It is very necessary to have a clear understanding of the meaning of school and schooling in this contemporary world.
The school in the present world order ,should be viewed as the producer and guarantor of accepted economic and social system of the people. In this context ,schooling is the changing of behaviours to suit acceptable social ,political and economic standards of the society. Taking this behavioural change of an individual as proportional to the time spent at school .We should note that schooling is guided by moral values, beliefs and economic needs of the society to produce a particular child who will be reponsible for developing his/her community thus a responsible citizen, who can cooperate with other community members for the wellbeing of their society.
Whatever an individual talent improved at school will be essential to the needs of the society and will contributed in the process of social achievement.
During the past the school system was based on the dominant groups' proposal to consolidate their supremacy.It produced in society a hierachical structure whose major
characteristics were inequality and class division. Education become a market commodity,that's it was the only channel to achieve superior status. Hence schooling became meaningless to the society because it benefited a tiny elite.
How can we make schooling meaningful not only to an individual ,but to the community ,society and the world as whole.According to the views of the progressivism's assumptions of education system. A school in the community or society should not only viewed as an institution where children can acquire and develop psychomotor ,affective and cognitive skills only. All the activities at school should reflect the needs and aspirations of the community. The school should not be left to stand as a separate body from its community.Above all ,the school is the custodian of the community's cultural values,social and economic advancement ,the major agent of social change.Schooling could become useful and meaninful if the processes of learning involve the community and not the school
alone.We should remember that a great deal of a child's socialisation processes takes place outside the school.Outside the school ,the processes takes place outside,
in the community and the mass media that surrounds the child.
The family ,the community and the mass media enable the child to live in a system of real relationships. Activities within the community form a sound basis for career preparation at school. If schooling develops education . Education is life itself and is the socialising agent then it becomes improper to exclude the community from the school.
We examined the school in general ,but it is good to go deeper into teachers and learners who are directly invloved in the schooling process. Teachers and learners are constantly interacting in the process of learning.In the choice of school ,teachers and the curriculum ,a learner usually has no choice.The simple reason is that no school can satisfy all the needs of learners regardless of how flexible a school might be. Let also take it into consideration that these learners come from different home backgrounds and their aspirations ,expectations and ambitions obviously are bound to differ. Hence teachers tend to focus on themselves with behaviour and academic achievement of the learners. Contrary teachers realised that the uniform worn by the pupils doesn't signify that they are all the same. Some children hold deep cultural beliefs steming from family or community during primary socialisation. Ignorance of the beliefs ,wherever they exist ,might adversely affect the process of schooling.
Schooling is a reciprocal process .Where compromise has been reached ,learning becomes a two way process between the teacher and the pupils . The important factor is communication .Teacher/pupil interaction is an important factor which needs to be considered.
The main reason why parents sending their children to school is ultimately to learn.This is the major responsibility entrusted on teachers,not by parents but even by the society as whole.
To make the main goals of these parents and the society to effectively let the children learn ,it is necessary to avoid any possible causes that might inhibit learning in children.Therefore to be able to achieve this obligation ,teachers should acquaint themselves with the school possible causes of retardation in children.
