times
the educational system influences changes in the society.

6. Functions of Education in Social Life
a) Assistancein adopting socialchange:-
Whenever some social changes occur, it results in changes in the
pattern of doing some work. Some people easily adopt this change
while some others find it very difficult to adjust them to this change.
It is the aim of education to make all good changes easily accessible
to every person. As education spreads to other sections of society, the
importance and values of these changes came to be recognised more
universally.
b) Overcoming resistanceto change:-
There are certain factors which create resistance to accept
changes. The best way of overcoming such resistance is education.
Through this medium, importance of social change is convincingly
explained to people so that they are purged of their prejudices and
blind faith and strengthened them to accept something new.
c) Analysis of Change:-
Progress occurs only when the changes leads the society to more
desirable social values. And for this, analysis and criticism of social
change is essential. Only the educated individual can make valid
criticism and offer constructive suggestions, because it is education
which invests the individual with the capacity to use his intelligence
and to distinguish between right and wrong. Through this analysis,

7. undesirable changes are prevented and desirable ones are encouraged.
In every society, this is achieved only through the efforts of rational
and educated people.
d) Transmissionof desirableculture:-
It may be noted that all the social and cultural heritage of the past
society are not wholly acceptable to the new society. The new
generation does not want everything what their previous generation
used to practice. They want only the helpful and desirable elements of
culture of the past and avoid the undesirable one. Education must
carefully examine which elements or items of the past experiences
have their capability of developing the new generation towards social
progress. Keeping in view of this fact education must have
consciously control, design and select the items of social heritage and
transmit to the new generation.
e) LeadershipRole in Social Change:-
If social changes are to be directed properly, it is necessary to
have able leaders, well acquainted with the complexity of the
problem. Such leaders can only be created through education.
Education makes people capable to initiate and guide for needed
social changes by fighting successfully against social evils, customs
and blind traditions. Thus people become capable for realizing their
own true personality to the full and promote social welfare to greater
and greater extent.

8. f) Advances in the Sphere of Knowledge:-
New researches and inventions all depend upon education,
because only educated individual can search for new things in every
sphere. Fresh discoveries in the sphere of knowledge provide the right
basis for criticism of society. Then the need for change becomes
apparent. Thus, training leads to societal transformation by
introducing awareness improvements.
Relationshipbetween Education and Social Change
In the words of Francis J Brown, “Education is the process
which brings about changes in the behavior of society “. We can
elaborate this relationship in three ways,
 Education as a condition of Social change
 Education as an instrument of Social change
 Education as a result of Social change

9. Education as a Condition of Social Change
Education makes the people aware of the inadequacy of the
existing system and creates a craze for social modifications. Many of
the old superstitions, beliefs and outdated customs which retard social
progress can be prevented by education. Education initiates the social
changes and gives them direction and purpose. Education helps
people to make them rational in thinking and in approach.
Educationas an Instrument of Social Change
Education deals mainly with the thought pattern and behavior
pattern of younger generation.The axe of education cut down the thick
roots of traditional superstitions, ignorance and the backwardness.
Technical education helps in the process of industrialization which
results in vast changes. It changes the outlook and the traditional
approach towards social and economic problems. Motivate children to
adopt new patterns in order to remain dynamic and forward looking.
Educationas a result of Social Change
The changes caused by the political disorder, industrialization,
technological progress and religious reform movements naturally
demands more education in-order to maintain social equilibrium.
Education creates the social reformers and leaders who consciously
make all efforts to bring about social changes. Educational change is
according to the need of society.

10. Three Fold Function of Education
a) It can retard the process of change
b) It can maintain the status quo
c) It can accelerate the process of change
According to V.R.Taneja, the three-folds of education are:
a) Preservation of worthwhile heritage
b) Transmission of worthwhile culture
c) Dissemination of new knowledge
Thus motivating dynamism and stimulating progress
Expectationfrom Education
(with special reference to India)
 Prepare youth to meet the challenges faced by this society
 Education and vocational guidance must become an integral
part of the new system of education
 To meet the challenges of the emerging social order
 Diffusion of scientific and technological knowledge is essential
to bridge the gap between different sectors in daily life
 Integration of Information, Communication and Technology
(ICT) in education help to acquire a job and thereby provide
changes
 Prepare them to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex

11. Conclusion
Education has become one of the influential instruments of social
change in India. It has led to the mobilization of people’s
aspirations for development and change. Thus in modern complex
national societies, education can neither be regarded as a
controlling force conserving cultural heritage, nor could it be
viewed as an agent of social change. It can only be regarded as a
cooperative force in bringing about social changes decided by the
forces possessing more pervasive power in society. Thus the
education system needs a complete overhaul through proper
legislation and its effective implementation. Legislations should
be made taking into account the regional diversities of each state.
The masses should be made aware of the new developments.
Education brings changes to society & social change brings
changes in education. In short, it is a two-way traffic. While
education preserves, transmits an disseminates the whole culture,
social change is the instrument and precondition of educational
thought.

12. References
1) https://www.oiirj.org/ejournal/Jan-Feb-Mar2012IEEJ/38.pdf
2) “Education as an instrument of social change and enhancing
teaching-learning process with the help of technological
development” by Bidisha Chakraborthy
3) https://www.cukashmir.ac.in/docs/SOCIAL%20CHANGE%20
AND%20EDUCATION%20202.pdf
4) http://www.pioneershiksha.com/news/3085-role-of-education-
in-social-
change.html#:~:text=Education%20as%20an%20Instrument%2
0of,and%20knowledge%20of%20the%20children.