Role of Private Sector Organizations in Education - Essay Example

The government is proposing a substantial increase in the role of private sector organizations in education. To what extent do you think that this isan appropriate extension in corporate social responsibility' Any government's role towards encouraging education to prosper within a country is always commendable. This is because education lays the eventual basis of advancements and prosperity within the country. Its people are in line to meet the needs and wants of the changing times. The role of government is significant since it has to govern all the steps taken under the education wing as well as instruct the relevant authorities at the helm of affairs to look after the pertinent education policies, reforms and expansion basis of education within a nation. Bringing the education sector right under the auspices of the private sector is important because there is more check and balance in doing the same and that there are minimal losses, both from the imparting of education as well as the financial standpoint. Also encouraging private sector organizations to come up with different education related and vocational ventures is indeed much needed at present. This is because education is usually the responsibility of the state itself but the people who could impart training regimes and coaching measures are the ones who hail from the private sector, in essence the specialists who know their work well and hence they must be given their due right to express what they can do best. Steps need to be taken to bring them in the forefront so that their undertakings could be further developed from and that there are no grey areas when the talk goes out loud regarding institutionalizing education centers and areas of excellence related with the very same topic. (Levine, 1985) The way in which organizations have adopted the role as the torchbearers for the society when it comes to imparting education, falls directly under the domains of the notion of corporate social responsibility. This is a term that has been spoken of at length within the present day organizational regimes due to the fact that a number of different education programs, social awareness measures, human development initiatives and general reforms have made the rounds of the organizations on a consistent basis and essentially benefited the different publics of the said organizations as well as the society. Corporate social responsibility can be applied to a business in a very innovative way. The company can invest in the social arena with much return in mind, not in the short-term but of course in the long run. Corporate social responsibility is internal to an organization; it dictates the manner in which it has to plan about the courses of action it has to carry out with respect to the society. This term basically deals with the organization's set of operations that it carries out for the welfare of the society while existing within itself. It helps the humanity in more than one ways, to train and educate them and to ponder upon issues, which can really change the fate of coming civilizations. (Berkhout, 2005) It all comes under this heading of corporate social responsibility. The Government must play its role in harnessing the skills attached with the corporate sector in finding out the better means in which it can benefit the society. For that certain loans and grants can also be fixed for a certain company depending on its market level in the business world. Extensive research has found that corporate responsibility is becoming an essential part of any company's day-to-day undertakings. Thus, the responsibility played by the government as well as the citizens in this regard should be quite eloquent and expressive. Their voice is given due value by the company and it does just about everything to get more and more customers and consumers which in turn excites it to search for better means to get the very same people. This, in turn, attracts the company to sponsor big events and sports galas, competitions as well as come towards social welfare works, which really benefits the society in more than one ways. For the small business owner, corporate social responsibility means a different thing altogether. He sees it in a different attitude encompassing his own business and its responsibilities fulfilled for the betterment of the society or let alone none at all. Corporate social responsibility helps as a survival agent for any business in the new atmosphere of economy. By that it means whenever the economical climate changes, it favors the corporate social responsibility that has been initiated by a business with respect to its role in fulfillment of the social responsibilities. This can be regarded as an advantage of corporate social responsibility whereby the business gets a slight edge as opposed to the other ones in the corporate world who have not actually started with the idea of investing with consideration to the society in the forms of different sponsors, helping of non-Governmental organizations and the like. The major disadvantage that corporate social responsibility possesses within its fold is that it does not have any profits in the short-term duration but hope can certainly be placed on the longer ones. This can be regarded as a short-term con, which can banish with the changing times of the business situation. Any organization strives to bring value to its customers, stakeholders and create an encouraging environment for the employees and workers. The aspect of learning is tied in closely with the organization since it has to seek future business activities, tasks and processes in line with the already completed research and surveys. (Sims, 2003) Learning has to be the basic outcome of its activities and on those very learning principles, does the business survive. Now the imperative point to understand here is the fact that learning can not only be at the highest level, rather the knowledge management can even take place at the middle cadre and the special trainings help at doing their best as far as the lower level management is concerned. (Rumble, 2004) Managing an organization is also an important function which comes under the learning principles. It has case studies and best case scenarios to look up to whenever there is a problem or trouble at hand and it knows who the right person is to contact whenever there is some discrepancy within the system. An example is of Shell, which has introduced education programs for children all over the globe thus acting as a consumer-friendly company. People in return like to buy products of Shell because it gives them the pleasure that some proportion of the money earned by Shell would be spent on its different social and literary programs. Culturally, corporate social responsibility can prove to be a very vital agent that can really highlight the problem areas of different people within a particular society and then go about correcting and reforming them in the best manner possible with the aid of funds and grants. This is the basic way in which corporate social responsibility has been acting to do something for the sake of community welfare. The companies from the economic aspects can earn a due share with arranging all sorts of cultural activities in the name of charity that will benefit their cause and help the poor and needy. Corporate social responsibility thus aims at building a solid link amongst the different publics and helps to soften the stance of the organizations within the eyes of the commoners. This indeed is a proactive move that is taken from time to time and helps the business to sustain itself over a long period of time. Community welfare in the ranks of education and health stand as the most significant ones to date within the world of social awareness coming directly under the auspices of the organizations. Efforts are essential to make the undertakings of these organizations in a manner which will up the social awareness levels drastically as well as facilitate in the overall working regimes of the respective business processes and activities. It is true that from a general standoff education pretty much plays a pivotal role in the development of any nation. This markedly sets the tone for the people to harness their skills and potentials which they are quite unaware of before they actually get out in search of educating themselves and their families. The reforms have to be brought from the top side of a nation, whereby the government needs to take bold steps to promote it no matter how hard it is on their budgets. Awareness does not come out of the blue for the people, it has to be injected courtesy education and one must understand the real rationale behind putting emphasis on this subject before one actually moves ahead and does something or the other. One major facet of these reforms is that proper distribution of funds and allocation of budgets must be made on the part of the government as well as the people who are at the helm of affairs with regards to these schools and the like so that people who want to move ahead in life are not deprived of the same opportunity to do so. More than that, these reforms must be on a continuous basis and should not be abandoned or put off for one reason or the other every now so often as it basically disrupts the continuous development of that very society and the people in particular. Teachers and instructors need to play a fairly significant role in this scenario as they are the one who understand the true meaning of imparting education and training to people right from the very beginning when a child is just starting up and growing to understand the inner details of life and all that comes with it. (Foskett, 2001) If proper measures are not adopted with respect to the reforms, they will be somewhat misaligned from the actual subject and the result eventually will be one that does not support the ones under education nor the people who are actually striving to bring in a change. It is not only the responsibility of the teachers who are imparting education to get on the right track but it is imperative on the part of the state machinery to act in unison so that a difference could be brought right from the very onset of these reforms and hence the mission itself that has to bring about a difference, not only in the educational levels of the people but also their awareness, intellect and thinking capabilities and all these actually are real significant in the longer duration of one's life. Hence it does not ask for any kind of ignorance or letting down of efforts by the people involved in it either in a direct or an indirect manner. Responsibility is thus two fold in this case and one can pull a horse to a well but cannot make him drink too. Stress should be put on all the parties who have their stake in the reforms concerned with education of a particular area, region or for that matter an entire nation. Medical health and security are no matter important but awareness and education must be parallel with these two basic requirements of a human being who has to play an active part in the development and the eventual success of the society. It has to be a collective effort by all and sundry, one that asks for endeavors on the part of a single entity or an individual for that matter as the latter cannot do much in this case. The role of private sector organizations becomes pertinent since they achieve revenue generating goals from set ups which run education and build infrastructure for the attainment of profits all at the same time. What is more is that these organizations achieve positive word of mouth within the general public and they have a solid and long lasting rapport with the different stakeholders present within the varied echelons of the society. The role is essentially a symbiotic one since nearly every party derives a benefit or two from the whole related undertaking in the name of education and training. Organizations achieve the corporate social responsibility targets in a very easy manner and at the same time build a credible and trustworthy image within the minds and hearts of the people at large. The image building mechanism plays a quintessential role in the wake of this organization meeting bureaucratic troubles from the state machinery and the like every now and so often. Of late, there has been a very active role of education in the overall growth and expansion of a country. History has been witness that those nations who did not recognize the significance of education were quite often doomed than anything else as well as education has since then played a very pivotal role in the success of the developed states. A flourishing country faces many challenges regarding its education impartment. To list a few of any country's challenges one might take account of the rationale behind bettering as well as achieving the educational opportunities and to find particular methods to deal with such problems and educational dilemmas for the children. Also to find the answers as well as quick remedies to these problems one cannot by any measure of the word ignore or for that matter give up on the notion that says the dialogue of reforming of schools as an alternative, new ways of education, the reorganization and streamlining of schools as well as the recommendations to improve might just be the only response to these very problems. Issues like a weak curriculum prevalent in schools and colleges of the time as well as the poor standards in these schools and universities have been identified, and recommendations have also been brought up in order to do away with these very problems. Apart from this, a general sense of need has been attached to put emphasis on what is right and what must be done in order to bring about a change in the mannerisms of the people, their thinking in general and their acts that should go along nicely and in accordance with what they perceive, judge and thus follow suit. Also the problems as well as mistakes that have happened of late regarding the distribution of funds on the part of the government for these schools have been pretty much addressed and recommendations have thus been made so that these funding are distributed in an equal manner and within the states accordingly. The common people ask the stance of the pertinent country's ruling elite on this issue. The federal government of the country under consideration needs to take this topic in a more serious tone and manner as well as lend a hand to these very states on a much greater and bigger level than it is doing at the very moment. However, it is a very sad fact that even in the present times, when the world has entered the 21st century, a first world country like that of United Kingdom, which is supposed to be a role model for the rest of the world has been on the receiving end of facing problems related with poor standards in its schools like goals, expectations and not to forget the requirements too. There is a great disagreement and inconsistencies can be seen left, right and center on people's standards when one compares that with the school's standards. People set high standards that are pretty much not in line and quite hard and from time to time moderately without a solution to achieve by students as well as their teachers, whereas on the other hand some schools do not even match these standards and pass kids who are not able to read properly or who have poor educational skills as a matter of fact. (Williams, 2002) Thus the present state in which the present day educational system is, it needs some outside help that can pretty much turn its fate around and take it to new levels of education, awareness and success that are so very in line with each other. In order to have high academic standards on the part of the educational schools, universities and different technical institutes, there needs to be a level of achieving high performance in public education systems and the like on a consistent basis and not one that does well for them once and then abandons the same for a long hiatus. This system needs to be changed for the better essentially. One must not forget here that instructors and teachers can bring about a revolution by what they can achieve if all of them unite in this mission and do their best at doing what in the present times seems improbable. These teachers and lecturers can play an essential role and need to come on a single platform so that they are all together in order to achieve a common goal and that is the improved quality of education within the lengths and breadths of the whole country. Good communication between school, school boards and school administration is also of significance so that the teachers can be heard and listened to. Also, as a core requirement on the part of the schools, they should only hire extremely qualified and capable teachers. Students are more often than not brought in to a weak curriculum, most of the times they end up taking nonacademic courses than academic ones. School days are very short and because of poor standard in teaching students lack the opportunity to learn material in efficient ways. Some of the recommendations to make the system more efficient are to increase the number of days in school year, students should be allowed to take special courses and they should not be restricted to stay in general educational programs only. To make the curriculum strong it ought to include the maximum number of required academic courses. The requirements have to be very content and full of substance for the students. There has to be tougher disciple and smaller classes in order to eliminate the problem. Policies and programs courtesy the private sector undertakings should be controlled and counselors need to have control over curriculum and how the teaching process actually takes place. Supplementary recommendations to improve education consist of strong leadership by the principals of school. The private sector organizations running the helm of affairs must take these salient features into due consideration before any impending tasks are met in a head on manner. Along with the teacher's adeptness in the area of teaching, there has to be staff agreement and accord at all levels, without any discrimination. (Jonah, 1995) To encourage and stimulate teachers toward these changes, their school life style has to be upgraded too. The private sector must ensure that the teachers should have their own offices, their own phones and better working conditions as well as attractive salaries so that they contribute in a very effective and efficient way. State should get greatly involved in the public education as well as it could not leave the private sector organizations to impart and train the younger generation. (Carter, 1994) A check and balance mechanism has to be instilled by the government so that the private sector does not play havoc with the institutions and there is more collaboration between the schools at different levels, no matter whichever jurisdiction they come under. Graduation requirements for students should be set by the state, and local districts should also have the ability to control schools. Local counselors should be given more authority and they should be authorized to hire or fire principals. Parents with low incomes who are unable to give their children basic school education should be assisted financially, and children should have more freedom to communicate and interact with teachers. Groups in the school should be more flexible depending on the student's abilities. The same teachers should stay with a group of students for two or three years so they have a better chance to learn the weaknesses and strengths of the students, and it is easy for them to help the students along the way. (Millheim, 1999) Middle schools should be in the separate buildings. Efficient high schools should be encouraged and assisted in their efforts whereas the ones who are doing poor as far as standards are concerned should be shutdown. All the mentioned recommendations of high standards, comes the high prices. Within the private sector education organizations, the financial issues cannot be ignored in entirety since these form a realistic basis for the functioning of the schools and colleges in the first place. Due emphasis needs to be placed on these financial tangents before delving into the same any further. All these reforms and the implementations of new ways of educations are possible if the financial obstacles are taken care of. At present funding for schools comes from three different sources: it comes from districts, state, and federal government. 40 to 60% of this has accounted from district or property taxes, 60% has come from state taxes, and 5 to 15% has literally come in from the federal taxes. In some states there is five times as much spending on students in some school districts as in others. If one observes this data, it is very noticeable that federal government is playing a less active role in financing the education. One way to provide high quality of education is that federal government should get more involve with the current schooling system. Parents in general public can play their part and instead of criticizing the present system, they should elect the candidates in the government who give higher priority for the education and reserve more funds for the improvement and reforming of the school systems. Quite rightly so, parents' responsibility is of fundamental significance here as they are the first schools for their kids and their guidance can only bring about a change, both for the better as well as otherwise in their kids that will not only do them a world of good but would also raise their parents' reputation and image in the society, not to forget their own as well. (Ramsey, 1998) In the end, it must be said here that school reforms do help the ones who want to move ahead in life and these must not be stopped no matter how bad the economic situation of the country as these kids of today would move ahead and solve the problems that the economy has plunged into. Leaving them without reforms would only prolong the bad times of the financial sectors of any country. Bibliography BERKHOUT, Tom. (2005). Corporate Gains: Corporate Social Responsibility Can Be the Strategic Engine for Long-Term Corporate Profits and Responsible Social Development. 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