SOCIAL EDUCATION
After independence from British rule, India adopted a policy of planned development whereby Five Year Plans were developed; the government assessed progress made in the previous plan, current needs and requirements for funds, set priorities and targets in different areas and funded developmental programmes. The treatment that adult education got in different Five Year Plans varied from plan to plan. The First and Second Five Year Plans emphasised provision of elementary education with the belief that universalization of elementary education would inevitably reduce the need for adult literacy programme. Nevertheless, adult education was embarked on in a very limited way. As emphasis was laid on Social Education in the first two Five Year Plans, this decade can be viewed as the Era of Social Education.
The methodological approach is action research and emphasizes practitioner research and dialogue-based action research. The development activities that were carried out were organized around collaboration between the teacher education institution and schools on a 30-credit school-based continuing and further education program for mentor teachers. The results provide examples of how educational institutions, and the field of practice can jointly plan and implement education that focuses on developing teachers' professional competence through experiential, participatory learning and research. A main principle is that the parties must collaborate to anchor the educational content in ongoing practical experience with professional tasks as a teacher or mentor. The collaboration must also involve the creation of opportunities for teachers and student teachers to develop professional competence by learning to conduct research in their own teaching practice, and to contribute to the development of the school as a learning, participatory organization. The findings also indicate that the development of teacher educators' competence and organizational learning within teacher education institutions is crucial for achieving profession-relevant teacher education.
MY COMMUNITY
This module promotes a sense of place and encourages students to examine different aspects of their own community. Primary research skills are developed and applied to investigating and reporting the landscape, history, amenities, resources and other features of the local community.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES 1
This module aims to develop students’ understanding of contemporary social, political, economic and cultural issues. A number of contemporary issues are investigated and the forces and interests involved in each issue are identified. Human Rights education is central to this module and students are encouraged to view issues from a human rights perspective.
SOCIAL AND HEALTH
This module aims to develop and extend the interpersonal and intrapersonal awareness and coping skills already introduced in Social and Health Education. The module focuses particularly on responsibilities in relation to parenting and support agencies that help people confronted with particular problems.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES 2
This module examines the influence of both the media and interest groups/lobby groups/pressure groups on contemporary issues. The students are also encouraged to become active citizens and contemporary issues relating to civil rights and responsibilities, the franchise and the national budget are also explored
Key Components and Goals
1.Understanding Society: It includes studying subjects such as history, geography, civics, and economics to understand how society works and its contemporary issues.
2.Social Skills & Values: Social education focuses on developing skills and values for effective interaction with others, promoting a respect for diverse perspectives and empathy.
3.Civic Responsibility: It aims to cultivate critical thinking, civic engagement, and a sense of responsibility towards the common good.
4.Integration and Development: A core aim is to successfully integrate individuals into society and promote positive social change within communities.
The personal and social development of the students is the primary focus of this course. It provides opportunities for the students to examine and explore issues and topics related to self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, health care and contemporary social, economic, political and cultural issues. It also aims to prepare students for the transition from dependent to independent living.
As of September 2025, students entering year one of the LCA programme will be required to study the new Senior Cycle Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum specification.
Social Studies courses need to become more global in their focus so that students are prepared to take their place in the global community when they get older. There is no point memorising the names of kings, queens and presidents from a particular country when the issues that our young people will be engaged in are international environmental concerns, global injustice and poverty, and the ever-increasing interconnectedness of our ideas, economies and technologies.
In an ideal world, students would also be able to engage in service work on a more global scale; however, I believe that the suggestion to ‘think globally and act locally’ still makes more sense when it comes to service projects. Involvement in a local service project while understanding how global forces impact the issue at hand seems to be the best approach to ensure that our students are both global citizens and valuable members of their local communities.
At international schools like Stonehill International School, our genuine commitment to the IB programmes helps us prepare our students to be members of a global society. With a strong service ethos in the local community, a wide variety of social studies courses that delve into various global issues, an evident focus on literacy and language development, and an integrated digital citizenship curriculum for all students, we are confident that our students are receiving a genuine 21st century ‘social education’.
Main areas to help students build a healthy, balanced life, including:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social awareness
- Emotional health
- Child protection
- Sex education
- Career planning
Integration of social education with the community development programme
In 1952, a full-fledged Ministry of Community Development and Co-operation was created. Social education was then integrated with the community development programme. This was done with the belief that such integration will make the social education programme more effective.
The Community Development Programme was conceived as a centre based programme at block level supervised by a Block Development Officer. A number of blocks constituted a project. The social education programme at the block level was supervised by Chief Social Education Officer. Programme of social education in the blocks included formation of -Community centres Youth clubs Mahila Mandals Adult literacy centres
Farmers groups Recreation centres and Training of gram sahayaks
The course content of social education programme under community development was the same as the earlier one. The duration of the programme was now increased to 10 months. The entire activity was divided into two stages of five months each. The main course was completed in the first five months. Follow up activities were taken up in the second stage.
Achievements of the programme
The era of social education not only helped in drawing attention of people towards the importance of improving literacy amongst adults, it facilitated adult literacy amongst the non-literates. Some of the achievements of the programme are given below.
i) 75 lakh illiterate became literate (35 lakh in the First Five Year Plan and 40 lakh in the Second Five Year Plan).
ii)53000 community centres, 454 school-cum-community centres, 55000 youth clubs,
iii)100 libraries and 5 Social Education organisers’ training centres were established during the First Five Year Plan.
Administrative infrastructure was strengthened.
[a] Training facilities were augmented.
[b] Library system was expanded.
[c]Production of audio-visual programmes was increased.
The Social Education programme was well-conceived under the leadership of Maulana Azad. Well-known educationists like Mohan Singh Mehta, Sohan Singh, A. R. Deshpande, M. C. Nanavathy, B. N. Jha, T.A. Koshy were associated with it. Support was given by the UNESCO and Ford Foundation. Despite this, the programme did not penetrate deep into the rural areas and make the expected impact. It was calculated that the benefits of social education programme was actually derived by 0.3% of the population (need reference). The Social Education officers, who were crucial to the programme, were overloaded with multifarious responsibilities and limited support in terms expert guidance, suitable literature and adequate research.
Social education has been defined by UNESCO as, “The only means to elevate mankind emotionally, intellectually, morally and materially", while the ministry of education in India included phrases like ‘functional literacy’, ‘moral life’, ‘community development’ and ‘desirable social change’ in its 1963 definition. It seems there is a broad agreement about the kinds of aspirational goals we would like ‘social education’ to achieve, but how to do it is obviously more challenging.
Schools usually address ‘social education’ through three main avenues. To begin with, one of the fundamental building blocks of social education must be ‘literacy’. Societies function through effective communication, and without literacy (and to a lesser extent strong numeracy), it is difficult to imagine a community or society enjoying any cohesion or success. This is why you will always see the community’s main language as the most important course in any student’s report card, and why language competence will often be one of the key requirements in admissions tests for schools and universities.
Social education is an intentional educational process that seeks to promote the integration, participation and development of people in their social context. It is not limited to the classroom or formal programs; it goes beyond, intervening in situations of social vulnerability to generate opportunities and build more inclusive communities.
- Formal education: occurs in academic institutions.
- Non-formal education: community programs or workshops.
- Informal education: learning that happens on a day-to-day basis.
- Social education pursues ambitious, but fully achievable goals when implemented correctly:
- Key objectives of social education
- Integrating at-risk groups: Working directly with people in social exclusion.
- Promoting autonomy: Helping individuals to become self-sufficient.
- Encouraging coexistence: Generating positive relationships between diverse communities.
- Creating educational opportunities: Providing access to training beyond school.
Conclusion
This module has introduced the Era of Social Education and listed objectives of the Social Education Programme. The Centrally Funded Scheme for Adult Education laid great emphasis on the social aspect of adult literacy. The scheme engaged with the adult learners as citizens who should be made aware of their democratic rights and responsibilities; as people in the community who should live harmoniously with each other; and as individuals who have to master the tools of learning, viz., reading, writing and arithmetic. They should live healthy and hygienic lives, have sound moral values and develop hobbies, appreciate cultural activities such as dance, music, poetry, folklore and various other ways of self-expression. The module has described a variety of operational strategies adopted by different states.
Integration of Social Education with the Community Development Programme in the First Five Year Plan brought about changes in its implementation and linkages with grassroots groups.
This period also saw establishment of some very important institutions. Government’s played an important role in encouraging adult education by providing central assistance to voluntary organisations to publish and produce material for adults and encourage workers’ education. International support was garnered.
No comments:
Post a Comment