LECTURE 9

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND EDUCATION

9.1 INTRODUCTION
It has been suggested that education is the mirror of social realities. That means that if a society
is highly stratified, the same will be reflected in the educational structure. In other words, a
highly stratified educational system is a product of a highly stratified society. In order to explore
these relationships, let us define some of the key concepts that relate to stratification.

9.2 OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lecture, you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of social structure and social stratification.
2. Discuss the nature of classes in Africa
3. Critically examine the nature of social mobility.
4. Discuss the role of education in hindering and fostering social mobility in our society
5. Examine the relationship between education and social stratification in Kenya.

9.3 SOCIAL STRUCTURE

A structure can be seen as an ordered arrangement of various segments or parts that are put
together to form one single whole. A society can be seen as a composition of several groups of
people such as priests, teachers, farmers, students, doctors, lawyers etc all functioning for the
common good of that society. It is these social groups that constitute what sociologists’ term as a
social structure.

9.4 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social stratification refers to the arrangement of the members of a society (priests, teachers,
farmers, traders etc) into categories and groups based on superiority and inferiority in terms of a
specific criterion. The most common criterion used is to judge people in terms of their wealth.
The term stratification is an analogy from geology. In geology strata-plural form is stratum-
refers to the way layers of rock are laid on top of each other. When we refer to society, each
layer can be called a class.

9.5 SOCIAL CLASS

A social class can be defined as a group of people who occupy a specific position in relation to
the means of production whose members enjoy. Social class is influenced by income, wealth,
social prestige and political power.

According to Karl Marx, a social class consists of an aggregate of people who stand in the same
relationship to the means of production for example, land, factories and mines. The most
important criterion for determining search relationship is the issue of ownership and control of
the means of production. A class consists of a group of people who share the same relationship to
the means of production and capacity to engage in political struggle. This is because during the
time of Karl Marx, society was seen as dichotomy whereby the owners of the means of
production were not the ones who provided labour. However, critics of Karl Marx point out that
these days the ownership of industry is widely dispersed among stockholders including the
foreigners. Furthermore, those who run the industries are not the owners but managers who sell
their labour as do ordinary workers.
Another sociologist Max Weber, a German, identify the three elements of social stratification.
And these are:
1. Wealth - which covers income and capital
2. Prestige - refers to the extent to which a person is looked up to or looked down upon,
regarded as the sort of person to be admired or treated with contempt.
3. Power - refers to the extent to which a person can influence or command the actions of
others.

9.6 CLASS IDENTIFICATION

In general, we can say that there are a number of factors which we should take into consideration
when determining the social class of an individual. These are:
1. The amount of money earned and the wealth possessed
2. The type of job and the status that goes with it
3. The degree of influence and power over other people implied in the job
4. Education
5. Style of living
6. Attitudes to life
It is on the basis of these factors that society differentiates between social rules. Some rules and
positions are regarded more highly than others. Those occupations can then be classified in terms
of a hierarchy of classes:
a. Upper, middle and lower classes; or
b. Working, lower-middle, upper middle and upper classes; or
c. Blue and white colar classes (that is, manual and non-manual workers)
Other people distinguish between skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled classes in the blue-collar
classes. One of the distinguishing factors between classes is the inequality. The occupation with
the highest salaries are usually those with the best working conditions, the best chances of
promotion or the greatest opportunity for personal initiative.

In Kenya the gap between the high- and low-income groups is extreme. It is not unusual to find a
top civil servant or company executive earning 30 to 40 times as much as his office messenger.
These inequalities tend to intensify competition for jobs and make educational success a matter
of great concern. This is because educational inequalities are a reflection of social and economic
inequalities between classes.

9.7 SOCIAL MOBILITY

Social mobility is the process whereby individuals can move up or down the social scale. In
cases where individuals move from one class or standing to another-usually from the lower to the
middle or middle to the upper - this movement is known as vertical mobility. Where individuals
move within the same class, such movement is known as horizontal mobility. In cases where
individuals move from a higher class to a lower one, this is known as downward mobility.

In Kenya individuals occupying different statuses, each of which has a number of roles attached
to it which each status occupier must play in the society. These statuses can be a the ascribed or
achieved. An achieved status is one that is occupied by an individual as a result of his personal
efforts in society and the ascribed status is the one held by virtue of birth. Our society combines
both statuses. The achieved status is the most dominant. And this is because a great majority of
our people who now occupy high statuses have come from very poor homes. They have achieved
these high statuses because of their own personal determination for success.

Due to these differences, one finds that our society is becoming increasingly more stratified. We
have now got to a point where one finds that the society is divided into a small class of wealthy
people and a large class of people who are very poor. This means that we are not only faced with
the problem of creating wealth but also the problem of narrowing the gap between those who
possess the wealth and those who do not have it. This situation is reflected in the educational
institutions where there are few high-cost schools for the rich that are well equipped with
facilities and many low-cost schools for the rest of the population that are poorly equipped. A
further concern is that the examination system tends to favour those who attend the high-cost
schools at the expense of the majority who go to the poor low-cost schools. Through this kind of
setup, the educational system perpetuates social inequalities. Kenneth Blakemore and Brian
Cooksey in their book “Sociology of education for Africa” have identified several kinds of
educational inequalities.

1. Not all children have the same chances of going to school. This is termed as unequal
access to schooling.
2. There are wide differences in performance between children. Some dropout before
completing primary school, others have to repeat classes, majority of the candidates fail
in the examinations.
3. Within the educational system, there are different streams which can be followed leading
to a variety of qualifications and possible occupations. These streams maybe officially
equal but are generally considered to be unequal. For example, in Africa, technical
education is generally considered to be inferior to academic education.
4. Schools and colleges which are theoretically equal (following the same syllabus and
leading to the same qualifications) vary widely in status, quality and the market value of
the qualifications obtained. Thus, private schools may be of a higher or lower quality than
the government schools; places in high status schools will be more difficult to obtain than
places in low status schools, and the qualifications earned from the bestknown schools,
colleges and universities may be more marketable than the same qualifications earned
elsewhere.

Let us briefly examine how formal education is related to various social classes.

9.7.1 LOWER CLASS

A lot of children in this group remain there for the rest of their lives, even in cases where
education may be said to be free. In any case even if students do not pay fees, there are other
financial demands by the schools such as those for uniforms, building and activity funds which
place a big burden on their parents. At home these children may find problems getting adequate
food and the environment for study maybe poor due to lack of such facilities as a quiet room for
study, lighting and books.

Secondly, one finds that in such homes, there are few adult models of success attained through
education for the child to emulate.
Thirdly most parents in this group are illiterate. As a result, they do not see the value of
education. They may want to get their children engaged in household duties such as cooking,
looking after cattle, milking, babysitting, etc rather than studying or engaging in other
intellectual activities.

Having said this, we should be aware that these are basically generalizations. on the whole a
great majority of our Kenyan people who are now members of high socioeconomic status came
from poor homes. It is through their own personal efforts that they have managed to get to their
higher socioeconomic status. Factors like personal determination, encouragement in school, the
community's belief in education as the key to success, the organization of the school and the
desire to emulate those personalities in the society who have succeeded because of education
were the forces behind the success of these people.

9.7.2 MIDDLE CLASS

In many societies, this is the social class level that is most highly mobile. This is because it is the
group that uses education as a means of achieving a higher social class standing. Education is
basically a means of occupational preparation.

The parents in this group are people who have attained a substantial level of education and are
aware of the advantages of education. For such parents there is never any question whether or
not the children will be educated but only the question of where and how the education will be
financed. This is because the middle-class parents have the resources to meet the educational
demands of their children.

9.7.3 UPPER CLASS

For these people, education is not seen as a means of social mobility. This is because of the fact
that they are already in the upper class. Education is basically used by them as a means of
solidifying the social class standing. The upper class lays an emphasis on where one has gone to
school rather than how much education one has received. The important function of education is
seen in terms of the broader social preparation that the young person has received in view of the
portion of his social class. Education then prepares the upper-class people through selected
institutions to fit into the upper-class culture.

It is therefore important for the teacher to recognize these differences among families and
understand how they interact with school education. Children from hi socio-economic homes
will obviously come to school with a social orientation different from the ones who come from
lower socio-economic backgrounds.

In general, we can note that the socioeconomic status affects school education in several ways:
The parents from high socioeconomic status homes send their children to school earlier than
those of lower socioeconomic status. Worth noting is that;

1. The provision of books and other educational materials varies from group to group.
2. Those from high-status homes find places in the best schools.
3. Encouragement in schools may be given at different levels.
4. Those from high status, English is their home as well as school language.
 5. Academic and job aspirations are created by middle class children-where by children of
high socioeconomic status aspire to highly-rated professions.

9.8 SUMMARY
We have observed that there are close links between education and social stratification in Kenya.
The nature of these social stratification tends to be reflected in the educational structure. It is
because of such patterns that one finds that there are high cost, middle cost and low-cost schools
in our society. Education in our society is a mirror of those social realities. Attendance at schools
is based on economic status. Those with high income will obviously be able to afford to send
their children to the better equipped high-cost schools whereas those with low income can only
afford the low cost and poorly equipped schools. Such factors keep the poor in a disadvantaged
position. This is due to the fact that because of the links between education and the economy, the
Kenyan society is becoming increasingly stratified.

9.9 ACTIVITIES
1. Pay a visit to two schools, one high cost, and the other a low cost one. What do you
notice about the differences between the schools in terms of;
a. The teachers
b. The students
c. The facilities?
2. Identify and discuss some of the major factors that can contribute to good performance in
examinations in this country.
3 What factors would you take into consideration in determining the social class standing
of an individual? Discuss.