SOCIAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
The political system always dominates the entire social scene; and hence those who wield political power are generally able to control all the different social sub-system and manipulate them to their own advantage. The social groups in power, therefore, have always manipulated the education system, especially when these happen to depend upon the state for their very existence, to strengthen and perpetuate their own privileged position. But herein lies a contradiction. For the very realization of their selfish ends, the social groups in power are compelled to extend the benefits of these educational systems to the underprivileged groups also. The inevitable task is generally performed with three precautions abundantly taken care of:
1. the privileged groups continue to be the principal beneficiaries of the educational system, dominate the higher stages of education or the hard core of prestigious and quality institutions or the most useful of courses, so as to safeguard their dominant position of leadership in all walks life:
2. the system is so operated that underprivileged groups can utilize it only marginally in real terms and the bulk of them become either drop-outs or pushouts and get reconciled to their own inferior status in society: and
3 the few from the weaker sections that survive and succeed in spite of all the handicaps are generally co-opted within the system to prevent dissatisfaction.
But education is essentially a liberating force so that, as time passes, some underprivileged groups do manage to become aware of the reality: the number of the educated person soon become too large to be fully co-opted, and many able individuals among them strive to organize and liberate the weak and the underprivileged. The resultant awareness of the people, combined with suitable organization, necessarily leads to adjustment in the social structure and to an increase in vertical mobility so that new groups begin to share power. Eventually, other social changes also follow and the traditional, inegalitarian, and hierarchical social structure tends to be replaces by another which is more modem, less hierarchical and more egalitarian. The education system, therefore, is never politically neutral, and it always performs three functions simultaneously, viz, it helps the privileged to dominate, domesticates the underprivileged to their own status in society, and also tends to liberate the oppressed. Which of these functions shall dominate and to what extent depends mostly on one crucial factor, viz, the quality and quantity of the political education which the system provides or upon its “political content”?
The development in Indian society, polity and education during the past 175 years should be viewed against the background of this broad philosophy. From very ancient times, the Indian society has always been elitist and power, wealth and education were mostly confined to the upper castes of the society. What is important very reason, it is extremely resistant to any radical transformation. The social system continued to exist almost unchanged till the British administrator began to lay the foundation of the modern system of education.
