Education and Social Mobility

Education and social mobility are closely related. Education is capable to promote the growth and remove the backwardness of a country. The more useful and productive is the education, the more is the social mobility. Education tries to develop ability and capacity in individuals to gain higher status, positions or prestige and promotes effective social mobility. It is a purpose of education to develop within an individual such motivation as will make him to work hard for the improvement of his social position. A strongly motivated individual will be willing to sacrifice his immediate comforts and pleasure for a better future. A poor student may work hard to receive higher education in order to have upward social mobility. Here light is thrown on the mobility of students and teacher:

Social Mobility of Students

Educational helps in gaining higher social status and position in society. So students try their best to receive more and more education to achieve higher and higher social status or social mobility. In the social mobility of student’s elements like amount of education, content of education, research degree and importance of college and university are of much importance: Amount of education: Education of different levels is imparted by schools, colleges and universities. Person gains social status and prestige in accordance with level of education received by him.

Educational Curriculum

Social mobility is significantly influenced by educational curriculum. It should be noted that different subjects have different value. Scientific subjects like engineering, medicine and technology are rated higher in comparison with humanities. It is due to the fact that persons having knowledge of science get higher social status and social prestige. Hence educational curriculum and social mobility are closely related.

Academic Achievement

The higher the academic achievement, the greater is the social mobility. Some students achieve higher social status and prestige by research work in specialized areas. Importance of college and University: Students of colleges and universities having a higher recognition and greater academic rating among institutions of higher education get higher jobs in comparison to those receiving education from lesser recognized college and university.

Research Degrees

Some students achieve higher social status by their academic and research work in various field of discipline. As for example person having degree from IIT gets better job in the society as compared to the person having degree in general discipline.

Social Mobility of Teachers

Many teachers make efforts to gain social prestige and status in their professional associations which are composed of teachers, lecturers, readers, principals, chairmen, deans, registrars and vice-chancellors. Social status or prestige is promoted from promotion of one position to a higher one. Promotion from one position to another position of higher social status promotes prestige in the society. As compared to the ancient times the position of the teachers has declined due to various reasons.

Thus, we see that education and social mobility are interrelated. Education promotes the growth and removes the backwardness of person and the country. The place where social mobility is less that place hardly develops at speeding pace. Place with higher social mobility develops at faster speed. The more useful and productive is the education in such countries, the more will be the social mobility. The more will be the social mobility the more developed country that will be. In the developed and developing countries only the capable children go up where as the incapable either retard or go down.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *