Education Policy and Sociology

Choose the best completion of the following paragraph. Parochial education serves the dual functions of education and religious instruction, and church leaders are justifiably concerned to impart important religious values regarding relationships between the sexes. Thus, when the administrators of a parochial school system segregate boys and girls in separate institutions, they believe they are helping to keep the children pure by removing them from a source of temptation. If the administrators realized, however, that children would be more likely to develop the very attitudes they seek to engender in the company of the opposite sex, they would __________.

What is the main idea of the passage?

Directions: Read the passage to answer the question given below.

Educational planning should aim at meeting the educational needs of the entire population of all age groups. While the traditional structure of education as three layer hierarchy from the primary stage to the university represents the core, we should not overlook the periphery which is equally important. Under modern conditions, workers need to rewind, or renew their enthusiasm, or strike out in a new direction or improve their skills as much as any university professor. The retired and the aged have their needs as well. Educational planning, in their words, should take care of the needs of everyone.
            Our structures of education have been built up on the assumption that there is a terminal point to education. This basic defect has become all the more harmful today. A UNESCO report entitled ‘Learning to Be’ prepared by Edgar Faure & others in 1973 asserts that the education of children must prepare the future adult for various forms of self learning. A viable education system of the future should consist of modules with different kinds of functions serving a diversity of constituents. The performance, not the period of study, should be the basis for credentials. The writing is already on the wall.
            In view of the fact that the significance of a commitment of lifelong learning & lifetime education is being discussed only in recent years even in educationally advanced countries, the possibility of the idea becoming an integral part of educational thinking seems to be a far cry. For to move in that direction means more than some simple rearrangement of the present organization of education. But a good beginning can be made by developing open university programmes for older learners of different categories & introducing extension services in the conventional colleges & schools. Also these institutions should learn to cooperate with numerous community organizations such as libraries, museums, recreational programmes, health services, etc.

Which of the following best describes the purpose of the author?

Directions: Read the passage to answer the question given below.

Educational planning should aim at meeting the educational needs of the entire population of all age groups. While the traditional structure of education as three layer hierarchy from the primary stage to the university represents the core, we should not overlook the periphery which is equally important. Under modern conditions, workers need to rewind, or renew their enthusiasm, or strike out in a new direction or improve their skills as much as any university professor. The retired and the aged have their needs as well. Educational planning, in their words, should take care of the needs of everyone.
            Our structures of education have been built up on the assumption that there is a terminal point to education. This basic defect has become all the more harmful today. A UNESCO report entitled ‘Learning to Be’ prepared by Edgar Faure & others in 1973 asserts that the education of children must prepare the future adult for various forms of self learning. A viable education system of the future should consist of modules with different kinds of functions serving a diversity of constituents. The performance, not the period of study, should be the basis for credentials. The writing is already on the wall.
            In view of the fact that the significance of a commitment of lifelong learning & lifetime education is being discussed only in recent years even in educationally advanced countries, the possibility of the idea becoming an integral part of educational thinking seems to be a far cry. For to move in that direction means more than some simple rearrangement of the present organization of education. But a good beginning can be made by developing open university programmes for older learners of different categories & introducing extension services in the conventional colleges & schools. Also these institutions should learn to cooperate with numerous community organizations such as libraries, museums, recreational programmes, health services, etc.

According to the passage, the present educational structures assume which of the following?

Directions: Read the passage to answer the question given below.

Educational planning should aim at meeting the educational needs of the entire population of all age groups. While the traditional structure of education as three layer hierarchy from the primary stage to the university represents the core, we should not overlook the periphery which is equally important. Under modern conditions, workers need to rewind, or renew their enthusiasm, or strike out in a new direction or improve their skills as much as any university professor. The retired and the aged have their needs as well. Educational planning, in their words, should take care of the needs of everyone.
            Our structures of education have been built up on the assumption that there is a terminal point to education. This basic defect has become all the more harmful today. A UNESCO report entitled ‘Learning to Be’ prepared by Edgar Faure & others in 1973 asserts that the education of children must prepare the future adult for various forms of self learning. A viable education system of the future should consist of modules with different kinds of functions serving a diversity of constituents. The performance, not the period of study, should be the basis for credentials. The writing is already on the wall.
            In view of the fact that the significance of a commitment of lifelong learning & lifetime education is being discussed only in recent years even in educationally advanced countries, the possibility of the idea becoming an integral part of educational thinking seems to be a far cry. For to move in that direction means more than some simple rearrangement of the present organization of education. But a good beginning can be made by developing open university programmes for older learners of different categories & introducing extension services in the conventional colleges & schools. Also these institutions should learn to cooperate with numerous community organizations such as libraries, museums, recreational programmes, health services, etc.

What should be the ultimate objective(s) of political education?

Directions: Read the passage to answer the question given below.

Political education may be defined as the preparation of a citizen to take well informed, responsible and sustained action for participation in the national struggle for the realisation of the socio-economic objectives of the country. The overriding socio-economic objectives in India are the abolition of poverty and the creation of a modern democratic, secular and socialist society in place of the present traditional, feudal, hierarchical and inegalitarian one.

Under the British rule, the congress leaders argued that political education was an important part of education and refused to accept the official view that education and politics should not be mixed with one another. But when they came to power in 1947 they almost adopted the British policy and began to talk of education being defiled by politics. ‘Hands off education‘ was the call to political parties of that time. But in spite of it, political infiltration into the educational system has greatly increased in the sense that different parties vie with each other to capture the minds of teachers and students. The wise academicians wanted political support, without political interference. What we have actually received is infinite political interference. This interference with the educational system by political parties for their own ulterior motives is no political education at all; and with the all round growth of elitism, it is hardly surprising that real political education within the school system (which really means the creation of a commitment to social transformation) has been even weaker than in the pre-independence period.

At the same time, the freedom struggle came to an end and the major non-formal agency of political education disappeared. The press could and did provide some political education. But it did not utilise the opportunity to the fullest and the stranglehold of vested interests continued to dominate it. The same can be said about political parties as well as about other institutions and agencies outside the school system which can be expected to provide political education. All things considered, it appears that we have made no genuine progress in political education in the post independence period and even slid back in some respects. For instance, the education system has become even more elite-oriented. Patriotism has become the first casualty. Gandhiji gave us the courage to oppose the government when it was wrong, in a disciplined fashion and on basic principles. He believed the means to be as important as the ends and taught us to work among the poor people for mobilising and organising them. Today we have even lost the courage to fight on basic issues in a disciplined manner because agitation and anarchic politics for individual, group or party aggrandisement has become common. The education system of today continues to support domination of the privileged groups and domestication of the underprivileged ones. The situation will not change unless we take vigorous steps to provide genuine political education on an adequate scale. This is one of the major educational reforms we need; and if it is not carried out, mere linear expansion of the existing system of normal education will only support the status quo and hamper radical social transformation.