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In this article we will discuss about the role of educational agencies in the development of society.
The primary function of the school is to help a child unfold his personality and develop good habits, and to initiate him into the life of the larger community. In every society, therefore, a child is first initiated into what is simplest and best in the tradition of his community. With this end in view, Aristotle emphasised the use of music and fairy tales as media of instruction in early education of a child.
Good music, according to him, mirrors, in itself, the goodness of the world. This is what links the hearers of music to contemplation of the world’s purpose. Of all the fine arts, music is the most effective in producing a clear image of virtue. In modern times music is used as a medium of instruction in kindergarten and nursery schools.
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Other very effective media of instruction in early education of a child are rhymes, poetry and fairy tales. “A fine thought or a deep experience enshrined in a beautiful story, or embodied in an immortal phrase, sinks readily into the heart, lingers long in the memory, is stored up as a joy forever, and becomes an inspiration throughout the whole of life”.
Seen in this light, music, poetry, and fairy tales prepare the ground for the enforcement of laws. Laws give definiteness and permanence to the best traditions of a people. But their efficacy depends upon the extent to which the traditions of the community are engraven on the souls and minds of the people.
Among the subjects of study in the early education of the child, the most important one is the study of language of his people “in which the knowledge, the insight, the purposes and ideals—unhappily also the prejudices and the limitations of the community are largely embodied”. There is, at the same time, the study of nature; that is, the relations of the child to his actual surroundings.
Tagore emphasised such a study because it was, according to him, one of the most effective and fascinating methods of opening up the mind. “It begins as observation, but soon involves reflection; and it leads on easily to the study of human life in its more obvious features”.
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When a child grows old enough to develop analytical thinking, he is initiated into the subtleties of grammar, arithmetic, geometry, and eventually into the simpler conceptions of morals and some insight into the religious ideas by which men have sought to interpret the universe and their relation to it, as well as the ultimate questions of life and death.
The most important function of schools is therefore to socialize the new generations, to indoctrinate them with the values and ideals, traditions and thoughts of the community. But this process of socialization does not follow a uniform pattern. It assumes different forms in different societies.
Thus, in ancient India, formal instruction was provided by the Brahmins “who were the repositories of learning and the directors of Hindu life”.
According to ancient Indian tradition, a child should commence his studies at the age of five by learning the alphabets. The emphasis of this educational system was on life than on learning or instruction. After his initiation, a student had to undergo a two-fold course of discipline, physical and spiritual.
The tols, vidyalayas, and chatuspathis served as agencies for the transmission of religious and cultural traditions to succeeding generations. In almost all societies, the early education of a child followed roughly the same pattern, with this difference that “the predominance of religious education was greater in India than in Western or Islamic societies, or in China”.
So far we have considered education as a specialised social activity. In the simplest societies, however, education was not organised as a separate activity. It was provided by the family and other primary groups, and, broadly, by the society as a whole through participation in the “everyday routines of living”.
The school prepares the child for the general duties of good citizenship. Hence, the type of education is more or less, common for all citizens of the age-group ranging between, five and, say, eighteen.
Those who are intellectually or mentally competent enough to follow up this basic education and pursue courses leading to advancement of knowledge, the application of knowledge to actual problems, such as law, medicine, engineering, etc. would need the type of training that is provided in colleges and universities.
A college seeks to make accessible to students all the knowledge and skill that is available in particular departments, and to prepare the way for further advance. The chief function of a college is to provide a form of liberal education of a higher kind than that given in schools.
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Though collegiate studies are somewhat more specialised than is commonly the case in schools, but still these studies are designed to promote general cultivation rather than specialised knowledge and skill.
In a university, on the other hand, the studies are definitely specialised, and are designed to qualify the students for some specific work for which the students have expressed their preference. The universities also aim at the promotion of research in particular departments.
Besides colleges and universities, there are technical institutions which offer special training of a more technical kind, preparing a student for a particular function for which he is found to be fitted by natural ability and circumstances.
In ancient societies, before the rise of modern science and industry, technical skills were imparted chiefly through the family and the occupational group in informal and practical ways. There was then no special institution, as is the case at present, to offer such training.
For example, a child born in the family of a carpenter or a blacksmith used to learn the skills of the trade informally from the members of his family. This is till the case with a vast majority of technical hands in our country, particularly in rural areas.