Education aims at realizing various objectives of life. It not only helps the individual to develop his innate potentialities, but also promotes the progress and prosperity of the society. It has to ensure freedom and self-realization of the individual on the one hand and discipline and development of the society on the other.
Education prepares the individual for his life, for better citizenship, and for being a creative person. It also prepares the society for maintaining democracy, socialism, secularism as well as facing the future.
On the whole, education has to perform a large number of functions which may be divided mainly into two categories (i) Conservation and (ii) Progressive, according to their nature.
(i) Conservative Function:
Education and society are closely related and we cannot think of the one without the other. Education is required to preserve a particular society – its culture, value system, language, religion, faiths, beliefs and life-styles. These are transmitted from one generation to another through ages.
Therefore every society has its own pattern of life and mode of living. For example, India’s secular and democratic education ideals and traditions are maintained and fostered by her system. Pakistan’s and Iran’s Muslim philosophy and spirit are perpetuated by their educational process. Similarly, USSR and USA try to promote their socialistic and capitalistic models through their education.
Education is also called a product of the concerned society. Every society has its own life with peculiar features. So education is grown from within as the society grows. Such growth is slow, steady and natural. No specific change is experienced so apparently. But the differences of education from that of other societies become spectacular.
The young generation is initiated to these differences in the family community, school and the state. Thus the ways of life, habits of food and dress, values and customs are all adopted by the succeeding generations as a part of their own life.
(ii) Progressive Function:
Education is not merely conservative nor is it an only product of the society. It is also creative and produces the society as desired. Every modern society is dynamic and fast developing one. In this developmental process, education plays a vital role.
Although political revolutions and external invasion bring about; drastic changes in the society, these changes may not be of permanent nature. But education introduces changes and innovations slowly out steadily. Therefore such changes become lasting and far-reaching.
Education is thus known as a potential instrument of social change. In India, for example, education is required to promote secularism and democracy, but at the same time it has to improve productivity and accelerate the pace of modernization.
Therefore, the new pattern of education has been adopted in which emphasis is laid on Socially Useful Productive Work, Science and Mathematics. Since the country is facing the problem of regionalism, linguism and divisiveness; it has been emphasized to promote national integration and feeling of oneness through education.
Similarly, modern world has been led to believe in universal brotherhood and interdependence of the mankind. Unless education fosters international fellow-felling, understanding and mutual cooperation through its curricular and co-curricular programmes as well as practices, this objective cannot be realized adequately.
Thus, education has to play both the conservative and progressive roles and ensure a balanced development of the country. Schools are not only the replica of the society, they are also the living laboratories where social experiments are made and successful ones are introduced into the society as innovations.
Since the society is not static, but dynamic, the school and all the educational institutions are to be progressive and innovative. Society has to march ahead with new values, with new vision and with new aspirations off life through its education which is effective, relevant and lively.