Society & culture.pptx Education, foundation

7.1 Universalization of Primary Education
Definition and Importance
Universalization of primary education refers to ensuring that all children, regardless of their socio-economic background, geographical location, gender, or any other differentiating factor, have access to free, compulsory, and quality primary education. This concept is foundational to the development of equitable societies and is seen as a fundamental human right. Universal primary education is also a critical factor in achieving sustainable development, as educated individuals are better equipped to contribute to economic growth, social progress, and the overall well-being of their communities.
Historical Context:
The push for universal primary education gained significant momentum in the latter half of the 20th century. Key milestones include:
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): Article 26 states that everyone has the right to education, and that elementary education shall be free and compulsory.
2. World Conference on Education for All (1990): Held in Jomtien, Thailand, this conference led to the formulation of the Education for All (EFA) goals, emphasizing universal access to education.
3. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000): Goal 2 focused on achieving universal primary education by 2015.
4. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2015): Goal 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, with a target to ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education by 2030.



Key Components
The universalization of primary education involves several key components:
1. Access: Ensuring all children can attend school. This involves addressing barriers such as distance, economic constraints, social norms, and physical disabilities.
2. Equity: Providing equal educational opportunities to all children, irrespective of their backgrounds. This involves affirmative actions to support disadvantaged groups.
3. Quality: Ensuring that education is of high quality, with trained teachers, adequate infrastructure, relevant curriculum, and sufficient learning materials.
4. Retention and Completion: Ensuring that children not only enroll in primary education but also complete it. This involves addressing dropout rates and ensuring a supportive learning environment.
5. Inclusive Education: Adapting education systems to cater to the needs of all learners, including those with disabilities, from minority groups, or those in conflict-affected areas.
Challenges:
Despite significant progress, several challenges remain:
1. Funding: Many countries struggle to allocate sufficient funds for universal primary education. Inadequate financing leads to poor infrastructure, lack of learning materials, and underpaid teachers.
2. Quality of Education: In many regions, the focus has been on enrollment rates rather than the quality of education. This leads to situations where children atte

1. Society & Culture Society refers to a group of people living together in a community with common traditions, interests and institutions. Culture refers to the norms and social behavior found in a society such as customs, habits, beliefs, and laws. 

2. Society  and  culture  are closely related. Culture considers various aspects of society like language, technology, and norms, whereas society involves people who share a common culture. It is through culture that people understand themselves and relate to societal norms. Therefore, these terms are entirely different but associated. Sociologists use these terms to explain some concepts in social life.

3. Society  is nothing but an organised group of people who live together and are connected with one another. It is not exactly same as  culture , which can be understood as the way of living of people living in a particular place or region. Every society has its culture, but they are not the same thing. Although, they cannot exist without each other. The relationship between the culture and society are interrelated to each other, like fish and water. Same as the concept of the culture and society.

4. The term society can also have a geographic meaning and refer to people who share a common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in arctic climates developed different cultures from those living in desert cultures. In time, a large variety of human cultures arose around the world. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture.

5. Education & Social Change Social change may take place when human needs change, when the existing social system or network of social institutions fails to meet the existing human needs and new materials suggest better ways of meeting human needs. Social changes do not take place automatically or by themselves. As MacIver says, social change take place as a response to many types of changes that take place in the social and nonsocial environment. Education can initiate social changes by bringing about a change in outlook and attitude of man. It can bring about a change in the pattern of social relationships and institutions and thereby it may cause social change. There was a time when educational institutions and teachers were engaged in transmitting a way of life to the students. During those days, education was more a means of social control than an instrument of social change.

6. Education today has been chiefly instrumental in preparing the way for the development of science and technology Thus, education has brought about phenomenal changes in every aspect of man’s life. Francis Brown remarks that education is a process which brings about changes in the behaviour of society. It is a process which enables every individual to participate effectively in the activities of society, and to make positive contribution to the progress of society.