What are the Functions of School as an Organization?

Organization is basically an association or a group of people bound together in a formal relationship to achieve a goal collectively. The army, the school the nearby municipality etc. are examples of such organizations. An organization has specific goal or purposes for its existence. In other words “an organization is a set of stable social relationship deliberately created with the explicit intention of continuously accomplishing some specific goals or purposes.”

A formal organization is a highly organized group having explicit objectives, formally stated rules and regulations and a system of specifically defined rules, each with early designated rights and duties. Informal organizations are the systems of personal relationships that develop spontaneously as individuals interact within a social set up.

From above observations, we can say that school is a formal organization. It is an arrangement or structure within which principal, supervisors, teachers, pupils and other cooperate to carry out various activities of the school so as to achieve the organizational goals of educating the young ones. It, being a school has all the characteristics of a formal organization.

The following are the main characteristics which prove that school is a formal organization:

(i) To run a school we need official sanction. Before opening a school, the prescribed conditions have to be fulfilled and required needs to be obtained.

(ii) School is a permanent body as its members’ persists beyond the immediate membership. When old members leave, new ones keep on occupying their position. As a result, a school never runs out of its membership.

(iii) Like any other formal organizations, a school has an assigned hierarchy. At the apex is the principal: below him are a few supervisors; under each supervisor are a number of teachers, under a teacher a large body of pupils. The framing of this hierarchy is guided by certain codes and rules.

(iv) Every position in the hereby lias definite roles and responsibilities. This shows that the principal, the supervisors, the teachers etc. have their specific roles and responsibilities.

(v)The objectives and tasks of a school, as in case of any other formal organization are perceived not only by the members of the organization, but also by everyone in the society.

Everybody in our society knows that the main purpose for the existence of a school is to educate children. The trends of education had been changed due to change in time. The concept of education has also changed.

Today, in addition to the mental development of a pupil, his/her physical, moral, emotional spiritual, social, aesthetic and even vocational development is also emphasized in education. When a student comes to the school he has already formed habits which are generally acquired during the early years of life the basic function of a school to identify those basic tracts which exist in each people.

Some of their habits might be undesirable school tries to change their traits in the desired direction. Freud thought that mind was like an iceberg. As in case of iceberg, only certain elements of personality of an individual are visible, while much of it is submerged. The main function of a school is to find those traits in each pupil, some of which are visible and others invisible and could be natured by giving an adequate opportunity.

Schools have an elaborate system of activities and learning experiences which in its totality is called curriculum. It is with the help of this that schools bring about modification of behaviour of their pupils in desired direction. Curriculum comprises multitudeof curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

While debating, holding seminars, discussions etc. are part of co-curricular activities, celebrating national holidays like the Independence Day, Republic Day, Teachers’ Day, Children’s Day etc. and conducting special activities on such occasions like staging of plays and presentation of cultural activities are instances of extracurricular activities. These activities give pupils the exposure which in turn provides them with the experiences from which they gain the required knowledge, information, skills and attitudes.

A curriculum should have adequate provision for activities, as socially useful productive work (SUPW) music, painting, various types of sports and games etc. Physical education, for example, should get its due share among school activities.

It should not be considered as a series of exercises through which a child’s body is developed but as a medium which secures social and emotional development of a child. Physical education should not be looked upon as boring but as an educationally enjoyable activity.

The extent of fulfilment of educational goals depends very largely on the personality of the principal. Firstly, he should be a man of vision. He should have realistic vision of the type of pupils that his organization would like to produce. With a vision before him, he has to plan and organize various activities in the school.