Week 3

 School as a Social Institution

In this topic, I have learned that every society has five main social institutions: school, government, family, religion and social media. It is noted that school is the most important institution as it sets up a set of norms and subsystems to support the survival of each society. In addition, the school also has an identifiable structure and set of functions and is the place where children learn social-communicative skills. Also, school is not only expected to establish a balance between itself and life, it is also expected to accelerate social changes. Besides that, this topic also discusses about Malaysian school. In Malaysian context, unity is a sensitive issue. This is because Malaysia is a multicultural society of which the population is made up by different types of ethnic groups includes Malays, Chinese, Indian and the Native. In fact, different ethnic groups have their own history, culture, belief system, value and language. Therefore, unity among different ethnics is important in Malaysia and education plays a key role in establishing peace and harmony in this country. That is why in Malaysia Education Blueprint, one of its system’s aspirations is committed to address the issue of unity at the education system’s level.