ABSTRACT
Educational qualifications have become increasingly important for occupational advancement. A major function of the educational system is to contribute to the socialization process by the transmission of the culture of a society. Educational achievement is influenced too by the way in which the school is organized and the techniques of teaching adopted. Specialized knowledge, it was argued, would be learnt on the job, not in the educational institutions. The educational system of the nineteenth century then was closely related to the class-structure, both by the source from which the various types of schools drew their pupils and by the curriculum. The present pressure towards a comprehensive ‘contest’ system of education is a further example of change in the educational system in response to forces largely external to the system, and to some extent resisted by parts of the educational system.
