Abstract
M.Ed.
However much ideologically diffuse argument there may be about
the purposes of education, few would deny that it plays an
integral part in the political and economical processes of
societies. For the realities of power and the organisation of
socio-economic structure are perhaps nowhere more clearly
revealed than in a country's educational institutions.
Education can maintain the existing social order as well as
promote varying kinds of change (Toffler, 1971). Social
scientists accept that "education is perhaps the most directly
effective socialising activity serving the interests of dominant
establishments" (Schlemmer, 1986: 1). Its curricula is a means
of inculcating the political values as well as the skills
required in the system of control and production in society
(Wellington, 1987: 6).
Education takes place relatively unobtrusively in homogenous
societies but in deeply divided societies, it can become the
focus of intense and often violent conflict. "In South Africa
education is failing badly in what modern education is supposed
to do draw different groups or classes together (Schlemmer,
1986: Preface). Hanf (1980), in addition, argues that education
can do little to solve conflict in divided societies. He
stresses that the significance of education in some societies
lies in its negative role as a focus of conflict. Access to and
equality of education for different groups has indeed been at
the source of very bitter conflict throughout the world...