Revision summary
Durkheim: education methodically socialises; major function is moral transmission. Needed for organic solidarity and occupational ethics. School rituals still fit. Bourdieu and Althusser add class reproduction and ideology. Gender and caste ask whose values. Transmission is major, not sole.
Model answer
Introduction
Emile Durkheim treated education as the methodical socialisation of the young. Its major function is to transmit the moral rules that a differentiated society still needs. The sentence is the core of Moral Education and Education and Sociology. It is incomplete as a map of schools today.
Body
Durkheim’s claim
- In organic solidarity, the child must learn a common morality plus a specialised occupational ethic.
- The school is a social fact: discipline, attachment to the group, and autonomy as a modern ideal.
- Transmission is not a family leftover. The nation and the occupational group require a public teacher.
What the claim illuminates
- Uniforms, assemblies, and civics still ritually charge belonging, a cousin of collective effervescence.
- Exam systems transmit achievement values that Talcott Parsons later typed.
Limits in discussion
- Pierre Bourdieu: schools transmit class cultural capital while claiming a common morality.
- Louis Althusser: education as ideological state apparatus, closer to Karl Marx than to a neutral church of the nation.
- Gender and caste: whose norms? Ann Oakley and Indian classroom studies show a double curriculum.
- Conflict and change: transmission can fail, or transmit rebellion, which Robert Merton’s latent functions allow.
Discuss
- Major function, yes, for Durkheim’s problem of moral integration.
- Not the only function: allocation, credentialing, and exclusion are major too.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD EDU[Education] --> TRANS[Transmit norms values] TRANS --> INT[Moral integration] CLASS[Class caste gender] --> HIDDEN[Hidden curriculum] HIDDEN --> EDU
Conclusion
Durkheim is right that education’s classic function is to transmit society’s norms and values in a methodical way. Bourdieu, Althusser, and feminist and caste critique show that “society” is stratified. Discuss the sentence as a necessary moral function, not as the whole of the school.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
In the context of globalisation, has the scope of sociology been changing India ? Comment.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q5(a)). View answer →
-
Did Durkheim want a church school?
He wanted a secular moral education that still binds. The teacher stands in for society.
-
Is skill training a Durkheimian function?
Occupational specialisation is included. He still put the moral core first.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2020 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
How did the intellectual forces lead to the emergence of sociology ?Discuss. -
2020 · Q5(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
In the context of globalisation, has the scope of sociology been changing India ? Comment. -
2020 · Q5(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What are the problems in observing social facts in Durkheim's views? -
2020 · Q5(e) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Does the institution of marriage continue to be sacred in Indian society? Comments. -
2020 · Q6(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
According to Mills, "Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms." Comment. -
2020 · Q7(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Critically assess the Marxian theory of 'Alienation'." -
2019 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Discuss the historical antecedents of the emergence of Sociology as a discipline -
2019 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What is the Marxist concept of 'fetishism of commodities'?
More from this topic
Q8(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
In what way does queer kinship challenge the traditional kinship system? Substantiate by giving illustrations
Sociology
Traditional kinship canonically runs on descent, marriage alliance and binary gendered terms. Queer kinship organises care, parenthood and belonging beyond that monopoly. Weston’s chosen families and Schneider’s critique of blood as symbol are theoretical anchors. Indian hijra gharanas illustrate initiation-based relatedness outside the patriline. Law often still privileges conjugal heterosexual kinship, which is part of the challenge. The point is that kinship is done through practice, not only inherited as blood.
Q8(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
What do you understand by sustainable development? Discuss the elements of sustainable development as proposed in the UNDP's Sustainable Development Goals Report-2015
Sociology
Brundtland defined sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising the future. The 2015 SDG agenda, reflected in UNDP reporting, treats that as a multi-goal programme. Five elements—people, planet, prosperity, peace, partnership—organise the set. Seventeen goals join poverty and inequality to climate, cities, work and institutions. Sociology stresses unequal needs, risk distribution and weak institutions. The agenda is a frame for development, not an automatic achievement.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
What is science? Do you think that the methods used in natural sciences can be applied to sociology? Give reasons for your answer
Sociology
Science means systematic, public, criticisable knowledge, not only lab hardware. Positivists apply observation, measurement and comparison to social regularities. Limits include meaning, ethics of experiment, values and the double hermeneutic. Kuhn and feminists complicate even the natural-science side of the contrast. The judged answer is qualified yes: use the tools, drop the closed-system fantasy. Sociology remains a science of an open, interpreted world.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.