• Education like other institution has both manifest (open, stated) and latent (hidden) functions.

• The most basic function of manifest function of education is the transmission of knowledge.

• They also attempt to control and regulate Pupils behaviour, reflecting the social values of the society.

•Schools teach the “three Rs” – Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.

•Among the latent functions school perform are transmitting culture, promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving agents of change.

As a social institution, education performs a rather conservative function.

Through schooling, every generation of young people is exposed to existing beliefs, norms, and values of particular culture and reverence for established institutions.

School children are also taught the lives of different heroes and their contributions.

Education serves as a latent function of promoting social and political integration by transforming a population composed of diverse racial, ethnic and religious groups into society whose membership share to a certain extent a common identity.

Schools go far beyond teaching the three Rs by introducing the standards of proper conduct and good manners.

Education prepares young people to lead productive and orderly lives as adults by introducing them to the norms, values, and sanctions of a larger society.

They learn punctuality, discipline, scheduling, cooperation, responsible work habits, industry and loyalty to the ideals of organization.

punctuality, discipline, scheduling, cooperation, responsible work habits, industry and loyalty to the ideals of organization.

In effect , then, schools serve as a transitional agent of social control – between parents and employers in life cycle of many individuals.

Education, as a social institution, reflects the interest of family and in turn prepares the young people for their participation in another social institution- the economy. Students are being trained for what is ahead in the world of work.