Institutions in the news:
Social institutions are structures of the society in form of obligations, relationships, functions and roles. There are five major social institutions considered; the family structure, religion government or politics, education, linguistic and aesthetic. New social have been coming up with the coming up of societies that have been industrialised to a large extent. These institutions include the mass media and science. These institutions influence concepts of; right and wrong, roles and functions, relationships and order among members of society. People who have ways that do not honour these structures are often viewed as antisocial. All these institutions have to be in sync and dysfunction in one leads to disturbance in the others. They are all important in understanding a society. Most importantly, they ensure the society is not transformed as these institutions ensure that there is social inheritance from one generation to another.
There are a number of major roles that social institutions play. All these functions are listed below. The first function which is fundamental to every community is satisfying needs that are basic to societies. They also label and state social values that are dominant. These institutions provide guidelines for patterns of social monogamy. Some institutions in the society are there to simply support other institutions. Other social institutions clarify the roles and responsibilities for individuals in the community. All these functions are vital and ensure that there is a proper and organised manner of handling issues. Organised communities prosper in all arenas at a faster rate compared to their disorganised counterparts. However, for this to be achieved, all the members of the community have to abide by the ways set by these social institutions. When people in society view a social institution as a coercive, total or assimilating, they tend to obey it out of fear. With time however, revolutionary groups come to life. This causes disruption.
At the national level, the family unit is important. However, with recent times, occurrences of single parent households are on the rise. Factors that lead to such a situation include careers, drug abuse, violence and child neglect by one parent. In normal functioning households, the parents provide for their children and are involved in key decisions concerning education, sex and marriage.
Religious institutions are respected by most people in society. Diversity is present and every member of society is asked to tolerate the other. They play a major role reminding people to be humane. There have been few inter-religion clashes. Due to this, religious matters are handled delicately, especially by authority figures.
Political institutions ensure that peoples’ rights are protected within the laws of the land. Out of the political parties, people choose leaders who will represent their views nationally. All politicians are expected to behave responsibly to avoid wars and misunderstandings.
Education institutions play an important role of transmitting knowledge to younger generations. They provide formal education. The social and economic growth of a society and its individuals is influenced by this institution. Its various roles include; personal capacity development, logical understanding of the society and learning how to make adjustments without disrupting the community, shaping of the students’ behaviours by encouraging respect for social norms. Most importantly, students acquire skills that will enable them to earn a living.
Generally, the education institution has played its role fully. It has helped reform many people, pass values to students and it has also equipped a large number of people with skills required in their careers. However, the number of graduating students from high school is not as high as expected. The main factor leading to this is teenage parenting. The first impact of this phenomenon is that this group of people in the society become unemployed during their prime years. As a result of this, a section of these people get into socially unacceptable tendencies like drug abuse, criminal activities and violence against their families. This has had a personal impact. A friend of mine had to drop out of high school to fend for his young family. Currently, he is in a low paying job as compared to people who graduated from high school and proceeded to higher education institutions.
References
United Nations. (1980). Social institutions. s.l.: The Office.
Knight, J., & Sened, I. (1995). Explaining social institutions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
