Functions of school, Manifest

and Latent function

 What are the function of school?

• McNergney and Herbert (2001) describe the school as, first

and foremost a social institution, that is, an established
organization having an identifiable structure and a set of
functions meant to preserve and extend social order.
• The school is a place for for the contemplation of reality, and
our task as teachers, in simplest terms, is to show this reality
to our students, who are naturally eager about them.
 At home In school
We teach reality to We teach reality in a
children in a professional, formal,
profoundly personal, and structured way.
informal, and
unstructured way.
 Purpose of schooling
• Intellectual purposes of schooling include the
following:
Basic cognitive skills such as reading writing, and
mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge.
• Political purposes of schooling are to inculcate
allegiance to the existing political order (patriotism); to
prepare citizens who will participate in the political
order.
• Social purposes schooling are to socialize
children into the various roles, behaviours,
and values of the society.
• Economic purposes of schooling are to
prepare students for their later occupational
roles and to select, train, and allocate
individuals into the division of labor.
 In a paper “Multiplicity of school
functions in the new century”
presented at the conference jointly
organized by Educational Research in
Association Singapore and Australian
Association for Research in Education.
By Yin Cheong Cheng (1996)
•Technical/economic functions. At
the individual level, schools can help
students to acquire knowledge and skills
to survive and complete in a modern
society or a competitive economy, and
provide staff job training and
opportunity.
•Human/social functions. They refer to
the contribution of schools to human
development and social relationships at
different levels of the society. Help students
to develop themselves psychologically,
socially, and physically, and help them
develop their potential as fully as possible.
• Political functions. They refers to the contribution of
schools to the political development at different levels
of society. At the individual level, school help students
to develop positive civic attitudes and skills to exercise
the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
• Cultural functions. Schools help students to develop
their creativity and aesthetic awareness and to be
socialized with the successful norms, values, and belief
of society.
• Education functions. Education is often
perceived as only a means for achieving the
economics, social, political, and cultural values
and goals. Education represents learning and
development. At the individual level, it is
important for schools to help students to
learn how to learn and help teachers to learn
how to teach.
 Manifest Function of education

Defined as the open and intended

goals or consequences of activities
within an organization or institution.
(Javier et al, 2002)
 Social control
• Schools are responsible for teaching
values such as discipline, respect,
obedience, punctuality, and
perseverance.
 Socialization
• From kindergarten through college, schools teach
student role, specific academic subjects, and political
socialization. In primary and secondary schools,
students are taught specific subject matter appropriate to
their age, skill level, and previous education experience.
At college level, students focus on more detailed
knowledge of subjects that they have previously studied
while also being exposed to new areas of study and
research.
• Social placement. Schools are responsible for
identifying the most qualified people to fill
available positions in society.
•Transmitting culture. Through
schooling, each generation of young
people is exposed to the existing beliefs,
norms, and values of our culture.
• Promoting social and political integration.
Education serves the latent function of promoting
political and social integration by transforming its
population composed of diverse ethnic and religious
groups into a society whose members share – to some
extent at least – a common identify.
• Agent of change. It promotes social change by
serving as meeting ground where each society’s
distinctive beliefs and traditions can be shared.
 Latent Functions of education

The hidden unstated, and sometimes

unintended consequences of activities
within an organization or institution.
These latent functions are:
 Restricting some activities
In our society there are laws that require children
attend school or complete a primary and secondary
education. Out of these laws grew one latent
function of education which is to keep students off
the street and out of the full-time job market for a
number of years, by helping keep unemployment
within reasonable bounds.
 Matchmaking and production of social
networks.
Because school brings together people of
similar ages, social class, and race, young
people often meet future marriage partners
and develop social networks that may last
for many years.
 Creation of generation gap
Students may learn information
in school that contradicts beliefs
held by their parents or their
religion.
Function of schools as stated by
Calderon (1998) are as follows:
 Conservation function
The school conserves and preserves through
its libraries and other devices recorded
accumulated experiences of the past generations
such as knowledge, inventions, mathematics,
science, historical facts, skills, customs,
traditions, language, literature, music, writing,
and the arts.
 Instructional function
The main concern of the school, is to pass on
the accumulated experiences of the past
generations to the incoming generations. This is
performed by individuals trained for the purpose
called teachers, mentors, instructors, or
professors.
 Research function
This is also an important function of the
school. The school conducts research to
improve the old ways of doing things or to
discover hitherto unknown facts or systems
to improve the quality of human life.
 Social service function
One justification for a particular
school to exist is to render some kind
of social service in the place where it is
located. Schools can play a pivotal role
within a sustainable community.
 By educating young people in a way that
empowers them to play active roles in their
local communities to be able to make
informed choices and to critically evaluate
what they see and hear, they gain a sense
of responsibility for the sustainability of
their communities. This will be essential
for the future.
 3. Religion
It is a system of beliefs and rituals
that serves to bind people together
through shared worship, thereby
creating a social group.