Function of schools

At present, school do not only
serve as a teachers, but also as
parents, nannies, police officers,
health workers, spiritual
advisers, election officers,
researchers, economic
producers, and entertainers of
society.

Broad Functions of
Schools
 Intellectual Function
 Political Function
 Economic Function
 Social Function

Functions of Schooling According to
Varied Groups
Society
 Socializes the young to perform needed adult
roles
 Keeps the young occupied
 Delay entry into the job market
 Helps perpetuate society by socializing the
young into particular societal values, and beliefs
 Develops skill needed to live in society such as
reading and writing
 Selects and allocates the young to the needed
roles from professional to laborers
Group Functions of Schooling

Community
 Formalizes socialization experience
,especially in formal learning
 Facilitates peer interaction
 Structures socialization experience
 Helps meet family goals for successful
children
 Gives children more options in the
competitive marketplace
 Produces young people who will fit into
the community

Individual
Student
 Provides an opportunity to get
together with peers and engage
in sports and other activities
 Socializes students into having
acceptable attitude and
behaviors
 Provides skills and knowledge
for them to fit into society’s
competitive bureaucracies

Functions of Schooling at the
Individual Level
School serve the different needs of
varying individuals and diverse
social groups, primarily for
economic progress, career or
professional advancement, and for
achieving aspiration in life.
School is useful for meeting student’s
potential partners.
The main function of school is to ensure
the progressive
development of innate powers of the
child.

Theoretical Views on the Function of Schooling
at the Individual Level
 Interaction Perspective
 Functional Perspective
 Conflict Perspective
 Critical Perspective

Function Of Schooling at the Societal Level
1. Cultural Transmission
As a social institutional, schools take a more
traditional purpose in passing on of culture.
 Interaction Perspective – Interaction view that culture
conformity or defiance is dependent on the meaning constructed
by the students about the elements of their culture.
 Function Perspective- Functionalists argue that the
function of school for cultural transmission is necessary for it
maintains solidarity, integration, and stability of the society.
 Conflict Perspective- Conflict theorists take a critical
view of education by arguing that educational system
teaches and supports the norms, values, and social skills
upheld by the rich and powerful-that schools restrict the
assertion of individualism and creativity as they are inimical
to the maintenance of social order , and that schools play
little role in promoting significant changes in society.

 Critical Perspective- Critical theorists assert that individuals must be
suspicious why such cultural elements are transmitted to individuals
and society.
2. Sorting, Selection, and Allocation
Another function of school is to select and allocate which people
will enter into occupation to be filled in society.
Interactionist Perspective-
Interactionists argue that daily interactions may affect development
of self-concept due to the sorting that persists in school like sectioning, seating
arrangement, and ability grouping.
Functional Perspective- Functionalists agree to the sorting of individuals as
this is important in defining their specific roles in society.
Conflict Perspective- A very criticism of conflict sociologists is centered on
the way schools sort out people.
Correspondence principle (1976)
This means that schools attended by different social classes
promote the values expected of individuals in each class and
perpetuate social class divisions from one generation to the next.

 Critical Perspective- Critical theorists argue that
sorting can be a very dehumanizing mechanism of
schools.
3. Credentialism
Schools supply the needed manpower requirements of
industry and labor. To do this , it provides credentials or
certifications to a number of individuals going to school.
Credentialing is the mechanism to which schools give
credentials (grades) and degrees that determine the job
opportunities available to individuals in society.
 Interactionist Perspective- Interactionist see
degrees as symbol of status and power.
 Functional Perspective- Functionalist suggest
that various reward for different occupation roles is
both functional and necessary for society’s survival.

 Conflict Perspective- Conflict theorist argue that social inequality
characterized primarily by differing access to increased level of schooling
or hours of instruction is strengthened by credentialism.
 Critical Perspective- Critical theorist argue that school credentials
are weapons to gain power and social or economic advantage.
4. Political Integration
Schools promote political integration and develops a sense of
national identify that stabilizes the political system.
 Interactionist Perspective- Interactionists say that democracy or any
political ideology is a social construct and is product of social interaction in
school .
 Functional Perspective- Functionalism contends that education has
positive effects on the attitudes toward the political landscape of a given
country.

 Conflict Perspective- School is an indoctrinating agent of that
state to perpetuate its political ideology.
 Critical Perspective- Critical theorists contend that the commonly
accepted political cliché's, ideology, principles, and philosophies must be
periodically revisited, redefined, evaluated, and reframed since they may
not hold true today or may be irrelevant with the passing of time.
5. Research and Development
Schools are the guardians of the society’s future.
 Interactionist Perspective- Interactionists believe that human
interactions are rich sources of possible subjects and interests for
research and development.
 Functional Perspective- Functionalist paradigm believes that
schools assure that dysfunctional knowledge, attitudes, and skills are
replaced by functional ones.

 Conflict Perspective- Conflict theorists believe that the research
agenda of the rich and elite are being emphasized.
 Critical Perspective- Research, change, and innovation are the
expected functions of schools, yet institutions often resists change, which
affect routine work tasks.
6. Anticipatory Socialization and Training
Schools play a pivotal role in enabling and guiding students
to reach their potentials so that they could occupy whatever social and
occupational roles they aspire in the future.
 Interactionist Perspective- Interactionists believe that everyday
interactions in school (be it or formal) are vital in the training and
development of knowledge, skills, and values of students.
 Functional Perspective- Functionalists contend that students are
taught the tasks essential for maintenance and survival of society through
skills training and knowledge acquisition .

 Conflict Perspective- Conflict theorists like Bowles and
Gintis (1976) opined that schools are training young people
for their future economic and occupational positions
according to their current social class position.
 Critical Perspective- Neo-Marxists like Bourdieu conceived
schooling in modern industrial society as a means of
preparing docile and discipline workers, which
consequently reproduce the prevailing class differences.
7. Custodial Service while Parents Work
Schools serve as “holding areas” and perform physical
custody for the young from early childhood to adolescence, while their
real custodians (parents) go to work.

 Interactionist Perspective- The roles and functions assumed
by schools are the products of how they interpret their presence
and existence in the society .
 Functional Perspective- The role of schools to “baby sit”
children is very functional in society because it gives more
opportunities for women to be in the labor force.
 Conflict Perspective- This paradigm criticizes the school for
having numerous roles and functions for society.
 Critical Perspective- The school entrusted with multifaceted
roles in the society that makes it a overburdened institution.

8. Social Control and Discipline
Schools are not only confined to imparting
knowledge and skills (literacy, numeracy, arts, life skills, and
community roles), but also go beyond the performance of these
tasks.
Social control refers to the set of rules that are dispensed for
individuals who act contrary to the standards of proper conduct.
Discipline means that teachers have to exercise their authority in the
best interest of the students, emphasizing the development of self-
discipline, independence, and maturity.

 Interactionist Perspective- Schools reinforce discipline
and social control through rituals, such as checking of
attendance.”NO I.D.NO entry policy, "strict implementation
of uniform, and disciplinary actions.
 Functional Perspective- Schools prepare students for
their future involvement as adult in the labor force by
equipping them with essential knowledge, skills, and values
necessary to become productive, responsible, and successful
workers.
 Conflict Perspective- Conflict theory posits that the need
for control and discipline can take precedence over the
learning process.
 Critical Perspective- Social control is often the
controversial function of schools. Critical theory asserts that
school’s control is too rigid it becomes a vehicle for
oppression, injustice, and inequality.

Manifest and Latent Functions of Schools
Examples of Manifest Functions of Schools
 Instruction and Training
Development of critical and creative thinking and
tasks essential for maintenance of society;
 Sorting
Grouping students based on talents and abilities
 Socialization
Teaching the duties of citizenship, patriotism, and
nationalism

 Social Integration
Love for humanity, inculcate dominant values, and
shape societal thinking;
 Transmission of Culture
Teaching vales and ideologies from generation to
generation; and
 Research and Development
Generation of knowledge, innovation, invention,
and change.

Example of Latent Functions of Schools
• Developing youth culture that conflicts with parents
• Obtaining potential mates- “marriage market”
• Custodial or care-giving service while parents work
• Challenging authority
• Restricting job competition by keeping young people temporary
out of the labor force.

• The church-like function of the school is observed when
emphasis is made on praying the rosary, holding masses every
first Friday and during holidays of obligation;
• What is family-like in school is when the school conduct
family gathering or family day that enhances family cohesion
and nourishment of family life;
• What regard school as a factory is emphasis on production or
business activities, such as producing goods or products by
the school;

• The school is likened to a prison is when there is emphasis on production
or business activities, such as producing goods or products by the school;
• What makes the school as a charitable institution is when it provides
outreach programs such as gathering relief goods for distribution to
victims of calamities or during Christmas season, and livelihood and
literacy programs given for free to its service area or adopted barangays;
• What is media-like in school is reflected in its school advertisements,
notice, greetings in both radio and television programs that promote not
only its educational offerings, but also its ideological, political, and
religious orientations.

Function of schools

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