Role of Parents, Schools and Society in Developing Civil Society

Ambarish Mishra

(This article focuses on the issues before the Parents, Schools and the Society that are essentialfor the development of a Civil Society. The author has also tried to find the ways how the obstacles like lack of character education, community highdependency on the government etc can be overcome.)

Civil Society is an independent society, and within certain limits, is capable ofimproving. It tends to restrict state interference. In the social structure of civil society, there are three social entities: family, civil society, and thestate.

The family is a space of personal socialization as a member of a society, which ischaracterized by harmony, whereas civil society is the location or place of action for various personal interests and groups, especially those related toeconomic interests.

The concept of a civil society can be seen from the free public space where every citizen has the right to engage in an independent activity inan association or assembly and express their opinion as well as to publish something which relates to the public interest.

The institutionalization within this public space is through the emergence of volunteers from the social institutions, schools, politicalparties and mass media, up to the point where the institution is formed by the state as a public service agency.

Building a civil society is not easy. It needs elements that are a prerequisite for realization. The main elements that must be possessed includea free public space, democracy, tolerance, pluralism and social justice.

“In a child’s life, there are three social places that became the centre ofeducation, which are very important. Those are the nature of family, the nature of the school, and the nature of youth movements”.

If the role of the family (parents), the nature of the school and the nature of theyouth movements (Society) is well executed then it will create a civil society within the state.

Now-a-days, the concept of civil society is not growing well. This can be seen from thesense of individualism in any city/state, giving the reason “time is money”. Two other aspects that also affect the lack of civil society values are the parents and the schools.

If the role of parents in instilling moral values within the family is not arranged and accommodated well, then the school becomes unable tochange the mindset of their graduates.

The family is the first educational institution, which has a very important role especially in relation to building the awareness and developmentof their children’s moral, social, and cultural aspects. This is as well as including faith education, moral education, physical education, intellectualeducation, psychic education, social education and sexual education.

The role of the school consists of developing the student’s intelligence, providing knowledge, specializations, efficiency, socialization,conservation, cultural transmission and skill development.

The role of society is to provide education to the community both curricular and non-curricular, as well as professional improvement, communitywelfare, developing talents and interests and inculcating and improving the moral and spiritual value of society.

“If the roles afore-mentioned can be properly implemented, it is not impossible to create a civil society.”

The parents have the foremost responsibilities over their children’s education. They also serve as the most important primary group insociety which is one of the elements of civil society formation. This happens because family is the first place to socialize positive or negative values forand within their children.

An independent society is always autonomous as every individual has the same position to perform social and political transactions. Parents playtheir part by teaching their children to be independent either intentionally or unintentionally, as their child are often capable of doing the house work including cooking, washing, sweeping, ironing, and their school assignments on their own.