by Sione Ma’u
Education is a fundamental part of human society and organisation.
Unlike animals in general whose organisation is based on instinct and the struggle for survival, human organisation is based on a higher level of consciousness.
According to Marx in chapter 7 of Capital:
“A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.”
The spider and the bee are working naturally and unconsciously. The architect is working to a plan. Human society has long left behind the stage in which we did things purely from instinct. Everything we do has some purpose: going to school, working, playing sport, cooking and so forth.
All of these everyday things seem rather automatic for human society, but the knowledge and skills to do them require education of some sort.
Education is the process by which these knowledge and skills are passed along. Babies are not born with such skills; the new generation has to learn its lessons from the previous generation.
Some things are learnt automatically by necessity: basic language and culture; ways of behaving socially. Society educates people in its ways. Higher level skills need more than just exposure, they need dedicated teaching. These skills include reading, writing, counting and basic reasoning. Still higher levels require specialised training, such as medicine and aviation.
Education has been a very important tool of class society. Not only is education used to teach people how to function in society, it is also used to teach people to reinforce and perpetuate class structures.
In the Middle Ages the important educational institutions in Europe were linked to the Church. Scholars studied literature, logic, maths and music to name but a few of the subjects. They were supported by the ruling class as long as this knowledge was used to reinforce the existing feudal order and the authority of the Church.
Knowledge can be a dangerous thing for the ruling classes, especially knowledge that undermines the general beliefs and attitudes on which class society is based. Some examples include the heliocentric model of planetary motion in the 1600s; the theory of evolution in the 19th and early 20th Centuries; and Marxism in the 20th century.
Education in class society must always include a heavy dose of ruling class ideology: promotion of ideas that perpetuate the existing order, and attacks on ideas that undermine it. However, our theories of reality in the last analysis have to correspond to reality itself. When the existing order goes into crisis, so do its ideas which do not correspond to reality.
The bourgeois revolutions that swept away feudalism also swept away the old ways of thinking. Science did not have to be justified by biblical claims but was done under its own terms, using the scientific method. Not only did the absolute monarchs lose their power, but the ideological hold of the church was broken. Church and state were separated, and secular schools were established. The capitalist mode of production is revolutionary compared to previous systems. The industrial revolution was driven by the growth of capitalism and the pressure of capitalist competition to innovate; to stay ahead of one’s rival or risk losing market share and eventually losing out altogether. Science provided methods to create powerful technology: steam engines, railroads, ships – as well powerful weapons for capitalist states to impose their will through colonialism.
Capitalism today relies heavily on modern science. Satellites, computers, mobile phones, medical equipment and other technology require basic scientific knowledge including physics, chemistry, maths and statistics. To ensure these things can be constructed and to achieve the most efficiency and reliability from them there is a demand for workers with the relevant scientific skills.
Capitalism also relies on private property and the fundamental class division of society into capitalists and workers. So capitalism also requires workers that do not question this division. The less you are able to see this division, the less you will question it. But an objective scientific study of society will uncover it. The social sciences and anything linked to them must remain under the domination of capitalism. Subjects like history, politics, economics and philosophy are dominated by a pro-capitalist outlook (either conservative or liberal) in most places of higher learning. Important problems, including racism, sexism and inequality, are rooted in the class structure of society. Rather than deny them outright a common tactic is to make them overly complicated, muddy the waters and sow confusion. This is the role of post-modernism.
According to Leon Trotsky:
“So long as science as a whole remained a “handmaiden of theology,” it could produce valuable results only surreptitiously. This was the case in the Middle Ages. It was during the bourgeois regime, as already pointed out, that the natural sciences gained the possibility of wide development. But social science remained the servant of capitalism. This is also true, to a large extent, of psychology which links the social and natural sciences; and philosophy which systematizes the generalized conclusions of all sciences.”
In the 20th century, public education under capitalism was aimed at creating the next generation of workers. To function at a minimal level in modern society, you need basic literacy and numeracy, for example, to pay your bills. In the 21st century, we could add computer literacy. If you can’t navigate a website, you basically can’t do anything.
Whatever its purpose, the establishment of a universal state-funded secular education system was an important conquest of the working class that raised its cultural level. Secondary education is virtually free, and tertiary education was free for much of the post-war period. However, the crisis of capitalism has also caused a crisis in education. There has been systematic underfunding of education. Spending has not kept up with inflation.
In New Zealand teacher salaries have been stagnant since the 1970s. Starting pay conditions for primary teachers are around $55,000 per year (comparable to a McDonald’s worker) and go up to $91,000. It’s higher for secondary and tertiary teachers, which can go to $150,000. At the same time working conditions and support have been reduced.
Fees have been creeping back into education, as one of the ways the capitalist class tries to offload the costs of education. A student doing a Bachelor of the Arts degree in 1988 would’ve paid about $200 at most per year. The same degree today would cost well in excess of $10,000 or more a year. Underfunding of schools means that many schools resort to fundraising and “donations” to pay for equipment and field trips.
Another common means of raising money is to have students from other countries who pay fees to study at cash-strapped schools. Indeed, education has now turned into a commodity. Institutions compete in a global market for international students. At the tertiary level enrolments determine the level of funding. Funding cuts in recent years has resulted in many papers and many subjects being scrapped at tertiary level.
As an example, 624 courses were “retired” in 2024 at Massey University with 434 courses cut in science, 79 in business and 59 in humanities. (RNZ, More than 500 courses cut from Massey University, May 6th, 2024.) Sixty-nine new courses were created this year but they have not been enough to off-set the losses. The result of these course cuts have been job losses and students who’ve been unable to complete their studies. Not surprisingly, there has been meetings held to discuss what course of action staff should be taking. At the University of Auckland academics called for a pause in the reviews into which courses should be retained or scrapped.
These cuts have also become a serious problem at other universities as funding for education is slashed by the current National-led government.
In conclusion, education is a fundamental human right and absolutely essential in the modern world. Even the subjects that may not have an immediate monetary worth still contribute much to society, humanity and even the economy. As long as society toils under capitalism education is, and will continue to be, treated as a commodity to be traded or a luxury for a few who can afford it.
Under Socialism education will be freely available to all who seek it and the current barriers that exist between education, work and recreation will be broken down.